1) Ataraxia, which is absolutely not my current state, and which therefore seems like a worthy goal;
3*) the fact that most anagrams of my name have to do with destruction and disease: Malady Rued, Lauded Army, Mauled Yard, Dreamy Dual.
* doesn’t really deserve to be included in “things we like”; would do better in “things we find amusing and mildly disturbing”
4) this incredibly sad letter from Marilyn Monroe to her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson;
5) Leonard Bernstein’s birthday card to Aaron Copland, 1967:
Dear A:
It’s two days before your birthday, but I’m already thinking hard and tenderly about you; and this note is your birthday present carrying with it such abiding love as I rarely if ever get to express to you in our occasional meetings. I don’t know if you’re aware of what you mean, have meant for 30 years, to me and my music and so many of my attitudes to life and to people. I suppose if there’s one person on earth who is at the center of my life it’s you; and day after day I recognize in my living your presence, your laugh, your peculiar mixture of intensity and calm. . . . I hope you live forever.A long strong hug —Lenny
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ReplyDeletehahaha i'm loving the anagrams: they amount to an anatomy of melancholy, 'a disease so frequent in our miserable times, as few there are that feele not some smatch thereof'. except of course the dreamy dual that subverts the whole malady :).
ReplyDeletethis psychiatric-prison order marilyn was subjected to calls for a total dismantling; they had asked her why she wasn't happy there...?!