Stendahl

I did two walks today and thereby achieved my walking goals for April (see chart). It was windy and raining and I was wearing all of my rain gear for the full 12 km. I’m quite pleased with my fitness progress, more so with the lack of grief from my knee. And I see we still sit at 68% of our fundraising goal. Come on, be good and sponsor us.

Overheard snippet between two women: I shared my riding school page with my niece three times and she's never liked it.

And a quote from Mark Henwick in his novel Hidden Trump: My paranoia wasn't always right, but just to be on the safe side, I never went to sleep with a clown in the room.

Three mistakes?

And some other things I was thinking about today. I was on Dun Laoghaire pier again, and I was remembering how lucky I was to have had the writer Gerry Hanley as a family friend. We had many conversations, literary and otherwise, especially during the occasional times I drove him home after dinner chez nous. One such night, he asked me to argue the case for my favourite book. I might have answered Lord of the Rings. I could also have comfortably argued for Principles of Physical Geology, a book that changed the direction of my life. And at that time, The Great Gatsby had also been a big influence on me. Yet I know that I replied Scarlet and Black by Stendahl. I had only recently read it and I identified more with the 'coming of age' theme of the young Sorel than I recognised in any of the somewhat seedy Gatsby set including Carraway. Today, I might give a completely different answer. But back then, Scarlet and Black had deeply impressed me. Gerry told me that it had been banned in some countries for being subversive, which made it all the more interesting to me, living as I did, in a repressed, religion tormented third world country of banned opinions amidst the fear of terrorism. I was reminded of this conversation when I read about a condition called Stendahl Syndrome (and another link is that Gerry died in Dun Laoghaire 25 years ago). Anyway, back to the syndrome, said to be common in Florence, as I understand from wikipedia (and I don’t want to be responsible for sending you down that rabbit hole).