I read once that the strongest structures are built with parallel columns--each carrying its own perspective weight, while at the same time working in conjunction with neighboring columns to support the structure of the house.
After contemplation, I thought this a beautiful metaphor for man's independence and interdependence. Parallels as a literal, visual interpretation of lives lived in a balance of verticals and horizontals. Ups and downs, lefts and rights. Never intersecting, nonetheless connecting.
I would draw it if I could...but my pictures are best painted with words.
Perhaps you could draw it for me? I would love to see what you see.
This is my picture from my hand. The meter is irregular...but then, so is an improvised dance. And that's really what life is...isn't it?
Life is parallel.
And horizontal.
And vertical.
You and I, parallel.
I and I, parallel.
God and I...
Well...
You and I are vertical.
Up and down.
Rise and fall.
Each attached to a string,
alternating up to Heaven and down to Hell.
But we pass in the middle.
Parallel.
You and I are horizontal.
In the most delicious of ways.
We alternate, top and bottom.
And mirror the horizon
of our future days.
Balancing the grid work in
the decline and the swell.
Passing, ne'er crossing
but connected, just as well.
Life is horizontal.
Vertical.
Parallel.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
About a Happy Little Elf
"I'm sorry to say that this is not the movie you'll be watching. The movie you are about to see is extremely unpleasant. If you wish to see a film about a happy little elf, I'm sure there is still plenty of seating in theatre number two."--Lemony Snicket
People like 'happy' things. Sparkly things. Shimmery, shiny, who-wants-to-go-to-the-beach-and-play-vollyball-with-highly-attractive-members-of-the-opposite-sex things.
This ain't that kind of blog.
What I want to talk about is, really, a series of unfortunate events.
And it's my blog. So I can.
If you are lucky, I may sprinkle it with multicolored New Years' Eve confetti and import pictures of Ryan Reynolds' abs...but I make no promises. So for those of you reconsidering reading this post, I suggest you cozy up with some stale popcorn and overpriced soda in theater number two.
As to the rest of you...
Let's discuss...oh, i don't know...LOSS.
And for those of you whose minds leapt instantly to flashbacks of UGA's seemingly unceasing failures in Jacksonville, well, all I can say is that maybe this blog isn't for you.
Let's start at the very beginning, as I've heard from a very reliable source that the beginning is a very good place to start.
I was told recently, by someone who loved me very much, that I "cannot be alone."
Let that sink in for a moment.
Am I a "people person"? Yes.
Do I think the world would pretty much suck without you assholes in it? Um, yeah.
Do I think God put 7 billion of us here so that we could run around avoiding each other? Not likely.
So do I need people?...Well, sure.
I admit these things. I embrace them. But try as I might, I just couldn't palate the possibility that my love of people equates to an inability to be alone. (Try spitting that last sentence three times fast. Go ahead. Try it. This is a blog and I've got all day...)
I pondered it. (The 'cannot be alone' thing. Not the repetition thing. That'd just be a silly point to ponder.)
Anyway, what I came up with is this: some people fixate on what they do not or cannot have. For example:
Shit I do not have:
a Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 Roadster
an Italian Villa with walkable gardens on the Appian Way
the Hope Diamond, delivered personally by Prince William
work ethic
a pair of jeans that fit
And while I would absolutely love to have these things, I'd say I manage to go about my daily life without crying (much) over their absence. Why? Because I am not one of those people who obsesses over what they can't or don't have.
Thus, I am not one who obsesses over not having, say, a boyfriend. Why? It just ain't me.
So what DO I obsess over if not the absence of what I don't have?
Simple.
The loss of what I DO have.
LOSS.
Like a cripple remembering healthy limbs, I, unhealthily, mire myself in loss.
Even over little things.
I cried when I traded in my first car, even though I was gung-ho about its replacement. (Did I just type 'gung-ho'? I did. There's your New Years Eve confetti guys. Relish it.)
I cried when I left a school I despised.
