Sunday, April 18, 2010

looking up



The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath:"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."
Content.
Full enough from contemplating the branches.
Not stagnant
but in no hurry.
Only until very recently did I come to understand or appreciate the Tolkein quote,
"Not all who wander are lost."
The crotch of the tree is not necessarily a bad place to be.
Looking up. Peace.
It is good to be still
It is good to be
It is good
It is
It


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

it is now and i know that much

still processing

i am easily distracted as of late
can't read a book
or sing a song
with my whole heart or attention.

i bought a bike and i ride it sometimes.

green.

What is ever right? How do we ever know, in life, what is worth risking... what is better left unexplored... what is worth fighting for and what is better left alone?

everyday decisions. risks. worth. moments amplified that impact the present
impactingeverything

at 27, i feel less certain of what i want or what the point may be
than when i was 22

but i am not so afraid of that, really. not really.

debt insurance expired car registration 17 page paper due in 2 weeks and no thesis

what is my point?
what is it that i hope to prove?
infinite interpretations
freedom and paralysis

lightness and a dull, dull weight.

i hope your heart is light.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

debate

youtube: Christopher Hitchens vs. Turek
14 segments.
Dear Christians, Preaching to the choir will not prepare you for debate. -L

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-6FnArd3M

Monday, April 5, 2010

descarte's grave stone reads

"He who hid well lived well."

Friday, April 2, 2010

i waver

I finished God Is Not Great in the airport yesterday. While his argument style may not be flawless, it addressed and answered to so many of my reservations about the practice of religion.
(Everything I am saying or thinking or writing or grappling with has been said or thought or written or grappled with by many many people many many times before repeat repeat repeat. there is some kind of comfort there)
I am beginning to realize that probably this summer I will have to destroy my mother's world. On the phone last weekend, I heard myself answering back to her faith talk with old faithful rote replies, and it made my skin crawl. I still know the language, but I do not subscribe.
It must be,
but I dread it.
Deliberation.
I don't do well with dishonesty
but it is not always so easy
to articulate the truth.
I am growing more and more distant
from the possibility of a return...
A really difficult part of all of this
has been learning to navigate my personal growth and changes
with others who are happily fixed in theirs.
maybe I will always waver
maybe I will always wander
maybe I am wired this way
...
i am facing an altogether different kind of leap.
i hope this anticipation is more difficult than the aftermath.
i hope i am right to hope that people are resilient.