New Zealand

"From habit, when I was alone, I slept only on the left side of the bed, and so I felt lonelier when I woke up with a big space beside me."

*

i did this for nearly a year. even when it was the wrong side i was on (it all seemed based upon tv position, alarm, doorway...do i need continue?), i still had that feeling of lose every morning.

but the followup, only one page later, mobilizes oneself:

"Tourists don't know where they've been, Travelers don't know where they're going"

i knew these words later, at a time when they finally mattered, but for now, i like to think Paul Bowles never imagined the transient society that we became in the years following his death in 1998.

and yes, i actually like both the book and the Bertolucci movie of "The Sheltering Sky"