quote for the day II
“To me, and I suspect no one else on earth, there is something wonderful about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the back ground, the tranquillity that comes with being in a virtual wilderness of trees and marsh, the day breaking and vibrant pink coming alive in the morning clouds – and getting to build something with each scoop of dirt.” ~ Mark Sanford, in an email to his girlfriend
Does this mean Sanford will go the way of Elliot Spitzer and turn columnist? I mean, that’s not half bad prose.
Update.
This, from the Daily Beast:
It just got worse. The State, a South Carolina newspaper, has published a mortifyingly intimate email exchange between South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and his Argentine mistress. Sanford shows a poetic side: “In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul.” His mistress, identified as “Maria,” calls Sanford her “impossible love.” Sanford wrote: “I love your tan lines…the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light.”
And I’m not trying to be a gossip. I mean, this guy can obviously write well. I do prefer the “wilderness of trees and marsh” to the “deeper connection to your soul” but that’s mainly because I believe in concrete imagery rather than pithy abstractions. Show, don’t tell.
Yeah the prose is fine, but that is an odd image. He is all dreamy about nature, through his windshield, while sitting in a loud, running tractor with music playing. Not exactly a pristine experience. Whatever.
And what about his use of the word “virtual.” Virtual means almost real, yet he seems to be describing actually being in the wilderness (making it less wild by building stuff). That wouldn’t be virtual, that would be reality.
If he thinks he is the only one who is into that, then he is …um…virtually clueless. Making holes and filling them in, and otherwise building stuff is an incredibly common joy amongst manly guys.
Like Spitzer? Spitzer left office because he was a dem caught in an affair (okay using a prostitute). Sanford is a repub, they stay in office after affairs.Report
Not a terrible suggestion, although unlike Spitzer I would actually read his columns as long as they contained such Noonan-esque imagery.
The only question I have about the whole affair is how long it will be until this shows up on L&O. You’re not infamous, until you’re the villain in a thinly disguised Law & Order episodeReport
Amazing what a woody will do!Report