Back home to Bellingham with its Village Green mural / Needing time

Last night I was relieved to receive an email from my friend who flew to the Philippines on October 30th after the unexpected death of her father. She writes that she is doing well despite being exhausted and is taking time to regain her energy after her return to Bellingham.  She just wants to sleep for now.

Early this morning, I finished re-reading Doris Lessing's Alfred and Emily, published in 2008 when she was in her late 80s, after she had received the Nobel Prize in Literature.  Although Doris Lessing is referring to the post-war days of World War II with the words below, I imagine that my friend might relate to these words:

"No, we did not at once 'take it in'.  This news was too horrifying to 'take in', just like that:  we needed time."
(p. 268, Alfred and Emily)

"Now I would say we were like people recovering from an illness:  we were numbed, stunned, because we hadn't really 'taken in' the years of war."
(p. 269, Alfred and Emily)

With Gratitude to Doris Lessing (1919-2013)

The Golden Notebook (1962)
The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1980)
The Diary of a Good Neighbor (1984)
Alfred and Emily (2008)

“Words. Words. I play with words, hoping that some combination, even a chance combination, will say what I want.”
-- Doris Lessing

THE LIBRARY

(source of above image by Jacob Lawrence)

"By and large books are mankind's best invention." (Ursula K. Le Guin)

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of
library." (Jorge Luis Borges)

In Memoriam: Norval Morrisseau. Thanks to wood s lot for the link.

TWO MONKS AND A SCORPION

Unable to download pictures today, but here is a link to a story about two monks and a scorpion from Whiskey River.

I had just heard a story of a frog attempting to help a scorpion by carrying it across a river after the scorpion promised not to sting the frog. As they cross the river, the scorpion stings the frog and they both drown in the river. Before they go under, the frog asks the scorpion, "Why would you cause so much suffering? The scorpion says, "It is my nature."

Synchronicity.

"Take what you have gathered from coincidence" (Bob Dylan, 1965, from the song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue")

And another version from an article by Doris Lessing with a Sufi story:

A tortoise carries a stranded scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the tortoise who demands indignantly: "My nature is to be helpful. I have helped you and now you sting me." "My friend," says the scorpion, "your nature is to be helpful. Mine is to sting. Why do you seek to transform your nature into a virtue and mine into villainy?"