Sunday, March 14, 2010

Marcel Proust, running coach

My daughter Rachel reports that the Los Angeles garage where she parked before running a 5K race had a framed quotation from Marcel Proust atop its ticket-dispensing machine. Something about kicking butt and taking charge. Was it this passage, I asked?

[O]ur worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.

Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again, translated by Ian Patterson (London: Penguin, 2003), 344.
It was! This passage appears in the Orange Crate Art sidebar, under the heading “Words to Live By.” What great words to stumble upon on the way to a race.

I’m very proud of my daughter. And my son. I’m not proud of the pun one paragraph back.

Related reading
All Proust posts (Pinboard)

comments: 2

Rachel said...

If this were facebook, I would "like" this. But instead, I will just tell you I like it!

I like it!

Michael Leddy said...

Thank you, Rachel, for letting me share this here. It’s really a great serendipitous moment. (And thank you, M. Proust.)