CONTACT CAROLINE
facebook
rss
tumblr
twitter
goodreads
youtube

  • Home
  • Write Away Blog
  • Books
    • Books
    • Trompe l’Oeil
    • Heart Land
    • Gothic Spring
    • Ballet Noir
    • Book Excerpts
  • Video Interviews
  • Press
    • News
    • Print Interviews
    • Plays
    • Ballet Noir in the Press
    • Trompe l’Oeil In The Press
    • Gothic Spring In The Press
    • Heart Land Reviews
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
    • Writer Resources
    • Favorite Blogs
    • Favorite Artists



What the Heart Knows It Soon Forgets

Jan 11, 2013
by Caroline Miller
Michael Dirda, Penelope Niven, The Woman of Andros, Thornton Wilder: A life, Thorton Wilder
0 Comment

Each Christmas eve I join a couple for lunch to celebrate our long friendship and to enjoy good conversation. On this occasion, the wife sighed, over her plate of macaroni and cheese, and said she was appalled that so many people believe the world is going to-hell-in- a-hand -basket . Why, she wondered, did they never stop to consider all that’s right with the world.

 I had to agree. Too often we humans dwell on the negative rather than the positive. To prove the point, I told her a story about an acquaintance. He’s a retired dancer who so missed his former life, that for a time, he struggled to create his own dance company. Matters went badly, but on the strength of his efforts, he landed a key position with a large ballet company in Canada. I thought he should be happy and for a while he was. But over time, he forgot his good fortune and complained about the fatigue of touring and how much he missed his friends and family at home.

The couple listened to my story and then woman nodded. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

 Days later, I came upon a review of a new biography by Penelope Niven entitled, Thornton Wilder: A Life. While reading it, that Christmas Eve discussion sprang to mind. (“The Chameleon” by Michael Dirda, Harper’s, 1/13 pgs 72 -78)

First, let me admit, I’ve never been a fan of Wilder’s. Some critics fault him for being too philosophical, but I feel his philosophy is too conventional, too safe.

 I would have continued in this opinion were it not for Niven’s biography. In it she reviews a Wilder novel I’d never read: The Woman of Andros. During the course of the drama, one of the characters tells a story about a spirit who begs Zeus to return him to life. Eventually, Zeus agrees but grants the suppliant only a single day. Nonetheless, the spirit is overjoyed. Not an hour passes, however, before the spirit, now a man, becomes restless. He regrets his wish and pleads again for death. His request is granted a second time. Yet seconds before the fatal stroke descends, the man awakes to his true desire. Remorseful, he bends to the earth and kisses it. The moral of the tale? The heart may be conscious of its longing, but it is “not strong enough to love every moment.” (Ibid. pg. 74)

 A profound thought and an honest insight. I will have to rethink Thornton Wilder.

The Woman of Andros

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of royhamric.wordpress.com) 

 

Social Share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

Subscribe to Caroline’s Blog


 

Archives

Categories

YouTube-logo-inline2 To access and subscribe to my videos on YouTube, Click Here and click the Subscribe button.

Banner art “The Receptive” by Charlie White of Charlie White Studio

Web Admin: ThinPATH Systems, Inc
support@tp-sys.com

Subscribe to Caroline's Blog


 

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Sitemap | Privacy Notice

AUDIO & VIDEO VAULT

View archives of Caroline’s audio and videos interviews.


Copyright © Books by Caroline Miller
Posting....