Redtree Times

Mystic’s Way- At the West End Gallery

And if you can’t shape your life the way you want,
at least try as much as you can
not to degrade it
by too much contact with the world,
by too much activity and talk.

Try not to degrade it by dragging it along,
taking it around and exposing it so often
to the daily silliness
of social events and parties,
until it comes to seem a boring hanger-on.

— Constantine Cavafy, As Much as You Can

Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933) was a Greek poet who lived his entire life in Alexandria, Egypt. His work often captured the sensual and exotic cosmopolitan feel of that city and that time. Readers of Lawrence Durrell and his Alexandria Quartet, in which Cavafy appears as a character, will well know that feel of which he wrote.

Though Cavafy was known for his poetry among the Greek community in Alexandria he spent most of his life working as civil servant. He didn’t actively seek widespread acclaim, turning down opportunities to have his work published while often opting to print broadsheets of his poetry that were distributed to only a few friends. His work didn’t realize wider acclaim until later in his life (and afterwards) when his friend, novelist E.M.Forster, wrote about his work, describing him as a Greek gentleman in a straw hat, standing absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe.

I think that’s a marvelous description– standing absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe. It gives an image of one being slightly askew from the rest of the world. And that is what the poem at the top is somewhat about– in not contaminating the uniqueness of yourself are by overexposing it in meaningless ways.

As someone who often feels a bit askew, this sounds like sound advice to me. That being said, I will now leave before I become too much of a boring hanger-on.