"I'm thinking of this terrific woman, who never got married."

Prager: "There are many ways to lead a happy life."

I hate being alone. When I see something that interests me, or excites me, or gives me a happy little thrill, I want to share it with someone else. Sharing it makes it twice as fun or twice as interesting, or twice as fulfilling.

On the other hand, I can see something I love, or that sends a thrill of pleasure through me, or makes me happy for a time, and if I have to keep it to myself, my day is spoilt.

By the way, I'm an excellent woman, also.

I devoted my youth to the reading of the classics, in defiance of the standard American school curriculum. By the time I was 13 I had read more of classical literature than most people read in their lifetimes, which isn't saying much. I found a book in my mother's library, "Good Reading", went through it, made a list on a steno pad, and began checking off the titles as I read the books. I didn't always understand the books. I didn't get out of them everything that a college literature major would have got out of them. But reading them at age 12 and 15 meant that I had a much better basis for understanding what I read when I was 16 and 18.

I knew a lot about history. In 8th grade my private school began its curriculum on World History and we started with a giant, thorough volume on Ancient History. Then we moved and I missed Medieval/Renaissance history and Modern history. I did well in my American history and government classes, but I wish heartily that they had been more thorough, especially the American government class, which was taught by a liberal who thought the Constitution was meant to be "a living document" and should change at the whim of judges.

So I read a lot. I understand people and institutions better than my peers. My peers came half a generation after the hippies. We were a little late to be out on the campus green getting shot for our opposition to the Viet Nam war. Instead we were growing herbs, drinking green tea or sake, and fighting to ban aerosols. We made a lot of fuss about ending racism while we fought to patronize minorities to death, confident in the assumption that they didn't have the intelligence, skills, or resources to succeed on their own without a white liberal to rescue them.

I learned to diagram sentences and I learned to love grammar. It helped me to understand what I was doing when I was writing. Science was interesting but science classes weren't; I avoided them, and at the advanced age of 20 started learning more about science from my new husband's college textbooks. I took some classes in science. I loved math but only to the point where it required me to apply myself to "a page a day". I never got all the way through my programmed text in geometry, bought from my private school's textbook supplier, because I always seemed to have other things I needed to do more. But while I was working on it, prior to going into 9th grade, I loved it. Geometric proofs--another kind of game, fun as heck, not far from crossword puzzles and diagramming sentences.

Apart from books, there is art. I love art. Got to take two courses out of a series of five on the history of Western art: 1. Ancient and 2. Baroque. I wish I had been able to take Renaissance, Medieval, and *gag* Modern. The modern art covered Romantic, Impressionist, and Twentieth Century art. I have found I'm not all that wild about the Twentieth Century. Much of the art, music, and literature of that era doesn't appeal to me. The history is much more interesting, but I was put off by the face presented by such monstrosities as "modern" [classical] music, cubist and abstract art, and so-called "modern" literature. People who think Sylvia Plath is "deep" should be boiled in pudding with a stake of holly through their hearts.

I love museums. I would love museums in old houses if ever I had had a chance to go to any. I love old houses because seeing their interiors makes me feel all warm and cozy inside. I'm not among that bunch of hateful people who think that any era that came before theirs was to be despised. Those people have never read a book and instead derived their sense of intellectual importance by joining the "sneer at everything else" party the beatnik and hippie generations so thoroughly cultivated. Both those generations were very, very badly educated, and knew almost nothing of other times or other places, which made them susceptible to any kind of suasion that was tried on them. Communism was represented as the intellectual movement, the good movement, the movement for people who cared about other people. They leaped in with both feet. Capitalism, because driven by self-interest, was become the evil force in the world, something only devils and demons would advocate. It's a shame that understanding the two systems actually required some thought and introspection. It was much easier just to proclaim oneself and one's ideas superior to everyone and everything else.

I love nature. I had binoculars always with me because I just had to look at trees, flowers, and chirping birds as often as I saw something new. When I was a mother of scouts, I volunteered for the troop and went with them to several campouts. No more, for those little joys have been stripped form me. I would go again if I had the opportunity. What I don't love is watching documentaries of nature on the TV. A lion kills a gazelle. A cheetah kills a water buffalo calf in the process of being born. Two rams fight it out, and bull seals shove each other off a rock. HO HUM.

I used to like physical exertion. Skiing, tennis, sailing, hiking, swimming--I was very good at all those. I used to teach sailing, and consider myself to be among the best sailing teachers in the world. I'll link to my ebook about teaching sailing as soon as I finish writing it.

Most of what I'm telling about are activities of the mind. I don't consider them to be worth much without a good heart. Not to denigrate them, mind you, because they're so important to me, but that's because I dislike the notion of a mind, even a weak mind, going to waste, and I think every person on the planet should strive to put thoughts into their head and then should exercise their brain pondering on those thoughts. It is not enough to spend all your time watching "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" and "The Next Top Model". Those shows are for idiots who really wish to AVOID thinking or using their brains. Documentaries about history, science, and combing through rubbish for the rare antique that can be cashed in for a large profit are briefly interesting but should never make up the viewer's main intellectual fare.
Constantly sending "I love you" messages over MSN to your vapid little sweetheart on the other end of the line is fine, but have you ever said anything ELSE to her? Of course you'll argue that you have, but all she has ever offered to the conversation is what a pig her mother is, a jackass her stepfather is, what mean-spirited bitches her sisters are. I guess you need a "victim" to rescue and make you feel important, but trust me, she needs to shut up and go read a book instead of shouting about how desperate she is to have you inside her. By the way, have you never observed how the back half of her empty head is missing? It's flat, indicative that there's nothing holding the skull up. No ideas, no deep thoughts, not even any shallow thoughts, unless you consider the latest "fad teenage girl series" to be a "thought". She's a ditz.

My heart is a different matter. I love everyone. I care about people I barely know. I care about people I don't even know. That's why I took on the job of chairing The Hunger Committee at the church I used to belong to, why I volunteered so much time, not just at church but for the Boy Scouts I give and give and give to people, never expecting anything in return (and that's usually just about how much comes back).

Oh, well, enough. I'm a terrific woman, too, and I did get married, but I always seem to marry bad men. They see a giver and it brings out the taker, take take take and never give anything back. Story of my life.