Monday, April 5, 2021

A word, a quote, and some vicarious living


Ringlorn, adjective: 

The wish that the modern world felt as epic as the one depicted in old stories and folktales—a place of tragedy and transcendence, of oaths and omens and fates, where everyday life felt like a quest for glory, a mythic bond with an ancient past, or a battle for survival against a clear enemy, rather than an open-ended parlor game where all the rules are made up and the points don’t matter.

Found on The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows 

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"An honorable human relationship—that is, one in which two people have the right to use the word “love”—is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other. It is important to do this because it breaks down human self-delusion and isolation. It is important to do this because in doing so we do justice to our own complexity. It is important to do this because we can count on so few people to go that hard way with us."

Adrienne Rich

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Channeling honorable human relationships and a bit of joy, here are some photos from the week just past of my daughter and my niece, who met up from Boston and Dallas for a beach destination getaway. My niece, a dentist, is fully vaccinated and my girl was tested before and during, was double-masked and face shielded while traveling, and spent time almost entirely outdoors, so don't judge her, as I did. I tried to get her not to go just yet, but she told me her body could not abide another week without immersion in a salty turquoise sea, and so there you go, the imperatives of the young. The truth? I had more than half a mind to join them, but work did not permit. They got back home last night, and now my daughter will quarantine and get two covid tests to ensure she didn't pick up anything, and then, hallelujah, after that she can get vaccinated because Boston expands it's eligibility criteria to include everyone on April 16.







 

24 comments:

  1. Many thanks to you, your daughter and your niece for making it possible for me to feel as if I am at the ocean once again.

    The Adrienne Rich quote speaks to me where I am today in the process of love. Thank you for that, too.

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    1. am, when she said she needed the ocean, I understood it in my bones. What could I say? We are all in the process of love, always, so it seems to me. Thank you for provoking that recognition.

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  2. I'm glad your daughter and niece took a trip to the salty turquoise sea. It is restorative and renewing to feel the tide of our beautiful oceans.
    I love the quotes, except for the word "violent." This I do not understand.

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    1. Robin, i felt the same way about that word violent! It almost made me not post the quote, and then I had to wrestle with myself to not just delete the word violent, and put ellipses there, but I decided if I was going to post the quote at all, from Adrienne Rich, no less, then I needed to let it be her truth and not sculpt it to my own preference. Funny that word struck you as personally discordant, too. Though of course, and sadly, it did not strike its author thus.

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  3. Somethings one must absolutely MUST do. Shame you could not go along with them. Looks heavenly! Where is this beach, I think I hear it calling. I could be wrong, it could be the shhhhhsh of the wind outside.
    Ahhh youth and beauty! They are exemplary, those two!!

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    1. Linda, I should have gone, but then I thought they'd have another kind of time without me, and the time I imagined them having, sisters as they are, made me smile. They were in Mexico.

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  4. Where ever they are, it looks wonderful, and I think I would like to be there, as well.

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    1. Allison, as soon as the world opens up, I'm there. We're so close.

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  5. Beauties -- and I'd forgotten about that dictionary!

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    1. Elizabeth, I love that dictionary, and I really, really love its name.

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  6. I miss the ocean too. Or even a big lake!
    But that first quote, it wasn't really like that back in the time of myths. There's always myths about live in the time that's passed. Actually there was a lot of digging in the dirt, shivering through the winter, going hungry because the food ran out bearing lots of children and watching some of them die. Sorry. Guess I'm just not feeling epic envy this morning.

    But the ocean and youth, yes.

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    1. Kristin, haha, you are exactly right of course. That was indeed the reality. I guess that's why ringlorn is about the world *depicted* in folktales, possibly modern clueless ones, rather than the truth of that past world itself. Your comment made me laugh.

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  7. Radiant beauties for sure! And oh...Mexico. Yes. With all my heart, yes. I am sure there is a word to describe my feeling about my small and beloved island there.
    I was just clearing out photos from my phone and got to the ones I took when Glen and I and Jessie and the boys went to the beach in October and I am so glad we went. It was life-sustaining. It was joyful. There is something about the expression on the faces of people who are at the beach which is absolutely glorious. A physical manifestation of the joy of it, the peace and the good.

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    1. Mary, my girl is a beach child, that is for sure. I'm glad she went with her sister spirit, and washed away the heaviness of the past year. And to your beloved Mexico.

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  8. What lovely spirits! So glad they got to refresh their souls. I had never heard of that dictionary but it sounds like something sorely needed at times. Checking it out on you tube.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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    1. Barbara, all our souls need refreshing after the year we've had, and yes, I'm glad they got to refresh theirs. Isn't that dictionary wondrous?

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  9. I agree, She shouldn't have gone but people do what they want and when you're young, you're immortal, or so we think. My daughter just got a million dollar mortgage which I think is so foolish, but she didn't ask my opinion so I keep it to myself.

    I like those quotes and no, the past was not any more epic than these days are but the myths and stories made them so, as they still do today. That's why we have stories.

    As for true love, it is hard and makes me so vulnerable, makes us all so vulnerable, it feels like standing naked in front of the world, crying and telling my truths. Not for the faint of heart.

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    1. Lily, you definitely aren't faint of heart. You offer true and even epic love every single day, through your work, and to your family, even feeling as vulnerable as you do.

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  10. Wonderful smiles. Lovely adjective and lovely quote. And yes, the longing for sun and salt water is a very real one. Good for her!

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    1. Mary G, thank you. So far, she seems to be unscathed by her risk taking, may that continue to be true.

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  11. well, I can't say as I blame them. I would love a week on a white beach in the sun and turquoise sea. beautiful women.

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    1. ellen, they did endeavor to be safe, and now my girl has a vaccination appointment all set up. I guess I understood the yearning for sand and sea, too.

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  12. I completely understand your daughter's need to get away. We have been forbidden from traveling here for so long, and I am dying to go even just to the next town! Fortunately I think our restrictions will be lifting soon, at least for domestic travel.

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    1. Steve, world traveler that you are, I'm sure you understand them! I'm not much of a world traveler myself and even I am dreaming of Bali. Soon, my friend.

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