What could be prettier

J.D.Salinger died yesterday.

“I’m not afraid to compete. It’s just the opposite. Don’t you see that? I’m afraid I will compete – that’s what scares me. That’s why I quit the Theater Department. Just because I’m so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else’s values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn’t make it right. I’m ashamed of it. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I’m sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash.”

– Franny, in Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger (1957)

Towards the end, as Franny and Zooey talk things through, Zooey tells her the only thing that counts is detachment. He says, the only thing you can do for God is to act. And he says: What could be prettier?

Not beautiful, pretty. Human-sized, Humanistic. Will do my best to be pretty today. And make this weekend, meeting family, a pretty one, too.