Interior con la hija del pintor, 1935-1936
Among my resolutions for 2025, two stand out: read more and drink less.
The second is almost impossible, because no matter how much I tell myself that I’m only going to have my social or celebratory wine, in the end I find a reason to celebrate every day.
Regarding my first resolution, I have already taken action.
When I came to live in Canada in 2006, I brought my entire library. Among my old books, the collection of Classics of Universal Literature, which was published weekly by the newspaper El Nacional (back cover written by Salvador Garmendia), which I collected with devotion in my youth.
In random order, I decided to read them again, some of which I think will be the first time, or rather never, as you will see below.
The first one that fell on my hands was Hamlet by William Shakespeare and I think I started on the right foot, because I managed to finish it, with some laughter, at the Spanish translation, as when someone says: Ay, pobre espectro! (Oh, poor ghost!)
The second book was The Decameron, by Boccaccio. I read the introduction and a couple of the ten “novels” (that’s what the author calls them), told in 10 days (that’s why the Deca-meron, I learned something) during the time of the black plague in Florence. However, I was struck by the description of a battered old woman who had “an undefeated gaze.”
The next one was “The Tunnel” by Ernesto Sábato and I did remember this one and was able to reread it. I was left with a sentence in which Juan Pablo Castel, the protagonist, mentions “the olympic solitude.”
I continued with another 600-page blunderbuss, “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri, and I didn’t get anywhere near Purgatory.
Finally, my resolution foundered in the Aegean Sea with The Odyssey.
I will continue trying to get closer to the classics. In the meantime, to accompany my failure, I poured myself a glass of wine.
I decided to add a third resolution to my 2025 list:
Despite those “olympic solitudes,” sometimes non-negotiable, I will try to keep not only my gaze, but also my smile in 2025 and always: undefeated.
Happy New Year!
Leonor Henríquez (Caracas, Venezuela) Civil Engineer by training (UCAB 1985), writer and apprentice poet by vocation. From her time in engineering emerged her Office Stories (1997), another way of seeing the corporate world. Her latest publications include reflections on grief, Hopecrumbs (2020) (www.hopecrumbs.com) and “The Adventures of Chispita” (2021) (www.chispita.ca) an allegory of life inside Mom’s belly.
Today she shares her “impulsive meditations” from Calgary, Canada, where she lives.
leonorcanada@gmail.com