Thursday, October 27, 2011

Why Is Life Worth Living?

‘Why is life worth living? That’s a very good question. There are certain things that make it worthwhile.’ So says Woody Allen in a typically self-indulgent- yet brilliant- scene in ‘Manhattan.’ So if Woody Allen can be self-indulgent, then I can, again. First here’s Woody Allen (as Isaac):


'Life is worth living because of Groucho Marx; Willie Mays; the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony; Louis Armstrong's recording of Potato-head Blues; Swedish movies; Sentimental Education by Flaubert; Marlon Brando; Frank Sinatra; those incredible apples and pears by Cézanne; the crabs at Sam Wo's; and, of course, Tracy's face.’

A nice selection, and I can see where he’s coming from. For what it’s worth here’s mine (leaving aside obvious family connections).

For me life is worth living because of ‘Van Morrison asking “Can you feel the silence?”, Colm Toibin’s prose, catharsis in the films of Mike Leigh, Shropshire and Yorkshire in England, running in the warm winter along the sands of the beach at Port Douglas, Vincent Van Gogh’s letters, the sweet tenderness in the short story ‘Snowdrops’ by Leslie Norris, the Villa Mirenda outside Florence, Kelmscott Manor, my collection of D H Lawrence books and dreams of living in the countryside surrounded by lambs, calves, ducks and border collies.