Thursday, May 30, 2024
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I appreciate the opportunity to say goodbye (for now) to a first cousin once removed who was more like an aunt to me. In my first memory of meeting her, she was working as a librarian in Woodstock VT and I recall a family visit to her house there. She claimed that she took showers outside while it was raining. I can never be sure if that is an actual memory of something she told us, but it has become inextricably linked to Jane. I always enjoyed seeing her at family gatherings and reunions, but really got the chance to know her better when I moved to the Mid-Hudson River Valley for a job there for several months, and visited her often after I moved to other parts of NY. She always enjoyed visiting with me, and I always enjoyed hearing her thoughtful takes on life and marveled at the way she could find beauty in small, everyday things - often punctuated by a "Neat!" from her. Jane truly appreciated my cheerfully chaotic approach to life and in one of her last communications with me told me that she admired my indomitable spirit. When she admired someone, she was as open and honest about these opinions as she was about political causes that she cared about, and I will be forever grateful for this, and her. Jane taught me a great deal about how to live life on your own terms and she left a lot of writing and photographs behind to reflect on.
As others have said, Jane was always learning, and her job as a librarian allowed her to do just that - and to understand that knowledge of anything can never truly be complete. I'd like to close with Jane's own words from her Marginal Way blog:
"There can be such relief knowing you do not, can not, have all the answers. The more you experience the stronger the sense of mystery becomes. Best of all is realizing that not one being on the planet possesses THE answer. To anything. There are those that might have thoughts on the matter that you'd like to be true but proof positive is not possible regardless of education, status, wealth, fame, or spiritual reference."
