This morning I tried a new walk – circumnavigating the sixth
arrondissement. It actually only took me
fifty-five minutes to go south on Boulevard Saint Michel, west along Boulevard
Montparnasse, then north on rue de Sevres and rue des Saint Pères, but it
seemed to go on forever. I passed the
Vaneau Metro station, which no one ever seems to get off at. I can see why. It is a dumpy little station. But next to it is an enormous construction
project with signs [in English] warning “Last apartment for sale,” so maybe
Vaneau will perk up as a Metro station.
These walks are showing me parts of Paris that I would otherwise never
see. Yesterday I did my walk to Place d’Italie
and actually made it home without getting lost.
Yesterday at the market I bought four enormous gambas
[shrimp], and this evening I am making a stew with them to serve on rice. Our little apartment is tiny – a rectangle
plus bathroom 31 square meters, which is about 330 square feet – one fifth the
size of our small condo in Chapel Hill.
But it has a full scale kitchen, in which I will cook dinner. I love that little space. When I stand in the “kitchen,” mincing garlic
and onions and mushrooms, drinking wine, chopping up some fresh basil and
oregano, “adjusting the seasonings,” I feel completely at peace. When dinner is ready, I will turn down the
lights, put some baroque music on the CD player, cut the baguette into pieces, pour
wine for Susie and me, and sit down for a simple meal.
I have now pretty well finished preparing the table of
contents for Volume III of my collected papers.
Once all the permissions are in and the covers designed, all four
volumes will be available on Amazon.com.
Will anyone ever read the volumes?
Who knows? But they will be there,
eternally in the cloud. This editing
work I am doing has an oddly valedictorian character to it. Somehow, it seems as though I ought to die
when it is done. But I am not ready for
that, so I need to find something else to do with what remains of my life. Perhaps someone reading this blog will come
up with a good idea.
2 comments:
But there are many things that need to be done!
Many cool things to see and learn, stories to tell, discussions where your input could make a difference.
Perhaps it's not what you're looking for, but I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the apparent resurgence of anarchist thought in the wake of the Occupy movement. (I think when The New Yorker has an article on anarchists it's safe to say the idea is safe for mainstream audiences:http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2013/05/13/130513crat_atlarge_sanneh). A lot of it focuses on David Graeber's work, but I would be interested to know if you had any thoughts on the matter.
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