Lucky number 14

Posted on | February 1, 2005 |

This one’s for the homeless women of January ‘05.

….watching him watching her, it is a tender incomprehension that I see in his face for although he understands better than any of us the form of the events that are taking her from him, he does not comprehend their substance, or meaning; but then men rarely realise why it is that they lose the women whom they think it is sufficient simply to love.

- Drusilla Modjeska, The Orchard

Category: Randoms

Comments

4 Responses to “Lucky number 14”

  1. Kris
    February 2nd, 2005 @ 8:01 pm

    “Though he had thought that he had the most precise ideas about married life, he, like all men, had involuntarily pictured married life as merely the enjoyment of love, which nothing must be allowed to interfere with and from which no petty cares should distract. According to his idea, he had to carry on with his work and then rest from it in the happiness of love. His wife should be lovedóand that was all. But like all men, he forgot that she too must work.” -Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

    I came upon this passage not 10 minutes after I had read your post. All my best to the homeless women of Jan ‘05. -kris

  2. danny
    February 3rd, 2005 @ 10:01 pm

    Melissa, this post makes me very sad. Hope all is OK. I am staying with friends who are in a less analytical but similar phase of love and its fragility. One thing it makes me wonder a lot about (and this might seem inappropriately academic) is the institutional evacuation of these dynamics from the forms of “cultural production” we’re supposed to create. So it’s nice to be reminded that there are people bringing life, love, and thinking together. Even when it’s not fun.

  3. Christian McCrea
    February 7th, 2005 @ 8:24 am

    My favourite song of compassion; perhaps on theme.

    “Vowels” by Christian Bok

    —

    Loveless vessels

    We vow

    Solo love

    We see

    Love solve loss

    Else we see

    Love sow woe

    Selves we woo

    We lose

    Losses we levee

    We owe

    We sell

    Loose vows

    So we love

    Less well

    So low

    So level

    Wolves evolve

  4. mc gregg
    February 7th, 2005 @ 2:17 pm

    The reactions to this post on and off the blog have been amazing. Thank you all. In response to Danny, I stumbled across an old column by Elspeth Probyn this morning, which describes some of the risks involved in confusing your life and your work too much. But also some of the risks of not doing the same:

    http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=2624