I work at a physics lab operated by Columbia University. The lab buildings are located on a 57-acre estate once owned by wealthy Westchester families. In 1934 the estate was donated by the DuPont family to Columbia to be used as an arboretum. WWII brought changes to Columbia’s use of the property, and it became a particle-physics research facility in 1947.
I’m going through some personal stuff right now, which is why the title of this post is "Transitions 3"; the other two are private in LiveJournal. Once before, I was going through a hard time and I saw a performance that lifted my spirits. It’s happened again.
She called yesterday. We talked for about two hours. It was the usual: computer consulting, stuff going on in our lives, pets, plans. Last night, I dreamed about her. It was a pleasant enough dream (no, there weren't any radiant fruits of passion), but I always find dreaming about her to be unsettling. Oh well, it's over.…
I've working on a biography of Isaac Bonewits. As a writer, Isaac apparently never threw away any piece of paper with his own writing on it, nor any correspondence he received. I'm going through boxes of his files, scanning what I can, before shipping the files to the archives of the University of California at Santa Barbara.Some…
This is kind-a sort-a the speech I gave at the memorial service for Isaac Bonewits on Aug 21, 2010:
I’d like to tell you about one way in which Isaac’s efforts within the pagan community led to support for others and for himself.
On top of a sucky day, I found a note from her that she wrote about two years ago. I hadn't seen it before now.I'll deal with it. But why couldn't I have found the note two weeks ago? Or two weeks later?And yeah, there could be other notes. I'll just have to accept them when I…
So I said good-bye to her.No fuss, no discussion, no more futile attempts at closure. I don't think she understands that we won't see each other again, or that that will be entirely her choice.She taught me a lot. But one lesson I did not learn is how to let go. Maybe I'll finally learn that lesson…
When I listed my pleasant memories from the NYRF, I mentioned something for which I’d like to tell the full story.
Let’s set the Wayback Machine to 1999. I’ve been diagnosed with an eye problem that will require surgery. Both the problem and the surgery to correct it are rather "squishy" and I’ll spare you the details. I’ll also spare you the suspense, since it’s not relevant to the story: the procedure was successful and my eyes are fine.
On the eaves of my booth at the New York Renaissance Faire, I had the following words painted:
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