I'm reading "Under the Tuscan Sun" as we get ready to leave next week for Florence. I read "Prague Winter" last fall as we cruised the Rhine with Prague as our eventual destination. I loved being immersed in Madeleine Albright's story, and I loved seeing the places she had seen as a child.
I expect to feel the same as I wander Florence and several smaller Tuscan villages over the next two weeks. Already the lush language and beautiful setting of the book has me under its spell.
I was most struck by a line from the preface. Mayes observes, "To bury the grape tendril in such a way that it shoots out new growth I recognize easily as a metaphor for the way life must change from time to time if we are to go forward in our thinking." I read this, then read it again. "Wow," I thought. "I know so many people who need to hear this."
Especially as we age, we seem to feel as though we're in the final act of our lives, that new ideas and experiences are reserved for the young, that we must go about the business of tidying up our loose ends, then sit quietly and contemplate the past. At age 66, I observe this behavior in family and friends. It's simply never occurred to me, before I read this sentence of Frances Mayes', that change and forward movement are forever. How exciting to think that at any moment, around any corner, there may be something new that completely alters my course, even at my age!
I think this might be what frightens many people when they think of no longer being actively working for a living. It's not surprising; we spend decades working, striving, failing, trying again, succeeding - and finally quitting, sometimes just from exhaustion. But both the aging process and the act of ceasing to be employed are simply changes - one ongoing, another a bit sudden. How empowering to simply embrace our age, embrace our new circumstances! And happy is the person who reaches into new corners, pokes around new places to find out how they tick. How well we would sleep! How beautifully we'd dream!
My challenge is to remember this metaphor. And I think I might clue a few other folks in . . . .
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I am going back to the farm where I was raised, while all of them are in Italy. I intend to restore my soul & rusticate. I will have the house to myself. Glorious.
Barbara Cooper
GREAT line! So true - age is not relevant! We all need to continue to learn, grow, experience new places, things, people. Life is exciting! Enjoy your trip. I can't wait to hear about it!
Nancy, what beautiful and true sentiments. As I travel, I also find more people in their "third-thirty" embracing change and going for a new dream or resurrecting an old one. Happy travels! See you in the Fall.
Post a Comment