Shakespeare Saved My Life is the title of the book by Laura Bates that I have just finished reading for my bookclub. I had never heard of it but was fascinated by the title because; although it would be an exaggeration to say that he saved mine too, he certainly helped me to structure my time during the first two years of living alone in Vernon. Much of my life prior to Jim's death had just seemed to flow from one thing to the next. I wasn't aware of how much time there was in 24 hours until I was alone in Vernon. In retrospect, I remember a movie I watched years ago, 'Suddenly Last Summer'??? in which Katherine Hepburn, the jealous mother of Montgomery Clift, informs Elizabeth Taylor, a 'tart' she suspects of trying to steal her son from her, of how vain any such attempt would be as she and her son share a very agreeable and carefully planned life the likes of which a girl like her could never dream of let alone construct. At the time I thought that the idea of structuring a day in such a way was something only a manipulative mother could even conceive of . But in 2011 and 2012, I learned that hours require filling. One of my means of doing this was to reread Shakespeare's plays. I had read them when I did the course work for a Masters in Renaissance English Literature in 1970, but had not looked at them since, except to teach a few at the Lycée. As I read the plays again in The Oxford Shakespeare that a friend had given me years ago, I realized how wonderful some of the lines were and did the unthinkable; I bracketed them. Then I went back and copied the chosen quotations onto my computer under six categories that I had determined would classify them, for what I don't know. Before this enjoyable and time consuming work was quite complete, I had a life in Vernon and reverted to my old ways of going with the flow, but if Shakespeare didn't save my life, he certainly did help to give me one while I was floundering. I'm writing this at Mo's house where I'm not on line, so can't 'Google' the movie reference. I'll probably be surprised by the inaccuracy of my memory when I do check the facts, but I'll leave them here as they are, a testament to how inconstant a thing memory is. As for Shakespeare Saved My Life, the organization and writing of the material was a bit disappointing, considering she's a Shakespeare scholar, but the story is impressive. She's a woman of integrity and perseverance who taught Shakespeare for many years to convicts in maximum security prisons. It's admirable the success she had getting them to consider not only the texts but also their reactions to the selections she had chosen and consequently their understanding of their own lives and actions. One of her students in particular, a murderer, had spent years in terrible conditions of solitary confinement. His insights into the Shakespearean texts she gave him and ultimately into Shakespeare's work as a whole and his own life were unique and often brilliant. He's the one who said that Shakespeare had saved his life. It didn't save him from being a lifer however. When the book ends, he has just endured a horrific stage of incarceration and has no hope of ever getting out of jail.
Life here is much more hopeful. Spring break begins tomorrow with all that that entails, mainly the girls at home with time on their hands. Jay just looked at me and said with a smile, "I'll be at work all day."
I had a good ski with Jane today, the last day of winter. I think one thing I'll do next week is drive May and the girls up to Silver Star to walk around in all the snow, it's hard enough to walk on some trails with no snowshoes. Then we'll have a hot chocolate and come back down to spring.
A picture I took of the hills, Swan Lake and Vernon last Sunday driving the back roads with Jay in his truck