I cried when I left jobs I hated.
Because each time I lost something. So what if it was a wretched something? It was MY wretched something.
Which is what makes this morning's discovery so much more poignant. If I lament the loss of my 1981 Nissan 200SX with somewhere in the neighborhood of 120,000 miles on it and a roof panel that fell down in my face when I drove, then you can imagine how much the loss of, say, a loved one, affects me.
This morning, while walking Melvin in the dewy parking lot, I began to think about my grandmother. Next month will mark a year since her passing, and I cannot tell you what her presence--and now her absence--has meant to me.
In July, my sister will have been gone for three years. Which is about three years and a day too many. And in November, I will remember my grandfather, whose long, lean frame I still close my eyes and see, as he baits my line for me (I could never kill the worm) along the banks of the Carticay.
Death. He haunts me. Yes, we have a date with Destiny, he and I.
And not just over the souls he has claimed...
I want to confront him for the many relationships torn asunder by his cythe. Beautiful memories mired in gore.
Vengeance. I want it. For the friends and lovers who, though still alive, are dead to me. And I will take said vengeance against Death. Or attempt it.
Because if I acknowledge the true Architect behind the passing of these relationships--well, He is someone who cannot be crossed.
He is unfailing and omniscient.
He is right, and I am wrong.
And that is a confetti-less realization, devoid of beach vollyball and Ryan Reynolds' abs.
Which is why Death and I have a long-standing date. Him I can battle and, in my ignorance, believe in the option of a margin of victory. The Architect, well...
LOSS.
I do not mourn what I do not have. I mourn what I had and lost. There is a difference. And to me that difference is marked and profound.
I can stomach it if I never meet you. If we continue to pass on the street and never speak. If you sit next to me in class but we never have the "may I borrow a pencil" exchange that inevitably leads to coffee every Wednesday at 6.
But what I cannot do is lose you.
What I cannot do is forget that chance encounter that changed my day, my perspective, and, yes, in some small way, my life.
What I cannot do is deny that you affect me.
Once I have grabbed hold, I cannot turn loose.
I guess I do need you.
I do.
Please, please don't leave me.
People like 'happy' things. Sparkly things. Shimmery, shiny, who-wants-to-go-to-the-beach-and-play-vollyball-with-highly-attractive-members-of-the-opposite-sex things.
This ain't that kind of blog.
What I want to talk about is, really, a series of unfortunate events.
And it's my blog. So I can.
If you are lucky, I may sprinkle it with multicolored New Years' Eve confetti and import pictures of Ryan Reynolds' abs...but I make no promises. So for those of you reconsidering reading this post, I suggest you cozy up with some stale popcorn and overpriced soda in theater number two.
As to the rest of you...
Let's discuss...oh, i don't know...LOSS.
And for those of you whose minds leapt instantly to flashbacks of UGA's seemingly unceasing failures in Jacksonville, well, all I can say is that maybe this blog isn't for you.
Let's start at the very beginning, as I've heard from a very reliable source that the beginning is a very good place to start.
I was told recently, by someone who loved me very much, that I "cannot be alone."
Let that sink in for a moment.
Am I a "people person"? Yes.
Do I think the world would pretty much suck without you assholes in it? Um, yeah.
Do I think God put 7 billion of us here so that we could run around avoiding each other? Not likely.
So do I need people?...Well, sure.
I admit these things. I embrace them. But try as I might, I just couldn't palate the possibility that my love of people equates to an inability to be alone. (Try spitting that last sentence three times fast. Go ahead. Try it. This is a blog and I've got all day...)
I pondered it. (The 'cannot be alone' thing. Not the repetition thing. That'd just be a silly point to ponder.)
Anyway, what I came up with is this: some people fixate on what they do not or cannot have. For example:
Shit I do not have:
a Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 Roadster
an Italian Villa with walkable gardens on the Appian Way
the Hope Diamond, delivered personally by Prince William
work ethic
a pair of jeans that fit
And while I would absolutely love to have these things, I'd say I manage to go about my daily life without crying (much) over their absence. Why? Because I am not one of those people who obsesses over what they can't or don't have.
