books, friends, elevators…

Here are this week’s Share Your World questions and my answers.

Been anywhere recently for the first time?

Welll… I have been somewhere recently for the most time ever.

In the elevator.

No, I did not actually get stuck in an elevator. Thank goodness.

The story goes thus: I work at a hotel front desk, and the key-maker broke.

So… I had to actually, physically take each and every guest who checked-in and rush them to their rooms.

It’s a five-floor, 140-room hotel. I was in and out of that elevator so many times my head spun, so many times I felt like I was in a Kafka novel.

Speaking of novels…

List three favorite book characters.

Yossarian from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22

“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. [He] was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. [He] would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.” Chapter 5, pg. 55

“Open your eyes… It doesn’t make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who’s dead.” Chapter 12, pg. 133-134

“You know, that might be the answer – to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That’s a trick that never seems to fail.” Chapter 13, pg. 149

“Yossarian’s heart sank. Something was terribly wrong if everything was all right and they had no excuse for turning back.” Chapter 14, pg. 150

Ignatius J. Reilly from John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces

“You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him.”

“with the breakdown of the medieval system, the gods of chaos, lunacy, and bad taste gained ascendancy.”

“So we see that even when Fortuna spins us downward, the wheel sometimes halts for a moment and we find ourselves in a good, small cycle within the larger bad cycle. The universe, of course, is based upon the principle of the circle within the circle. At the moment, I am in an inner circle. Of course, smaller circles within this circle are also possible.”

“Stop!’ I cried imploringly to my god-like mind.”

“‘Ignatius, what’s all this trash on the floor?’
‘That is my worldview that you see. It still must be incorporated into a whole, so be careful where you step.'”

Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings books

“Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire.”

“Pippin glanced in some wonder at the face now close beside his own, for the sound of that laugh had been gay and merry. Yet in the wizard’s face he saw at first only lines of care and sorrow; though as he looked more intently he perceived that under all there was a great joy: a fountain of mirth enough to set a kingdom laughing, were it to gush forth.”

“‘I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.'”

“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'”

What is your favorite non alcoholic drink: hot or cold?

Make mine a chai tea latte with two shots of espresso, lukewarm if you please.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week?

Four old friends reached out to me this week, which was very heart-warming for me.

One took me into confidence about some trouble her daughter is having.

One sent a care package laden with love and Valentine’s and Easter treats.

One allowed as how she could make the 3-hr drive to visit me soon.

And one just told me a joke and let me know he was thinking of me.