September & Family Reunion 2023

September & Family Reunion 2023

The month began with the rest of Gary’s visit. We had dinner one night at La Table, and another evening Gary prepared magret de canard, and Joanne joined us. Meanwhile, Pascale continued with the tiling of the basin area – usually beginning around 07:00 and leaving around 13:30. Philippe of Virginie & Philippe has been doing various house repairs and re-shellacking the volets. And Justin finished the fencing on the 22nd. The piscine has been lovely and a delight since July. It completes our heavenly set-up at Tellus et les Étoiles.

Regarding both Muriel and Mercedes, Petit Claude’s gate was either closed whenever we went by or there was no one around when it was open. Finally I found him by the very end of the month. Katie has been in the hospital and almost died at one point. She is now scheduled for intestinal surgery the end of this month, and then her lung cancer will be addressed. Claude was in tears.

On the 7th I began the teaching of my ‘World Religions from a Pagan Perspective’ module for the Cherry Hill Seminary. The same day, Marie-Helene and her sister Florence came for an outdoors luncheon. I originally met Marie in Istanbul in 1961. One CHS student dropped out before the course even began (Holli described her afterwards as being ‘prickly’), but I am happy with Angela, Deoin, Diane, Byron and Morgana. So far, we have covered the two introductory lectures followed by Judaism and the two lectures on Christianity. Islam is next. From the 14th to the 19th, I was in Amsterdam. Marie-Laure met me both times between the Gare de Lyon and the Gare du Nord. While in Amsterdam I had two whisky-drinking sessions with Erdem – Friday afternoon (my birthday) and Saturday evening. Friday night itself, I had dinner with Jimmy, Vicky and Santima at the WG Café. The Amstelveld had orchestral performances throughout the weekend. On Saturday I dashed over for Sibelius’

Suite for violin & string orchestra and later the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 13. Sunday for Soteria was the reading and discussion of a Denis Wheatley novel. And on Monday at the Stadhuis I became a Dutch national. Santima was my guest. We had a meal together afterward. And that evening in celebration at La Caramba (along with margaritas) it was with Stephan & Koen, Laura, Santima, Jimmy & Amir, and Michael & Maxim.

After two days back home, Liliane invited us to lunch at the Bellevue in Moissac now run by her niece Julliet and her partner Artaud. Joanne and Atticus were also part of the occasion. We had dinner there a week later with the American contingent of the family. The cinema this month has been Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (exhausting but fun and completely unbelievable) and Barbie (strangely interesting and also enjoyable – with a stunningly attractive Margot Robbie). Jeff Lippman recorded an interview for radio with me on ‘Angels and Gods’. For reading it has been Eve Oliver’s Dream Yourself Awake for Women, Neeli Cherkovski’s Ferlinghetti: A Biography and currently Jason Shinder’s “Howl” Fifty Years Later. The recollection of the Beatnik and Hippy times and the fascination with the character of Allan Ginsberg have been riveting. The irony has been that the protest over American culpability and nefarious business monopolies has only increased since the fifties and sixties. Little has changed politically but only has become worse. Today as I write, in

fact, the Palestinian/Hamas invasion of Israel has begun. But with regard to poetry, the openness to free- form expression has replaced the emphasis on classical poetry (T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, etc.) to which I was exposed by Hugh Kenner et al. when I majored in English at the University of California Santa Barbara for my B.A. degree. In my own reaction against Whitman, my poetry has continued ever since by using the form of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

So the reunion! Coral had told me they were arriving on the 26th, but that turned out to be the day they were leaving San Francisco. So they arrived the next day Friday instead. But Nancy and Rosanne on the Thursday missed their train at the Gare de Lyon. And the next day, the missed it again! The train they finally got hit someone who jumped in front of it. Later, it hit a bull that had got onto the tracks. So Richard and I had to wait at Les Arcs for more than three hours before they arrived. It was 02:00 when we were able to get to bed.

The dinner at Bellevue the next evening was lovely. Besides Coral, Rosie and Nancy, it included Richard and Coral’s daughter Iana with her two daughters – both exquisitely lovely. The former ‘Hyper Piper’ has blossomed into an intelligent and engaging young woman who converses directly. She is now 19. And Dylan (15) is equally as charming. On the Friday, it was La Table for just those five of us who are still here from the ‘San Francisco Family’. Earlier that day, Richard had an appointment with his cardiologist who was satisfied with

Richard’s pace-maker and overall condition of health. And on Sunday, Gin, Rix and Chloe arrived. Tuesday the 3rd of October, Jessica catered a magret du canard meal for the eleven of us plus Pierre & Catherine, Carol and Samantha, Penny, Susie, Yvonne and Liliane – 19 of us in all. Coral, Iana, Piper and Dylan left us the next morning. Friday evening Atticus prepared a magnificent Mexican meal for the rest of us. Gin, Rix and Chloe departed around noon the next day/today. It has all been a whirlwind, exhausting but also great fun and a

marvellous connection and re-connection. How blessed we all are.