Yvonne Studer 2008

Dear all,

With the Sun squaring Neptune today, my daily horoscope (at www.astro.com) advised me to use my "common sense even about ideals, and above all, deal with the real world as it is" and not as I would like it to be. All this while feeling depleted of energy! But if I made an effort, there might be a reward. The horoscope said, "You can work to make it [the world] what you want, but don't assume that it already is."

The world today meant a full day at school with report meetings taking place from early morning till late in the afternoon, a bit of teaching in between and no time to go to scenic places to spread the word, much as I would have liked to.

Anyhow, I opened a bottle of emergency Joie de Vivre so "feelings of inadequacy or futility" couldn't even begin to tempt me "to avoid direct confrontations with people and even to take more devious courses of action than usual." And then I carried out my very commonsensical and energy-friendly plan for this year's SA4QE and approached some of my colleagues at school to give them the five sheets of yellow A4 on which I had printed quotes from Russ's books. Some quotes had been chosen with the future recipients in mind, others were general enough to be given away spontaneously. I had to place two of the sheets in pigeonholes, because my colleagues were busy or had already gone home. But handing over the three other sheets definitely accounted for the most enjoyable and carefree moments of the day, and as usual, 4qating made me go home with a smile.

Here are the quotes:

"Reason is not sufficient; I know what I cannot explain."

("Mnemosyne, Teen Taals, and Tottenham Court Road", The Moment under the Moment, 1992)

"The stranger it took me the mor I fealt at hoam with it. The mor I fealt like Iwd be long where ever it wer widening me to."

(Riddley Walker, 1980)

"Darkness roared with the lion, the night stalked with the silence of him. The lion was. Ignorant of non-existence he existed."

(The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz, 1973)

"Everyone lives a life that is seen and a life that is unseen. Our dreams are part of our unseen life. We often forget our own dreams and we have no idea whatever of the dreams of others: last night the person next to you in the underground may have ridden naked on a lion or travelled under the sea to the lost city of Atlantis."

('I, that was a child, my tongue's use sleeping...', The Moment under the Moment, 1992)

"This house that childhood builds in the mind is a learning place and a place where we test words and images and ideas to find out what rings true. Also it's like a safe house in a spy film: in it the secret agent that is the child's mind can stay hidden until ready to venture armed into the hostile city. It isn't the world that is hostile – the stone and the leaf and the door of the world beckon and welcome – it's the grey city of the world that threatens, the grey city of the failed children of the world, the dry thinkers, the juiceless minds, the poison skulls that dream in numbers and megadeaths. They run the world, these failed children; they speak in all languages and in all languages their speech is vile."

('I, that was a child, my tongue's use sleeping...', The Moment under the Moment, 1992)

Happy birthday, Russ, and all the best to everyone else!

Yvonne x