Janus

Leo (my director of studies) has asked me to make my conclusions more like Janus, the Roman God with two faces, one looking back and one looking forward. He means that while I should consolidate what I've talked about in my essay, I should also show how it extrapolates into larger art or literary concerns, even how it reaches from the past to touch the present. I really like the idea of Janus - a god who is constantly both remembering and reflecting on the past and projecting and dreaming about the future. This is the Janus of my week:

Past:

1. I handed in an essay I really wasn't happy with but learnt a valuable lesson - T.S Eliot is not worth my sanity. Sometimes essays are just bad. And that's life.

2. I've made the discovery that brown miso rice, golden beetroot and roasted sweet potato is the bomb dot com.

3. I watched the fireworks for guy fawkes night yesterday at midsummer common, and was blown away by the display. Rubies, sapphires and golden rain.

4. I've settled into a new running route, which goes along the river and is the most beautiful, quiet route. The silence is sometimes punctuated by rowers. There are barges in the river, which reminds me of 'Toad of Toad Hall'. At one point in the run, you pass a field of horses, and one tiny little pony, whose legs are so short that they are hidden in the grass.

5. My bicycle made a terrible noise all the way to lectures this morning. It sounded like wind whistling and also a car honking in the distance at the same time. I discovered after I parked it in Sidgwick that it was because one of the mudguards was wonky and was scraping the wheel! I was trying not o fall of my bicycle with laughter all the way to Sidgwick though, since it was really the most embarrassing sound!!!

Future:

1. I'm going for a days hike this weekend, ending in Bury St Edmunds and so I'll stay over at Grandma's for the night. It will be so nice to see her again.

2. I've bought a kilo tub of almond butter which will tide me over for the rest of the year, and it is arriving next week! I love getting things in the mail and so this is something to look forward to!

3. Next weekend I'm going on a weekend hiking trip to the lake district, where Mum and Dad had their honeymoon.

4. I am writing about Jean Rhys and Katherine Mansfield for this weeks essay. I simply love Katherine Mansfield and her writing style - I wrote in my diary earlier this year that I felt that she articulates what I want to say and how I see the world perfectly. If only I could write like her:

“I adore Life. What do all the fools matter and all the stupidity. They do matter but somehow for me they cannot touch the body of Life. Life is marvellous. I want to be deeply rooted in it - to live - to expand - to breathe in it - to rejoice - to share it. To give and to be asked for Love.” 

― Katherine Mansfield

5. Maybe a Marina and the Diamonds concert? Maybe a Matt Redman and Kair Jobe concert? Maybe The Hunger Games movie? Maybe The Lady in the Van? There is so much to do!