Fear not, gentle readers, I have returned. For those of you who still live life on the academic calendar, you know that it's hard to start celebrating until exam week is over, which, for me, was true as of noon today. I apologize for the long absence.
To celebrate turning in my grades (and successfully finding the green roll sheet, which the school would accept, as opposed to the yellow one, which they would not), I went to the library. There, I checked out a bunch of stuff, including Alice Walker's "Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism," a collection of essays and speeches I hadn't read before. While I know that some gentle readers have attended retreats with Alice Walker and find her quite freaky, I still enjoy her, even if I don't always agree. The title essay concludes with a traditional prayer which I had never seen before. It was collected by Zora Neale Hurston in her folkways travels. My favorite part, and Alice's, was "I thank Thee that my last night's sleepin' couch/Was not my coolin' board/And my cover/Was not my windin' sheet." You can read the complete text here. To keep Zora from spinning in her previously-unmarked grave, I even gave you the version with the distracting transliterated dialect. Anyway, it feels good to learn something new.
Now that grades are in, Christmas has officially begun in my heart. I wrapped and mailed packages. I made pumpkin bread. I addressed, signed and stamped the Christmas letters. I listened to four Christmas CDs, ranging from the Muppets to the Nutcracker to Cheech and Chong. I watched Chanticleer sing on TV at the Met. God rest ye merry, gentlemen. Bring it on.
Posted by Meredith at December 19, 2002 10:48 PM