Sweet Yet Sour

I’m up late at night a lot lately – feeding Anna of course – and sometimes during the night I switch on the radio to keep myself awake. During the early morning hours the local NPR station switches over to a BBC feed where if you’re not paying attention you can fall asleep to the ultimately boring broadcast of cricket scores.

However, the other night I heard a report on the online archival of all of Charles Darwin’s writings by the University of Cambridge. There are plenty of interesting things on the website, and someday, when I have time, I’d love to really explore the whole thing.

During the interview with the man who headed the effort to put all of Darwin’s writings online, I heard something that made me think and made me like Darwin even more than I already did.

Darwin at some point created a “Memo on Marriage“; a list of pros and cons of getting married. It contains interesting insights into Darwin’s thinking.

On the “pros” list there are items such as, “constant companion” and “better than a dog anyhow”. The”con” list contains notes such as, “Freedom to go where one liked” and “Anxiety and responsibility”.

But here’s the best and most memorable part of the cons list: a short and simple item, “Less money for books”. Seeing as how I am practically a book hoarder and find it extremely difficult to pass by a bookstore, let alone go into one and come out empty-handed, I completely agree with this sentiment.

I don’t agree with Darwin that marriage has depleted my book funds, although marriage to a man with a penchant for expensive photography equipment has limited them. But on the other hand, this is something that should be kept in mind in many areas of life…

Probably I should have this phrase tattooed somewhere on the hand that I use to reach for my credit card. That way, when I go to buy something silly like groceries or pay the electric bill, I can contemplate on the necessity of the transaction as it relates to a degradation in my funds for future book purchases. I can see the tattoo and think to myself, “Do we really need butter this week? Because there’s a new Connie Willis book coming out…”