8 days until the 1/2 marathon in Durango. I did a long run today and I feel a bit sore already. I’m excited to go down to Durango; I’ve never been there. While running today I thought of a great title for my book: Elevation 7669. I played out the first paragraph in my mind and was able to remember all my thoughts once I got home. This is progress. Running and Writing Ideas. I’m excited for the writing to begin again! I have the guts of the book but no ending. Maybe my run tomorrow will provide one.
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“Angry as one may be at what careless people have done and still do to a noble habitat, it is hard to be pessimistic about the West. This is the native home of hope. When it finally learns that cooperation, not rugged
individualism, is the pattern that most characterizes and preserves it, then it will have acheived itself and outlived its origins. Then it has a chance to create a society to match the scenery.”
“That Wolfe novel, Of Time and the River, put into me an everlasting awareness of life’s gallant rhythms.
Trip upon trip, the tussle of home earth and livelihood grew and grew in me, with Thomas Wolfe now lending a hand against Montana in his next novel that traveled with me, You Can’t Go Home Again. Even a god can misspeak. I was to find, as a writer that the makings of my first book, This House of Sky, and several novels since would all arise from back there in time and memory. But when it most counted, Wolfe had it wondrously right for me in Of Time and the River when his resounding love of language and piston-power energy of imagination carried me back and forth across the continent between the home I was born to and the home I would find in writing.”
I just finished watching Titanic, again. It’s such a wonderful, sad, love story.
Jack: I love waking up in the morning not knowing where I’m gonna go or who I’m gonna meet. Just the other night I was sleeping under a bridge, and now here I am, on the grandest ship in the world, having champagne with you fine people.
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Old Rose: It’s been 84 years, and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
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Old Rose: Afterward, the seven hundred people in the boats had nothing to do but wait: wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution which would never come.
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Old Rose: A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets. But now you all know there was a man named Jack Dawson, and that he saved me, in every way that a person can be saved.
“What if someone came along who changed not the way you think about everything, but everything about the way you think?”
This is the headline of the DVD I just got from the library yesterday. I remember reading about Derrida years ago when studying literary theory. From the back cover, “Derrida has single-handedly altered the way we look at history, language, art and film.: More later on him……
I just finished watching Stone Reader (below is the review from Amazon.com). What a great documentary about books, reading, and writing.
When I purchased this film, I bought The Stones of Summer as well, with the intention of reading the book first. Like so many others–and like Moskowitz himself, at first–I couldn’t get beyond the first fifty pages. At least, not yet; I will go back to it eventually. But I was eager to view the film, so I set aside a time to sit down with a glass of iced tea and an open mind. I love this film. Forgive me if I state the obvious here; the film is a documentary. Within that genre, there are documentaries which are structured in the same way a memoir might be… as the reflections expressed by the central character… but The Stone Reader is not all about Mark Mosokowitz… it is somewhat about his love of books, and how he came to be a reader… but he does allow some fascinating people to simply talk about the mystical processes of first writing a great novel–then finding an audience for that novel. As all writers know, most works do not go forward simply on their own merit. It is tragically true that one can write a searingly brilliant piece of work and still have it turned down for publication countless times.
There are two distinct types of people who will love The Stone Reader. Writers will love this film because, yes, we need that validation. We need to hear that “there are no rules in publishing” and that Faulkner had a job shoveling coal for 12 hours a day and that, yes, brilliant novels “slip through the cracks” and do not get read. It is a brutal, solitary life we sometimes lead in order to pursue our passion. Readers of good books will also love this film, will love hearing the titles mentioned–old friends that they haven’t heard from in years. I had forgotten how Catch 22 and Tender is the Night changed my life in high school. I want to visit them again after watching this film.
I was already crying by the end of The Stone Reader… but the best part, the little bit that touched me the deepest, was the tag line at the very end. As writers, we work alone in the dark, pouring our hearts into the words we string together. Then we set them adrift on the open sea of humanity, hoping that someday, somehow, they will be swept up by someone and appreciated, whether as a moment’s brief delight or as a life preserver to someone drowning in sorrow or something in between. It took Mark Moskowitz 25 years to finally read The Stones of Summer. When he did, his life was changed. I think his film depicts this quite nicely.
Hiked to Long Lake again today with Abbey and Dugan. It took me 4 hours. The leaves are just about at peak; beautiful golden aspen leaves. Saw only one other person past the falls. Saw no wildlife; thank goodness.
Perfect weather!
And today is the birthday of the poet Donald Hall.
He grew up listening to his grandfather reciting long narrative poems like “Casey at the Bat,” as he sat on a three-legged stool milking his Holsteins. Donald Hall’s first literary hero was Edgar Allen Poe. He said, “I wanted to be mad, addicted, obsessed, haunted and cursed; I wanted to have eyes that burned like coals, profoundly melancholy, profoundly attractive.”
He taught for 17 years at the University of Michigan and then decided to quit and live by his wits and move to a farm in New Hampshire that had been in his family for generations.
Donald Hall said, “I try every day to write great poetryoas I tried when I was 14. What else is there to do?”
Today was the last race of the running series. I did the 7 mile run up Emerald. It was hard! It was all uphill then all downhill. My knees are going to hurt tomorrow. The last part of it was fun on the single track but up the road to the quarry was really hard. Next year I’ll train on that trail to do better.
One race left then I’m done all the races. I am running faster but next year I will train better.
Kristen Lodge 7m 1:18:27 24 20-29 F 9 9
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About the Brewfest in Steamboat yesterday:
Tauer sampled beers like any true beer lover might — in his bathrobe and teddy bear slippers.
‘I plan on making people smile today. Everyone should be happy. It’s all about the love,’ he said.
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I’ve lived here 1 1/2 years and have hiked on Fish Creek trail over 100 times. Today, Abbey and I finally made it to Long Lake. 5 Miles each way. It is so beautiful up there. I think that I will hike that every Sunday that I can. We saw a few people go all the way to Long Lake, too.
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Did the 10K in 54 minutes. I couldn’t believe I did it that fast. It was HARD. I had to walk sections of uphill. The scenery was beautiful; up on the Kremmling Cliffs. It was like running in a desert. I’m definately going to do that one again.
2nd place finish for women. I’ve never placed that high. Amazing.
Kristen Lodge 10K 0:54:18 34 30-39 F 10 8 18
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What Rich likes about the south:
* some incredibly beautiful and unspoiled scenery.
* plenty of extreme contrasts (old, new, rich, poor)
* tons of history; besides the civil war you got the birthplace of the blues, early America and of course the civil rights movement.
* BBQ, Soul Food and down home cooking.
* lower cost of living and reasonable housing prices.
* and most of all… a slower pace and more common courtesy.
The only thing I didn’t like:
* 3.2% beer (state law)
What Kristen Likes About the South:
Very green mountains, the Smoky Mountains, and Blue Ridge Parkway
Waffle House
Rocking Chairs at the airport
I’m sure there’s more…..
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Yesterday I ran the 10k trail run up on Rabbit Ears Pass. The trail was 75% uphill (or so it seemed). I had to walk a bit. My total time: 1 hr 15 min. I want to run this again despite it being so hard. I have 2 more road races in Steamboat and then the 1/2 marathon in Durango and my racing season is done.
Mountain Biked the Hot Springs Trail for the first time. It’s such a great trail. I really liked it. I fell a few times and at the turn around point lost my balance and couldn’t get my foot out of the cage and just went curplunk on my left side. That was not fun. I have some scrapes and definately some bruises but I do like mountain biking.
Kristin Lodge 10K 1:15:11 34 30-39 F 4 4
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