In honor of Flannery O'Connor's birthday, March 25, I offer the following excerpt from her collection of letters in the book, "The Habit of Being." It is her uncanny ability with language, her twisted perspective on the world and her wicked sense of humor that makes me love her. How I wish she was still with us. She would have been 81.
"To Maryat Lee
2 July '58
My latest accomplishment is that I flunked the driver's test last Wednesday. This was just to prove I ain't adjusted to the modern world. I drove the patrolman around the block. He sat crouched in the corner, picking his teeth nervously while I went up a hill in the wrong gear, came down on the other side with the car out of control and stopped abruptly on somebody's lawn. He said, 'I think you need sommo practice.' So I have to go back next Wednesday and try again. It's getting me down. I have a very unbouyant attitude to motion and I am developing an ulcer. I did make a hundred on the written part, but this profiteth me nothing."
I have read every word Flannery O'Connor ever wrote . . . and wish I'd known you back then when I was on that kick!
It's time to read her again!
Posted by: Mel | March 26, 2006 at 07:51 PM