part 2
Dear friend,
“I know nothing except that I’m waiting for you and you never come".”
How is California? I miss you.
Dear friend,
I began this little experiment in the fall thinking that I could hibernate through the winter by the seaside, and that maybe that would cleanse something in me.
I was right about the hibernation part - it’s been blisteringly cold every day, and all the days are short. The sunrises are bright and brilliant, but they quickly succumb to snowfall, and the sunsets are hazy from the clouds. The beach has been covered in snow since December. It’s crunchy and icy and only disappears where the ocean licks it away. I wish I could be so persistent in something.
The roads are empty, many of the shops closed, the grocery only open for limited hours. The homes are boarded up on our street, all except this home. The lawn is frosted over with ice. My car takes ages to warm up.
I find myself going to the public library a lot, picking up a few new books a week. I’ve read Homer, Kant, Sylvia Plath. Today I’m reading a collected works of Walt Whitman.
I think it would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall during the Civil War. Me and all those reenacters, huh? But really, to watch Valley Forge unfold. I wonder if anyone spoke about the revolution during that war. I wonder what Lincoln was thinking each night as he went to sleep. I wonder how he felt when he looked in the mirror each day and saw his face aging and aging.
What will be the big event of our lifetime?
I miss you. Perhaps that is mine.