the first contributor - my mom!

This book is a part of series of 5 books. Each is a collaborative venture between myself and 24 other people. Each book asks the question:

"What would you do if you met yourself in time?" 

Inspired by a letter from Robert Frost to his editor (which I have featured at the bottom of this post). Four books will ultimately be sent in a different direction heading North, South, East and West.  

I took the "South" book to Florida for the first contribution to be made by my mom. 

Here are some of the photos of the finished covers on the "South" book - each book will be slightly different on the covers, so stay tuned for the next one.

  

 the back /front covers with hand writing -scanned- over a collage of deconstructed clock - representing time...
 

 

plus a few shots of the interior page numbers 

and colophon page.

As each contributor finishes their page, I have asked that they log onto the blog to add their comments and to tell me where the book is presently. 

I can't wait to see where the book goes next. 

Inspiration

 

 

Here is the letter, which inspired the question presented for this book, from Robert Frost, of the

"The Road Not Taken", to his editor Susan Ward, written in 1911.

 Two lonely crossroads that themselves cross each other I have walked several times this winter without meeting or overtaking so much as a single person on foot or on runners. The practically unbroken conditions of both, for several days after a snow or a blow proves that neither is much traveled. Judge then how surprised I was the other evening as I came down one to see a man, who to my own unfamiliar eyes and in the dusk looked for all the world like myself, coming down the other, his approach to the point where our paths must intersect being so timed that unless one of us pulled up we must inevitably collide. I felt as if I was going to meet my own image in a slanting mirror. Or say I felt as we slowly converged on the same point with the same noiseless yet laborious strides as if we were two images about to float together with the uncrossing of someone's eyes. I verily expected to take up or absorb this other self and feel the stronger by the addition for the three-mile journey home. But I didn't go forward to the touch. I stood still in wonderment and let him pass by; and that, too, with the fatal omission of not trying to find out by a comparison of lives and immediate and remote interests what could have brought us by crossing paths to the same point in the wilderness at the same moment of nightfall. Some purpose I doubt not, if we could but have made it out. I like a coincidence almost as well as an incongruity.    ~ Robert Frost

 

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the question posed...

"What would you do if you met yourself in time?"

Cheers,

Linda 

Comments

[Regina Olson]

Progress Report for Linda Maire Barrett: "What would you do if you met yourself in time?" And a few more questions . . . I don't seem to find a place to post my remarks regarding the book I received. Are there multiple copies on this subject drifting around the country/world? I'm unaware of the number of the specific book I received, and--unfortunately--Desmond Tutu was not a contributor, as hoped for in a another section of your blog. (Though, I did hear him speak once at the National Cathedral.) I find no progress update from others, and I am (only) the 5th person to receive the book--not sure about the number as I have already passed it along. Is this project still in process--since so much time has lapsed? (My apologies for using up so much of the time while my life got in the way.) Can you copy and paste my comments to the appropriate place in your blog if this is not it? Comments:

Regina (Gina) Olson
Lake Havasu City, AZ
"What would you do if you met yourself in time?" was received from Ginny in Minnesota and passed on to Gabrielle in Arizona in late April, 2011. As I wrote in the introduction to the poem I submitted, this is an interesting act of faith! It's like sending a message in a bottle that goes out into the unknown to be tossed and tumbled amid the watery ways of people's lives. Dangerous territory. The sender totally relinquishes control of the direction of its drift or the time it will take for its journey. This reality if strangely fitting for a study of time. Thanks for the opportunity to share my poem, which needed a good home.
Gina

[Linda]

thanks laurie for stopping by the blog...I am so excited about the project. it's on to the third person and the second book headed EAST has the (fingers crossed) possibility of going to Arch. Desmond Tutu. I sure hope that wish comes true, I'm puttin it out there in the universe, because I would love to hear his thoughts on the question posed. peace lmb

[Laurie]

What a wonderful project Linda! I can't wait to see how it "unfolds". :) Hope all is well, Laurie