“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”
Zora Neale Hurston
I lead off with this grand theft larceny of book quotes because...when these words came up on a black screen before "She's Gotta Have It" Spike Lee's (my idol) inaugural theatrical release into the market place they were lyrical and beautiful....graceful even...but for me unclear.
I believe now 25 years (a quarter of a century later) It seems to be true...women live the truth of reality as a dream and the dream of reality as truth...men seem to assess that the true dream will never come true and as parents say to our children..."you get what you get and you don't get upset." I have also in that time read the novel and been blown away by how amazing, prophetic, PROFOUND and lyric Zora's work was.
What I wonder now then is how are these world views ....well uhh compatible ?
As a writer we are inspired and challenged by the great and inimitable words of others. I am writing (supposed to be anyway) on a few projects and working to get inside of this monkey business of man-woman stuff and its EXHAUSTING. You can't help but flip through the pages of your own biography....and wonder...thanks Zora Neal...your rubric of measurement and reflection is a demanding one...
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