Clarissa, again

I love Clarissa. I love her Zen pagan zest for everything, without judgement. I love her curiosity, her loyalty, her passion for flowers, her panoramic view, and her lack of malice (except toward the loathesome Miss Kilman, whom I think of as the Soul-sucker).

I love Mrs. Dalloway. I love the way VW shows, doesn't tell, how each of the characters, even the ones glimpsed fleetingly, experience the Now. (And isn't show, don't tell the essence of the way writing is supposed to work?)

I love the silk that will be the slanted eyelet scarf. I tried out the pattern, knitting a few rows, using the leftover worsted from the Tess coif. The photo does not do the pattern justice. The edges of the slants are almost sinuous. Today, I'll cast on with the silk. When I rolled it up a couple of night ago, I was so taken with its sheen and elegance that I snipped a couple of inches to keep with me in my purse. (I like to carry a little piece of the yarn I'm working with. It centers me to feel it or look at it when I'm in distress.)

(Or maybe I shouldn't admit that particular fetish.)

Right now, I'm listening to the radio and hoping that Ariel Sharon's belated (WAY belated) change of heart and new ideas about a way to peace in Israel won't die with him. Not that I think any plan could work, not in the long run, not in the context of countries (Syria, for example, or the nuthouse that is Iran) that loathe Jews and want them (us) to just be gone. At least Sharon had gotten people talking and thinking again.