Sunday, January 1, 2012

Good Morning, Sunshine.

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I read a lot. I have this deep respect for words.

I used to go to public library every other week, borrowing 3-4 books at any time. For only $10, for a lifetime membership. I spent a lot of time on trains and busses daily, hence plenty of time reading books. I didn't think much about it as I prepared to move to Angola. But one morning in July 2010, H gave me a Kindle. "You are going to need this when you join me," he said. 
Not only that, it came with a monthly budget to buy kindle books off Amazon. 
To this day, it remains the best present I've ever received. 

One of the best read last year (or any, in a long time) was The Paris Wife
 A true story about Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, taken from the thousand of letters exchanged between the two, as well as Ernest's memoirs and biography.
In essence, a story about love found and love lost, the story of the first wife. 

But what captivated me is how the words, knitted together, punched deep inside my guts. As if my heart suddenly stopped beating. And I would glance somewhere far in the horizon, repeating the words in my mind, again and again and again.
Oh how much I would give to be able to write like that. 

In one scenario, as a struggling writer, Hadley and Ernest didn't have much and lived in a poor condition. She wrote...:

"When I saw the rats the first time, I wanted to drop my basket where it was and run away, but we weren't rich enough for symbolic gestures. So I walked." 

or when she started to sense the presence of another woman..

"She fits so well inside his ear. She told him what he most wanted to hear, and it was obviously a powerful tonic for both of them, to be united in their thinking."

or another..

"Freedom is one thing, but you draw the line at a friend's husband. You have to."

and this one sounds like it comes out from the bible..

"You couldn't have real freedom unless you knew where the walls were and tended them. We could lean on the walls because they existed; they existed because we leaned on them."

and I shall leave you with this..

"The way I see it, how can you really say you'll love a person longer than love lasts?"

If I could have one wish, it would be to remember everything that I have read. 

Right. Time to wake the boy up. 

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