“It is a kind of ritual, helping us to remember who and what we are. In order to remember it, one must have known it.”

by chuckofish

Well, I have to say that my mother’s review of the weekend was excellent–but it did put one thing a tad lightly. Yes, it was a super fun weekend, full of super fun things. But she said the arrival of the twins cranked up the pace of our adventures 100%. I would go further and say 1000%. I never cease to be amazed by their energy.

At one point after dinner, we were attempting to listen to music and Lottie was feeling disappointed in me because I wouldn’t play with her (I was hosting) and so she and Wheeler Boy started taking books and DVDs off the bookshelves in the sunroom. I didn’t mind–it entertained them and I don’t have a giant bag of Beanie Babies like Mamu.

I’m not sure the full extent of the havoc is captured in this picture.

When they started going for the yearbooks, though, I had to step in and say no, those needed to stay on the shelf. This prompted Lottie to ask me to read to her, offering me this book.

The twins are clearly very sophisticated. I had to say no, not today. Perhaps in 15 years. I’ve written about Joan before (and of course, so has my mother) and my post had many funny lines (okay two) about people who like Joan. But today, when I was paging through, I couldn’t help thinking that she’d be cancelled so hard these days. Clearly, all of her fans haven’t actually read much, if any, of her work.

“Self-respect is something that our grandparents, whether or not they had it, knew all about. They had instilled in them, young, a certain discipline, the sense that one lives by doing things one does not particularly want to do, by putting fears and doubts to one side, by weighing immediate comforts against the possibility of larger, even intangible comforts.”

On Self-Respect, 1961

The essay goes on to reference Indians being “hostile” and the idea that there will always be hostile Indians. Four years later she wrote:

“Because when we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something, not that it is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in the land, and then is when we are in bad trouble. And I suspect we are already there.”

On Morality, 1965

I mean, hello. She wore cool sunglasses, though, so I guess it’s okay.

PS the title comes from “On Self-Respect.”