Certain themes keep coming up in this podcast — the subject of time passing, aging, and turning 50 plus, to name a few. Almost everyone I’ve talked to so far has mentioned it, and it has certainly been on my mind. Connecting now, at this stage in life, seems to have mellowed all of us out. We’ve gone through many ups and downs and dealt with it — for better or worse. Sitting down with Lindsey to talk about her writing, her business, parenting, and also her journey to Exeter was a real honor. Her blog, A Design So Vast, chronicles these topics and more.
We ended up talking about her most favorite teacher from PEA, Mr. James Valhouli, whose distinctive handwriting you see in the margins of one her English papers below. Mr. Valhouli was a favorite of many. And he was a major inspiration in Lindsey’s life and writing. She dedicated her Princeton senior thesis to him.
Hope you enjoy my conversation with Lindsey!
Cheers,
Veev
vivek@alumnipod.com
Ithaka
By C. P. Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Copyright Credit: C. P. Cavafy, "The City" from C.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Translation Copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Reproduced with permission of Princeton University Press.
Source: C.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems (Princeton University Press, 1975)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51296/ithaka-56d22eef917ec
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