“I understand very well how it is possible sometimes to slander yourself, to admit to all sorts of crimes solely out of vanity, and I have a very clear idea of what such vanity can be like.” ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky
Marking this milestone half-century year for me may involve some looking back, and I began by perusing The Pictures section here, which goes back about two decades. Found within were these two photos from a fun trip to San Francisco for my friend Alissa’s wedding. It feels so long ago, and since she died a few years ago there has been nothing to really keep those memories alive other than the pics here and whatever remains in my dwindling brain cells. Time stops for no one.
Ensconced in a hotel overlooking Union Square, the memory blurs into other memories, and I’m no longer sure which hotel or which trip it was anymore. We bury so many things that once meant so much, at the midway mark of life I wonder how much ever really mattered. When vanity creeps into a deeper place, it threatens its own existence. A certain fascination with self-destruction is a necessary element of survival. Perhaps it’s best if we leave the veil in place for now.
“He makes it his business to extract from fashion whatever element it may contain of poetry within history, to distill the eternal from the transitory.” ~ Charles Baudelaire
