I was watching BBC World News the other day and saw pictures of poor, inundated Vermont being beamed around the world. I am happy to be able to report that the Last House and our Stowe Weekday Abode escaped unscathed. Really, it's like nothing ever happened - except (and I am not making this up) the State office complex where I work was badly flooded and I and about 1700 other people have been forbidden to go to work. Maybe for months. (You know, I had been working extra hard this summer til Irene soooooo...)
As usual, I have been reading, that is, re-reading Middlemarch. I finished it (again) today. I got to the last lines, which always overpower me. I am sharing them here, though they are out of context and so I am not really being fair to you all or George Eliot but I feel compelled to type them out.
[T]he growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
These lines refer to Dorothea Brooke Ladislaw - the Alpha and Omega character in a book that some wise critic referred to as "spacious." Here too is a link to the valentine that Rebecaa Mead wrote to Middlemarch in the February 14, 2011 issue of the New Yorker. (q.v.)
Also, the picture above is one I took during a walk in the woods on the sunny day after Irene... As I say, all is well in my grassy corner. Thanks to those who have inquired.
3 comments:
I thought I commented to this already, but I may have just dreamed that.
Alas, geography is not everyone's strong suit, though those of us who have inquired about you and yours also know Vermont is not a big state. However, we regularly get 10 calls from Germany every time the German news reports a tornado outbreak.
In Kansas or Oklahoma.
I'm glad you're well.
Cheers.
Glad you are fine. We are too - just some rain and a little wind. I love those lines from Middlemarch. I'm a big believer in all those kinds of people. The ones you'll never read about but who really should be the subject of more news and magazines. It might change everyone's view of the world if we heard more about them, and less about the sleazy, criminal types.
I still haven't read the Alaska posts, but plan to take a morning this fall and travel on up there.
Heard a little bit of a nice report on Pittsfield today. I've only been in that area a couple times in my life.
Hey R - You did express concern right away like the Gentleman Blogger you are. Your German relatives are obviously cut from the same cloth.
Hi Nan - Glad Irene didn't do you too much harm. Amen on your comment on the Middlemarch quotation. I read those and felt like truer words were never spoken.
Post a Comment