Thus, I am not one who obsesses over not having, say, a boyfriend. Why? It just ain't me.
So what DO I obsess over if not the absence of what I don't have?
Simple.
The loss of what I DO have.
LOSS.
Like a cripple remembering healthy limbs, I, unhealthily, mire myself in loss.
Even over little things.
I cried when I traded in my first car, even though I was gung-ho about its replacement. (Did I just type 'gung-ho'? I did. There's your New Years Eve confetti guys. Relish it.)
I cried when I left a school I despised.
I cried when I left jobs I hated.
Because each time I lost something. So what if it was a wretched something? It was MY wretched something.
Which is what makes this morning's discovery so much more poignant. If I lament the loss of my 1981 Nissan 200SX with somewhere in the neighborhood of 120,000 miles on it and a roof panel that fell down in my face when I drove, then you can imagine how much the loss of, say, a loved one, affects me.
This morning, while walking Melvin in the dewy parking lot, I began to think about my grandmother. Next month will mark a year since her passing, and I cannot tell you what her presence--and now her absence--has meant to me.
In July, my sister will have been gone for three years. Which is about three years and a day too many. And in November, I will remember my grandfather, whose long, lean frame I still close my eyes and see, as he baits my line for me (I could never kill the worm) along the banks of the Carticay.
Death. He haunts me. Yes, we have a date with Destiny, he and I.
And not just over the souls he has claimed...
I want to confront him for the many relationships torn asunder by his cythe. Beautiful memories mired in gore.
Vengeance. I want it. For the friends and lovers who, though still alive, are dead to me. And I will take said vengeance against Death. Or attempt it.
Because if I acknowledge the true Architect behind the passing of these relationships--well, He is someone who cannot be crossed.
He is unfailing and omniscient.
He is right, and I am wrong.
And that is a confetti-less realization, devoid of beach vollyball and Ryan Reynolds' abs.
Which is why Death and I have a long-standing date. Him I can battle and, in my ignorance, believe in the option of a margin of victory. The Architect, well...
LOSS.
I do not mourn what I do not have. I mourn what I had and lost. There is a difference. And to me that difference is marked and profound.
I can stomach it if I never meet you. If we continue to pass on the street and never speak. If you sit next to me in class but we never have the "may I borrow a pencil" exchange that inevitably leads to coffee every Wednesday at 6.
But what I cannot do is lose you.
What I cannot do is forget that chance encounter that changed my day, my perspective, and, yes, in some small way, my life.
What I cannot do is deny that you affect me.
Once I have grabbed hold, I cannot turn loose.
I guess I do need you.
I do.
Please, please don't leave me.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
I don't trust you.
But does that really say something about you? Or does it say something about me?
It's not like you've given me a reason to doubt.
Although your behavior remains in question.
Or questionable.
I can't decide.
Really, it's the actions of billions of other people that set me to shadow boxing.
It is unfortunate then that you fall into the category of "people."
Puts you among bad company, you see.
Means you have the capability to do what they've done.
But do you have the desire?
If not, then I can breathe easy. Until I remember that desires come and go.
And, if so, would you admit it? I don't trust that you would.
No, I don't trust you.
But I want to.
Does that make me a fool?
But does that really say something about you? Or does it say something about me?
It's not like you've given me a reason to doubt.
Although your behavior remains in question.
Or questionable.
I can't decide.
Really, it's the actions of billions of other people that set me to shadow boxing.
It is unfortunate then that you fall into the category of "people."
Puts you among bad company, you see.
Means you have the capability to do what they've done.
But do you have the desire?
If not, then I can breathe easy. Until I remember that desires come and go.
And, if so, would you admit it? I don't trust that you would.
No, I don't trust you.
But I want to.
Does that make me a fool?
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