I haven't a clue where this really came from, except on a feeling level. This is a note to myself after meeting up with people I once shared a small bit of history with. I embarked tenuously believing I was reconnecting with people who I sometimes had regarded as fellow travelers, but never regarded as old friends who had become famous. In part because of the experiences they had accrued while we were apart and the stature they currently bestowed upon themselves, they treated our visit together and resulting conversation as an interview. I never regarded them as old friends who had become famous, and if I had, and I were younger or more impressionable, this might have been heartbreaking rather than what it was, just another predictable evolution.

(I honestly do not know where this came from. I didn't write this, but it is in my handwriting, and it described the situation perfectly, but not my general unease.)

"The remainder of her conversation was a series of disconnects, always turning the conversation back to her most important topic, herself. To merely say each of her sentences was a non sequitur hardly describes her conversation, an unrelenting string of statements to which no answer ever seemed reasonable or appropriate, but seemed indicative or symptomatic of a deterioration of some kind, and would do nothing to outline how completely and encompassing her self-absorption presented itself."

(I kept this around as a reminder of the importance of self-editing, and also as a question: these days, are interviewers or historians with a familiarity with some of the historic personalities allowed to bring themselves out of the emotional background and really make themselves a part of the general conversation? I also kept it as a reminder there are certain types of people who do not age well.)  ¶ 5/14/2006 06:48:00 AM