Jean Cocteau & The Testament of Orpheus (1959)

Michael-Claude Touchard once interviewed Jean Cocteau on the set of The Testament of Orpheus.  He asked Cocteau why he had chosen the actress Maria Caseres - 'so beautiful, so full of life' - to play the role of Death. "Because she is a friend," he (Cocteau) answered, "and we need death to be a friend.  It is best to have a friend as traveling companion when you have so far to go together."

Everyone deserves better!

No one should live in fear.  It isn't necessary.  Fear can be overcome.  Courage is as easy to replicate as cowardice.  You need only practice.  Do it once, then twice, and the third time it's easier, and the fourth time a matter of course, and after that it's done without even consideration.  Fear washes away and everything is possible.  Whatever you need in life you must go and get.

Signs of Maturity, Part I

Q. If you could be granted one wish, what would it be?
A. To wake up one morning and feel that I was at last a grown-up person, emptied of resentment, vengeful thoughts, and other wasteful, childish emotions.  To find myself, in other words, an adult.

"Music for Chameleons"
Truman Capote

Marriage, Part I

Why is it harder to leave a loveless marriage than a loving one?  Because a loveless marriage is born of desperation, while a loving one is born of choice.

Milestones

Today, I am 53 years old.  I am now officially older than both my parents were when they died.  Both were 52, they were 9 years apart in age, 9 years apart in death.  I believed that I wouldn't live much past my 52nd birthday.... that (obviously) hasn't happened and now? Now I have to plan for old age I didn't think would happen!
And, my half-brother Tariq's birthday is tomorrow.  He loved me and treated me wonderfully.  I wish my parents & Tariq were here with me.  All of us deserved to be together and happy.  And, one day we will be.

Friendship, Part I

Oh! The comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor words, but pouring them right out, chaff and grain, just as they are, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.

Writer unknown