S2: The Novel About Letting Go

Finished Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler.  She's one of my all time faves.  I was nervous to read this one because of mixed reviews, but I should not have been.  I loved every page.  It's about a man dealing with his wife's sudden death. And letting go of some of his notions about what his marriage was and who his wife was and who he was as a husband.  Read it if you feel so inclined.

More on death:  Then this evening I read some of the obituaries in the New York Times Sunday magazine.  Christoph Niemann made a cartoon using excerpts from Maurice Sendak's interview with Terry Gross.  I listened to that interview several times.  I love Maurice Sendak almost as much as I love Anne Tyler.  Anyway, Maurice talked about aging and death in that interview and his words encourage me in my resolve to accept this aging I'm doing.  "I'm not unhappy about becoming old.  I'm not unhappy about what must be.  It makes me cry only when I see my friends go before me, and life gets emptied."

Let go of about 15 pairs of shoes today.  Then we drove into Brown County to take photos of the snowy slopes.  Now off to see Django Unchained.  Loving vacation.  Not sure I'll be able to let it go when the time comes next week.