May
Mayday 1919
Live As Though
From my Great Aunt Anna's photo albums
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I never knew my Great Aunt Anna. When I inherited her photos and her diaries, I investigated her by looking and reading and imagining. I feel as though the young woman, the woman whose life is evidenced in the above photo, is vivid to me. She never married and never had children. Perhaps she, particularly, is living again through me.
"And that's how we measure out our real respect for people - by the degree of feeling they can register, the voltage of life they can carry and tolerate - and enjoy. End of sermon. As Buddha says: live like a mighty river. And as the old Greeks said: live as though all your ancestors were living again through you."
- Ted Hughes
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