Travel in Time

Pearls by Linda Dunn

Back from 8 days on the road, or was it seven? We traveled from Boston to Lancaster PA, through Maryland, back to Philadelphia and then home. We visited 5 women, all in their 80s. Two will be 90 the next time we see them. Then today a poem by Sharon Bryan on Writer's Almanac about middle age. A fragment:

you can see your life whole,
beginning and end not far
from where you stand,

the horizon in the distance—
the view makes you weep,
but it also has the beauty

of symmetry, like the earth
seen from space

I am awash in images: old faces, old kitchens, tidy sitting rooms settled years ago. Layered on that images from a day at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: the huge productivity of so many male artists. Who washed their dishes and clothes? Did they cook their own food? Care for their children? So I do the laundry and plan my afternoon in the studio. A lot to think about.