For 40 years I have been keeping journals. They are lined up by my desk. I have slowly gone through some of them and am letting them go.  Looking at my journals is like looking into a clothes closet. There are  worn clothes that I love. New clothes that hang without creases. And there are those pieces that are uniquely me. My PhD program in English Literature at Brown University was dramatically transformed into a M.A. is a worn pair of blue jeans that no longer fits. I did get a lot out of those years in Providence.  Many hours were spent  reading and studying the writings of Virginia Woolf. …