To Mourn

While waiting in line last week at the MOTH Radio hour, my wife told me that Svetlana Stalin had passed away in Wisconsin. This affected me unexpectedly. Knowledge that she lived a few states away always intrigued me. Perhaps I harbored thoughts of visiting her, creating a portal for her to disclose that most extraordinary of childhoods.

I belatedly discovered just now that Christa Wolf has also passed away. I regard her novel Accident as powerful meditation on what it means to be modern.