Muddling through


I just saw the movie Greenberg, directed by Noah Baumbach. As with all of his films about late life bloomers and muddlers, (Kicking and Screaming, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Squid and the Whale) I found it immensely reassuring. I enjoy watching this middle aged character who has lost the path to adulthood, clashing with those who still have a legitimate claim on youth. It makes me feel less anxious about where I am in my own life.

Greta Gerwig, as Florence, was extremely sweet and delicate, but with a sense of herself that easily outweighs that of the title character.
The filming itself had some wonderful and surprising moments, particularly when the dog was involved. I don't often find such a subtle and droll sense of visual humor, or a fresh point of view (literally, not metaphorically).

When I get the chance to read, walking around outside with Émile, I've been traumatizing myself by reading Raising Cain. Do boys really attack each other that much for being even slightly feminine, or sensitive, or compassionate? Maybe we should move back to Berkeley, or to France, before Émile hits his preteen years... Next on my list is Reviving Ophelia, and I'm preparing myself for revisiting the past.

Here's another little painting of a horseshoe crab, a goodbye to Wellfleet on Cape Cod.

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