'let me begin by telling you that i was in love. an ordinary statement, to be sure, but not an ordinary fact, for so few of us learn that love is tenderness, and tenderness is not, as a fair proportion suspect, pity;and still fewer know that happiness in love is not the absolute focusing of all emotion in another: one has always to love a good many things which the beloved must come only to symbolize; the true beloveds of this world are in their lover's eyes lilac opening, ship lights, school bells, a landscape, remembered conversations, friends, a child's sunday, lost voices, one's favorite suit, autumn and all seasons, memory, yes, it being the earth and water of existence, memory. a nostalgic list, but then, of course, where could one find a more nostalgic subject? when one is your age most subtleties go unobserved; even so, i imagine you think it incredible, looking at me as i am not, that i should've had ever the innocence to feel such love; nevertheless, when i was twenty-three... '
posted by valerie @ 21:45
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