pre-trip

I've been feeling so nervous lately. My stomach has been twisting, I think in part, in preparation for this trip me and Nathan are about to go on. We've been gathering things. New glasses for both of us. Spending time with both our families. Today is my second last day of work at the library. Then we leave on the ninth (gulp). My brother will be completely finished the semester by the time we get back. I'll know if I'm going away to grad school, and whether we're moving to the states.

We saw the Hobbit twice. I'm re-reading Etty Hillesum's diaries. Read a book on the history of Auschwitz as a place. Primo Levi. Beginning to get a sense of things. Found the 1945 Norton editions of Rilke's letters on ebook. I think this is the big one I'll read while on the road. Etty wrote about Rilke a lot. He was a comfort to her, and she hurried to finish his letters before leaving for Westerbork. One of our big destinations is the castle where he wrote Duino Elegies. I also want to find the diary he kept of his own travels, perhaps to read when I'm in some of the same places.

Etty writes "I always return to Rilke. It is strange to think that someone so frail, who did most of his writing within protective castle walls would perhaps have been broken by the circumstances in which we now live. Is that not further testimony that life is finely balanced? Evidence that, in peaceful times and under favorable circumstances, sensitive artists may search for the purest and most fitting expression of their deepest insights so that, during more turbulent and debilitating times, others can turn to them for support and a ready response to their bewildered questions?"

I think it goes the other way, as well. As Etty says, "We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds."

I'm planning on keeping a journal, and then a travel blog for family and friends. If you want to follow along, we'll be posting images and updates here: nathanandcassidy.tumblr.com

Might post a couple things here as well!

Got my issue of Arc in the mail. Cover looks like this, and can be found at Chapters.

Hope everyone had a great December vacation~~