-- La Bible d'Amiens, published in 1904.

 
Amiens Cathedral.

I know you probably expected me to be writing about the 77 percent drop in Bank of America's profits or the bitter Pennsylvanian voters and to be honest I admit I hadn't really thought much about how Proust and his world could be a source of inspiration or material for 1904, but here's what happened:

1.  I'm reshelving (dusting) a bookcase and end up leafing through "Choix de Poesies de la Comtesse de Noailles" (1930) which I had forgotten I'd picked up at one of those open book stalls in Paris but on the Right Bank (Quai des Celestins) because I remember standing there looking across the Seine at the Hotel Lambert on the Isle St. Louis which is where the Baron de Rede had lived, except now I discover that
2.  This is poetry by Anna la Comtesse de Noailles, the poet and novelist, not Marie-Laure, Vicomtesse de Noailles (best friend and confidante of Surrealists and the Baron de Rede) and not the Comtesse de Noailles Judy Davis plays in Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" either, (obviously).  Then I stumble on   
3.  This site of Proust Ephemera which includes letters written in 1904 by Proust to this Comtesse (the poetess), and I see in
4.  A chronology of Proust's life that he lost his father in 1903 and his mother in 1905 so 1904 was a kind of turning point/ transitional year for him which is when he translated Ruskin's The Bible of Amiens, and in the process of
5.  Looking for pictures of Amiens, I come upon a site linking the Cathedral to a mythical city called Samaris which I discover is
6.  A city in an imaginary land invented by a Belgian writer-and-artist team Benoit Peeters and Francois Schuiten in a series of books and 
7.  See how beautiful it looks?
8.  And I wasn't going to bring any of this up or even pursue the subject, but then I thought, it is such a beautiful day here and so many interesting things out there to think about and sort out and learn about and really, there's so much to be grateful for, and just look at how one thing leads to another which leads to another.  Seriously.  How could I ever complain or ever get bored?  That's the kind of mood I'm in. 
9.  And so you can remind me of exactly this, the next time I try to complain or be bored.  You can just say, you know, something like, "Hello?  Amiens" or "Ahem, Proust," like that, see?  And I'll know exactly what you mean.