1) I may just possibly be returning to a regular sleep rhythm now, which would be a blessing. I woke up quite naturally at 6 AM after a night of heavy sleep and chose not to remain in bed past 6:08.
2) As part of this morning’s devotional I turned to “On Death” and the final - I guess you’d call it a monologue - from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. “ And I was so taken by the line “Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.”
3) For Christmas my sister’s family found me a wonderful gift: a white T-shirt with the entire text of Alice in Wonderland printed on it in purple. On the front there are gaps in the text that form a picture of the White Rabbit. What a coincidence that white and purple fall into the mourning palette.
3a) Of course in Alice in Wonderland I am associated with the Mad Hatter, having played the role at least twice: first with the Cotton Candy Players, and then junior year at Interlochen using the hallucinatory script prepared by the Manhattan Project. (I remember the Mad Hatter has the line “Why don’t you take off your clothes?” in that production.) And there is a photo someplace of Mother as the Mad Hatter in a sorority tableau when she was in college. But I also remember Mother singing the White Rabbit’s song at different times, that goes “I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!”