Conversations May 30, 2010

Sunday, May 30, 2010

6:45 AM. I started re-reading Reynolds’ fourth volume, “The Thirties,” and it is interesting how much clearer it is and how my viewpoint seems to have changed, so that I am easily seeing a difference between fact and attribution, between description and attribution of motive, or judgment of state of mind. In fact I am re-reading a biography of Coleridge — a prize-winning bio by Richard Holmes — with the same reservations.

Where we wound up yesterday, Papa, was more or less centered on one of Bob Friedman’s questions he suggested I ask you: Why is this dialogue important to you, and to me? Okay, your move.

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Conversations May 27, 2010

Thursday, May 27, 2010

6 AM. So. Quite a different feeling, taking a day off deliberately, rather than doing it behind my own back, so to speak.

Told you. It puts you back in charge of you. Now, you must understand, this isn’t a problem I had in my life. Unlike you, I always felt in control of my life, so all I ever had to contend with were external forces. And after I got free of the Star, I never really had an outside employer who could tell me “do this, do that” — and I never had an office job, never had to count off the hours from 9 to 5 and then go home and get ready to start again the next day. My life was mine to shape, and I did plenty of active planning, to shape it, as you know from your reading. (Yes, I guess biography has its uses.) But of course that kind of freedom only meant I had to find my obstacles in a different way. We do, of course. What would life be, without obstacles?

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Conversations May 23, 2010

Sunday, May 23, 2010

6:15 AM. All right, Papa, here we go again. Before I ask the questions my friends have suggested, let me ask if you have something specific in mind for this session.

Don’t forget the thoughts that have come up as you have continued to read Death In The Afternoon.

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