And as I read this I thought to myself; ‘oh I kind of wish I could take myself back to my secondary school days and be learning from this teacher Mr Kelly. I’d like that a lot.’
I’m old enough now to share, sans fear, that I have been scolded by one of my plants. It’s old too. Maybe 12 years. And for most of those years I couldn’t get its conditions right and it would grow a glossy leaf then drop it. It was not a pretty thjng so I took it to the compost bin and I swear it scolded me and asked for another chance. At least 3 times. It thrives now. But I’m wary of it. I tell you this because a) I don’t care if you believe me and b) the Doubting Thomas poem demanded proof. And I don’t think we need proof of the (small) wonders of the world. I used to. But now glorious things happen to me like that plant talking.
"All of this — navigating the strangeness of this world, navigating the awfulness, navigating the deaths of little plants, navigating the cruelty of those with power, navigating the absurdity of our obsession with consumption, navigating what feels like meaning, navigating what feels like meaninglessness, navigating crowded streets, and navigating loneliness amidst those crowds — requires trying. And it’s a hard kind of trying. Some days, it is brutal. But it is, I think, in part, how we live. Bearing witness. And bearing each other."
I look forward to reading your post each week. I have purchased your book and look forward to reading it also! I want to recommend an Appalachian poet from West Virginia who I have just been introduced to on Facebook, Jennifer Keener. I have been impressed with her voice and ability to articulate so beautifully the mountain experience.
And as I read this I thought to myself; ‘oh I kind of wish I could take myself back to my secondary school days and be learning from this teacher Mr Kelly. I’d like that a lot.’
I’m old enough now to share, sans fear, that I have been scolded by one of my plants. It’s old too. Maybe 12 years. And for most of those years I couldn’t get its conditions right and it would grow a glossy leaf then drop it. It was not a pretty thjng so I took it to the compost bin and I swear it scolded me and asked for another chance. At least 3 times. It thrives now. But I’m wary of it. I tell you this because a) I don’t care if you believe me and b) the Doubting Thomas poem demanded proof. And I don’t think we need proof of the (small) wonders of the world. I used to. But now glorious things happen to me like that plant talking.
Thank you for the inspiring prompt and the access. I chose Joy to write in too.
Here's another piece of writing after reading some of Ross Gay's Book Of Delights:
"but I love a lot of kids and
love a lot of people with kids, who, it seems to me, are in
constant communion with terror, and that terror exists
immediately beside ... let's here call it delight-different
from pleasure, connected to joy, Zadie Smith's joy, some-
how-terror and delight sitting next to each other, their
feet dangling off the side of a bridge very high up."
Thank you for the opportunity to do a bit of writing (below):
Wishing to sort out sordid emotional pleas (which don't please me either),
I reshuffle the old card deck we got on that Amtrak ride across country
(You remember that ride, right?) with the bubble view car...
Sundays are for pondering and this essay provided much material to think about. Joy and gifts, acts of resistance!!
"All of this — navigating the strangeness of this world, navigating the awfulness, navigating the deaths of little plants, navigating the cruelty of those with power, navigating the absurdity of our obsession with consumption, navigating what feels like meaning, navigating what feels like meaninglessness, navigating crowded streets, and navigating loneliness amidst those crowds — requires trying. And it’s a hard kind of trying. Some days, it is brutal. But it is, I think, in part, how we live. Bearing witness. And bearing each other."
^All of this. Thank you.
This is wonderful: "we try because trying is the way we author our existence onto the world, regardless of the outcome of our trying".
Thank you for sharing this and the student publication!
I look forward to reading your post each week. I have purchased your book and look forward to reading it also! I want to recommend an Appalachian poet from West Virginia who I have just been introduced to on Facebook, Jennifer Keener. I have been impressed with her voice and ability to articulate so beautifully the mountain experience.
I look forward to