Sunday, April 01, 2007

No Future, Very Little Present, Only the Past

This weekend seems to be about love and age (see below) and, in Harry Bernstein, 96, they come together.

His first book, "The Invisible Wall: A Love That Broke Barriers," has just been published. He started it five years ago as "therapy" when his wife of almost 70 years died and, overcome by loneliness, he turned to writing about his childhood in an English mill town where an unseen barrier divided Jews from the Gentiles across the street.

His sister fell in a love with a boy from the other side and, when they married, his parents disowned and mourned her as if she were dead.

At his age, Bernstein told a reporter, "There's nowhere else to think about except the past. There's no future to think about. There's very little present."

He's an inspiration. When I get to be his age 13 years from now, I'll stop blogging and write only memoirs.

No comments: