Comments on: 2003: I turn 46

By: cynthia

cynthia — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 23:49:07 +0000

In reply to Claire Guyton. I need to reread The Sound and the Fury--I can't remember the passage you're talking about. And in all my school-loving years, I have to say I never even thought about writing an EXTRA paper.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 23:46:00 +0000

In reply to Sarah Laurence.

Sarah, I’ve now flown in those little planes so often, I no longer even try to be in control. I just let go and feel every bump. No Xanax needed. But I do love sitting in the co-pilot’s seat–I’m like a little kid.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 23:43:01 +0000

In reply to Louise.

46 miles is hard to imagine. But how cool, around the war-time airfields. Walking and writing, that rhythm and unfurling of steps or words… And occupying the mind with movement often frees my words from whatever box I’ve put them in. The pot is stirred in a different way. Almost like dreaming…

By: cynthia

cynthia — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 21:23:30 +0000

In reply to Sawnie Morris. Thanks, Sawnie! I appreciate your taking the time to leave a comment.

By: Claire Guyton

Claire Guyton — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 01:41:41 +0000

My parents let me fly in a tiny two-seater with a 16-year-old pilot when I was in high school. What the HELL were they thinking? I loved it but had to lie in a dark room for a couple of hours after with a cold compress on my head and fat headache pills down my gullet. Never to be repeated.

Once again I must nominate you for Best Mom Ever for the routine imposed on those boys. Are they thanking you, yet?

I like this list of books the best so far. In college that passage of stream-of-consciousness in the Sound and the Fury, right before the suicide, struck me as so elemental and beautiful that I wrote an EXTRA paper on it for the lit professor who had assigned the book. She was flabbergasted. Peak-geek. How did I not know I was a writer?

By: Sarah Laurence

Sarah Laurence — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 22:09:42 +0000

When I have taken that tiny plane to Nantucket, I try to sit in the copilot seat because I’d trust myself in an emergency over the typical tourist. Even the illusion of control makes me calmer. I have fond memories of reading Bel Canto too.

By: Louise

Louise — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 03:49:19 +0000

Hi Cynthia,
I love discovering little things we have in common, apart from a love of reading and a love of writing, as we are in so many ways, so different. Three of the years I lived in Cambridgeshire I walked the Pathfinder March (a 46 mile circular route around war-time airfields, held on the longest day of the year so as to have as much light as possible), and explored many other long walks (though never pushing myself to the extent of the Pathfinder). I have been reading about the connection between walking & writing – that you are also a long distance walker adds to my belief that the combination is, to some of us, almost necessary.
Cheers, Louise

By: Sawnie Morris

Sawnie Morris — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 00:23:33 +0000

Love this, Cynthia! Thank you.