Sunday, August 23, 2026

we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not

 --- Joan Didion, in Slouching towards Bethlehem, quoted by Anneliese Burgess, in Iets van onsself tussen O'Keeffe se berge en Didion se notaboeke, Binne+Land, Aug 2026

Excerpt

I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.