Turquoise Hexagon Sun

Spring/Summer Reading List.

Haunted By Waters

HAUNTED BY WATERS
Jessica Lange
Interview Magazine, April 2006

I love reading interviews. The best ones I've read are almost always from Interview magazine- go figure. The one that I think of a lot and has never quite left my local memory is from April 2006 between Jessica Lange and Ann Roth. At the time I was most interested in Jessica because she was married to Sam Shepard who I was crazy about at the time. After reading this interview I started watching some of her films and learning more about her. My favorite performance by her is in Wim Wender's impossible not to love and visually gorgeous Don't Come Knocking. She won a Best Actress Academy award for Blue Sky and a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Tootsie. I've only attached the end of the interview, but this is the part that stayed with me. I went out to buy A River Runs Through It the very next day.

AR: So, what else? Were you a cheerleader growing up?

JL: Oh, dear God, no. I never fit in anywhere, Ann, and I'm telling you the truth. I try to go back and think, Okay now, where was it that you belonged? And I can't. I never felt like I belonged in Minnesota when I was growing up there. That's why I was out the door as soon as I turned 18. The only place I've ever felt was really my home is my cabin up north. Do you know that last line from A River Runs Through If?- I am haunted by waters. There's something in the water up there that connects me to that place. But there's also this sense of isolation and loneliness about it that I've never been able to shake.

AR: Do you dislike that feeling?

JL: I don't mind it- I mean, I've lived with it my whole life.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Words

Eleanor Roosevelt
New York City, 1884
First Lady Of The World

Next to Hillary Clinton there is no one else that has been as much of an inspiration to me as Eleanor Roosevelt. I remember the day Hillary gave her Presidential concession speech at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. June 7, 2008. I spent the day at Val-Kill, Eleanor's home and retreat from 1924 until her death in 1962. Being surrounded by the peace of Val-Kill and Eleanor's unparalleled strength helped me find my own. I couldn't have imagined spending the day anywhere else. I love reading Eleanor's old newspaper column My Day from time to time and still cannot get over how fearless, determined, and selfless she was. I'm not usually into quotes but hers rise above the usual and become directions for a life well-lived. Here are my favorites:

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Never be bored, and you will never be boring.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have the obligation to be one.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role.

What one has to do usually can be done.