Sometimes a book grabs me from before the time I even open it. Sometimes a book speaks through the haze of life directly to where I currently am. This was one of those books.
A story about stories about stories. In the Solnit fashion that I've now come to be acquainted with as historical, anecdotal, and in great touch with personal inquiry, this book puts open arms around all of life and then shakes hands with meaning... the meaning that of course has no meaning.
From family struggles to world travel to the unspeakable purpose of art, there are sutures holding all of our stories together. To take time in appreciation of those sutures is the task that gives undistilled feeling to a celebratory and confusing existence.
I've sent it to several friends and I highly recommend giving it a read. And, did you know that moths drink the tears of sleeping birds? Wow.
'Merging is dangerous, at least to the boundaries and definition of the self. Darkness is generating, and generation, biological and artistic both, requires this amorous engagement with the unknown, this entry into the realm where you do not quite know what you are doing and what will happen next. Creation is always in the dark because you can only do the work of making by not quite knowing what you’re doing, by walking into darkness, not staying in the light, and though that’s where they may be seen by others, that’s not where they’re born.'