Friday, January 15, 2010

No Going Back




"...this inclination of going back to events in our past,...circling...at those familiar moments of emotion.  ...
We live permanently in the recurrence of our own stories, whatever story we tell."

Michael Ondaatje (Divisadero)




"We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came..."

Buffy Sainte-Marie (Circle Game)


16 comments:

  1. "You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time — back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."
    Thomas Wolfe

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  2. I love your quotes
    So the truth :-)

    Have a wonderful weekend !!

    Anya :-)

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  3. ..didn't I just have a conversation with myself about this very thing...

    ... stair-treads going up and down,
    ... do the down, go up?...
    ... do the up, go down?

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  4. DCW,
    Can't step into the same river twice.

    WV: clenes
    Although it's not the same river you stepped into before, chances are it still clenes you (barring pollution).

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  5. Anya,
    The Ondaatje quote resonated with me while I was reading "Divisadero" and I decided I would share it. The song lyric just seemed to go along with it (I've had it in my mind for a few days). Glad you liked them.

    What? It's the weekend already?! Enjoy!

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  6. Gwen,
    Same thoughts/mind conversation?Perhaps it's something in the Fundy air we're breathing.

    Shades of "Up the Down Staircase"?

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  7. More than grateful for this entry of yours, as indeed there was much feeding of the mind from the past.
    Yet, leaving me in thoughts whether writing about it would offend...
    Please have a wonderful Saturday and always a couple of steps in front of you, save and sound.

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  8. Robert, always so nice to receive your best wishes for the weekend! I like your words to describe "much feeding of the mind from the past." We do need to learn from the past, but not dwell on it, get lost in it, wish to return, keep lamenting what happened, or could have/should have. How to live in the moment and be fully present without all the mind chatter and stories we constantly tell ourselves is a big challenge, to my mind.

    As for "offending" people on your blog...well, no one is forcing anyone to read it, and it is your personal expression. We can't please all of the people all of the time!
    Happy weekend to you, always ahead of me!

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  9. How true. Live in the Present but learn from the Past.

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  10. Hi Shirl,
    Do you think we could add "and don't worry about the future"?

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  11. am sure there was a famous Canadian who sang about how he felt like going back....
    Miss you!

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  12. Saj!
    I was just thinking about you this morning, and how DRY it is without you.

    Now you've got me puzzling about that Canuck song. Leonard Cohen? Robbie Robertson? Neil Young? All seem likely candidates to have moaned tunefully about longing to return somewhere...

    You are a wicked woman, Saj! That's what I love about you.

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  13. Neil Young, babe! Am working on a Tuesday Tipple, sampling tonight of course!! (With a WV of "tastst" it is a sure sign....)

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  14. I am slobbering in anticipation!

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  15. There, you're caught out, caught out slobbering ! Honestly ! Having to bring a dish towel when stopping by here is a bit encumbering, don't you think ???? Awww, go ahead, slobber to your heart's content. When that wicked Saj get's up to a Tuesday Tipple, there's plenty to slobber about.

    Very intriguing, these wintertime stairs in the snow, where no foot has tread, going up, stairways to heaven ? Going down, to lower levels ? The Circle Game... we are what we were, we cannot escape our pasts, we can run, but we can't hide, to quote another song.

    But who actually wrote the Circle Game ? In this video it seems to be saying that Joni wrote it, although Buffy recorded it... hmmm, wonder what the right answer is, I'm no expert...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XOV34vsjfg&feature=related

    See you big Sis... and thanks for your note !

    :-)

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  16. BrOwen, you would show up just when I have drool all down my bib! Blame it on my advanced age.

    I believe that Buffy wrote the song, and Joni recorded it and was unfairly given credit for doing so because she was the one who made it popular. At least, that's how I have the story embedded in my ancient brain pan and I don't have the energy or attention span to go do the research as I'm beginning to feel a bit feeble in my dotage.
    It's not easy keeping up with a young whipper-snapper like you, you know!

    Don't you always travel with a towel? Or is it you're just reluctant to get my slobber on it? Jeez. What are friends, to say nothing of little brothers, for BrOwen? ("To tease mercilessly, if nothing else!" she chortles to herself not realizing that she had typed her thoughts out loud).

    :-D

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