On taking risks

“I have noticed that doing the sensible thing is only a good idea when the decision is quite small. For the life-changing things, you must risk it.

 

And here is the shock – when you risk it, when you do the right thing, when you arrive at the borders of common sense and cross into unknown territory, leaving behind you all the familiar smells and lights, then you do not experience great joy and huge energy.

You are unhappy. Things get worse.

It is a time of mourning. Loss. Fear. We bullet ourselves through with questions. And then we feel shot and wounded.

And then all the cowards come out and say, “See, I told you so.”

In fact, they told you nothing.”

Jeannette Winterson, in Why be happy when you could be normal? (Grove Press)

Things I did in New York this September

I went to the Guggenheim and saw James Turrell exhibition

  

I saw the Iranian collection at the Metropolitan Museum



Chess game





I read next to the Peace Fountain near the Cathedral of St John the Divine

I went to the Lenox Lounge, which was closed (for good?)

I visited the African burial ground

I crossed the Williamsburg bridge on foot

I saw the sunset from the Staten Island ferry

I visited St Mark's Bookshop, 192 books, and Printed Matter Inc

and I had countless bagels at Murray's.

Selexyz bookshop in Maastricht, in an ancient Dominican church