My book club is reading Ernest Hemingway's
A Moveable Feast for this month. The title comes from this quote on the title page:
"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." (Hemingway to a friend, 1950)
I'm sure that exactly what Hemingway meant by that will be part of the discussion of this work. When I read it, I thought about parts of my life that I could fill in for "Paris" in the quote. A couple came to mind. One of them is my experience growing up on a farm. I've been thinking about the farm because it was 45 years ago this past week that our old stanchion dairy barn burned down. That's an event that marked our family life indelibly--with some positive results rising out of the ashes, so to speak. (Mainly in that category was the forced modernization of our dairy operation, a factor that is probably one of the reasons the place is still in operation under a third and fourth generation of family.)
I think of the richness of growing up as I did almost every time I am outdoors. It was in the nearly unbounded wanderings of childhood in the country that I learned to appreciate nature. When I mow my grass, as I did this morning, I think about my dad's exacting instructions for how our huge farm lawn was to be mowed (that was BEFORE the folks bought a riding mower). When I name flowers or bugs for Melanie, I'm passing on what came to me as a farm kid (as well as under the tutelage of my city grandma). A cool and pleasant summer evening anywhere zings me back to after-supper ballgames out in the big yard with my siblings, or to August evening rounds of the county fair (in my childhood, there were summer dog days in August--usually about a week's worth--but I also remember some sweatshirt evenings). Kids playing in sprinklers, carefree bicycle riders (minus helmets...sorry), Saturday night cookouts (I love the smell of my urban neighborhood on summer holidays and weekends)--they all take me back to that place--the sights, the sounds, the smells--I hold in my head and my heart. That is one of my moveable feasts.
Question of the Day: What is a "moveable feast" in your life?
Comments (4)
college is a moveable feast. specifically, having studied theatre at ball state university is a moveable feast. to have discovered that wavelength with other people, lived in it, operated in it, and created things together, those things are the moveable feast for me.
(there was an experience i had in college, something called "derealization," i think, when, after a history of modern theatre class, i suddenly discovered/felt that the world was no longer real. i was terrified for about three days. even this is part of the moveable feast, because i still sometimes look at my life with a sharpened edge, trying to cut away what isn't real from what is.)
sad thing is, i'm trying to find that moveable feast again. wouldn't that be fulfilled in the feast's moveability? if it comes with me, why do i need it again?
Whoa...your last questions could really mess with my mind.....!
I love the phrase moveable feast. Aren't we feasting every time we share memories? As I read your post, I was taken back to my childhood - roaming the high desert with my brother, constructing forts and building fires. I want my boys to have great memories of their childhood just as I have as mine.
My moveable feast would have to be connections within the church as I grew up. My parents were missionaries. Not only did we visit in many homes as we traveled, but we had many visitors in our home. These friendships have lasted through the years and provide many wonderful memories to feast on even though I've been away from home for so many years. We created a flip calendar for my parents 50th anniversary and it was no problem at all to come up with 180 people who were willing to make a page for the calendar. It's become a moveable feast for them - one they will enjoy for many years.
@precept_upon_precept - Very cool 50th anniversary idea! And I totally agree about memories in the moveable feast category!