"There was a patient look on the old man's face, as if the world were a great mistake and he had nobody with whom to speak his own language or find companionship." ~ The Country of Pointed Firs. How it sometimes feels to be single! Then you find a person with whom you can speak. One may ask: Is it a lover? A friend? Someone of the same gender? The opposite? Someone close to your age or far older or younger? Perhaps you find this person and you speak the same language. Or perhaps you end up again with a feeling of isolation and inability to communicate - yet now you have someone with you while you are alone. It is a cycle which I would guess we all wish to end by the discovery of true companionship or total ease with oneself.

"In the life of each of us, I said to myself, there is a place remote and islanded, and given to endless regret or secret happiness; we are each the uncompanioned hermit or recluse of an hour or a day; we understand our fellows of the cell to whatever age of history they may belong." - Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of Pointed Firs

Illustration from 1919 publication.

Title page of 1910 edition.

"There's more women likes to be loved than there is of those that loves." 

Mrs. Todd. The Country of Pointed Firs.

Illustration from the 1919 publication.

"...she had the gift which so many women lack, of being able to make themselves and their houses belong entirely to a guest's pleasure - that charming surrender for the moment of themselves and whatever belongs to them, so that they make a part of one's own life that can never be forgotten. Tact is after all a kind of mind-reading...Sympathy is of the mind as well as the heart." ~ The Country of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett

"The song sparrows sang and sang, as if with joyous knowledge of immortality, and contempt for those who could so pettily concern themselves with death." 

~ The Country of Pointed Firs

Frontispiece from the 1919 publication (not a real place).

"When one really knows a village like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming acquainted with a single person. The process of falling in love at first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the growth of true friendship may be a life-long affair." (The Country of Pointed Firs). Who has not felt this about some place they love? A jewel of a novella by Sarah Orne Jewett.

To follow up on my postings re: Hitchhiker's Guide. It is surprising how relevant this tome still is. Just recently, a coworker reminded everyone that it was "Towel Day" (this is celebrated more commonly than people imagine) and especially intriguingly, a few months ago I met a skydiver who quoted to me: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says,"There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. Its knack lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss." Then this person said to me, "I do that." Which I think was one of the coolest, most concise things I have ever heard. It was hard for me to find a picture for this, as the concept is unsettling to me which is why I admire this person for being able to live it (living something described in a book, effortlessly, truly, deeply - and regularly! Or, if you like, living something for which the perfect description existed or exists). I finally settled on a photo called "Fear and Pleasure."