"I notice two things about Belgians. First, they only get wild with their spectacle frames - Belgian spectacles are spectacular - second, they seem almost universally tainted (blessed?) with personal, regional and national self-doubt - reservation, detachment, melancholy. Almost universally, because the woman in the museum (mid 30s, looked a little like Jill Phillips) had the most genuine and deep smile for all her children (dozens of them) - a smile that only issues from complete sweetness and confidence. What a person to have as a mother. I bet Belgians have very complicated affairs and tortuous, heart-searching marriage breakups."But all the same I enjoy these spuddy, craggy, torn-by-conflicting-emotions Flemish faces. When they smile it's like sun in a cold country - so welcome, so sweet. Some fabulous noses. Proposal: A Book of Flemish Noses - coffee-table type, like Roadside Shrines of India."
--A Year with Swollen Appendices, p. 10-11.
