sometimes life listens 27 May 2008

Back to the blogging roots…a few notes on running:

iMix:
The best is yet to come—michael buble
You know me—the format
Somebody told me—killers
Rebellion—arcade fire
The last time—gnarls barkley
Closer to mercury—wheat
Be gentle with me—the boys least likely to
if you really love me—stevie wonder

Running. I’m happily addicted once again. I don’t know how I was able to take a break from it for so long. (Well, I wasn’t able to really.  Winter was rough.  Stressed, depressed, back with ex-boyfriend for a while.  A dark time.  Then along came the spring, and thank God life is turning around.)  It’s still the best way to clear my head and feel better about everything in general.

I like running after the rain (aside from the super-steamy feeling). The splashing feet, the smell of wet grass.  Downtown Springfield in the rain smells like fishing.  At one point like Silver Dollar City…you know, the mixture of pavement and plants and soggy shoes?  I did learn a handy tip today:  you’re supposed to put newspaper in your shoes after a rainy run.  Thanks, google.

 

Sorry I have been gone for so long, dear readers.  What with the semester ending, planning for MSA in June and two weeks in Italy in July, and a couple other big changes that are on the way, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write.  Plus I’m trying to finish many books at once…

• The God of the Small Things (I have to finish this for MSA Reads)
• Eat, Pray, Love (want to read this again before Italy)
• As the Romans Do (obvious reasons)
• Truth in Comedy (being funny is hard work, and I have to take 6 weekends off from performing)
• Donors are People Too (this has a lot to do with the new big changes)
• PLUS skimming all my writing books for good readings/exercises for the class I’m teaching…

AND after the recommendation of multiple friends, I started Twilight, a 500 page teen-romance-horror monster that I can NOT put down.

Suddenly I’m 14 years old again.  I giggle at the intensity of this high school romance.  And also just can’t believe how intense my feelings used to be.  The things you imply as a sixth grader that you have no intention whatsoever of fulfilling… (at least I didn’t, and I still can’t fathom that some twelve year olds DO. DAMN!)  This book is just delicious. It’s 500 pages of pure literary junk food, and I’m eating it up. 
I honestly love that I get to work at a camp for sixteen year olds this summer, because I KNOW that a large number of them will love it too, and we can chat about it and I can forget for a minute or two that I’m almost 25.

PS it’s going to be a movie…check the trailer, also delicious…

 

But what are these “big changes” all about, you ask?  Well, all in good time, dear reader.  There are some important people in my real life who do not know, so I feel like I should tell them first.  Plus I have to have some suspense to keep you coming back when I don’t write for 2 weeks at a time…

Let’s just say I’m learning that when you say to life: “I’m open to something new,” sometimes life listens.  It’s exciting and challenging and a little scary—as most good new things are.

 

Stop and think 12 March 2008

Wow.
I’m not even sure how to put this post together.

Came home around 11:00 p.m., after another almost 12-hour workday. (I’m blessed to have a job that offers me flexible hours, free tuition, 2 months off in the summer, unique experiences, fun people, etc. BUT when things are busy, things are BUSY.) I still have some homework to do, still owe a handful of people phone calls, but am too drained. I hop on the internet to check e-mail one last time. There’s one from an old Missouri Scholars Academy friend, sent to next year’s staff, sharing a Chronicle article on the busy lives of modern students. It garnered a few interesting responses today, so I decided to read it.

Here’s the title: Dwelling in Possibilities: Our students’ spectacular hunger for life makes them radically vulnerable
by Mark Edmunson

“Dwell in Possibility”…sound familiar?
(I live for this sort of coincidence and connection, so I’m in. Do your worst, article. I’m listening.)

(PS–I didn’t notice the author’s name until I got to the end, and realized that Mark Edmunson wrote one of the best books I read last year, Why Read?)

The article’s not a short blip. It forces you to stop and think. But that’s the point.

He profiles a typical student of this generation (I’ll include myself in it, though I’m 2 years out…): Always plugged in, always seeking multiple options. He calls us “enemies of closure”, something that—for better or worse—describes me.

“My students are possibility junkies,” he says. Ever-present technology in our lives keeps us from ever being fully present. We’re 8 places at once on the internet. We’re creating our own individual soundtrack with our iPods. We’re texting someone who’s in the next room. Sending a facebook message to someone 500 miles away.

He compares us to Lord Byron (a figure I remember from my senior honors research, described by many as manic-depressive), saying Byron would love this generation’s “fast travel, fast communication, fast relationships”.
(interesting sidenote: “Byron claimed to compose best on horseback”… and I’ve known for years I sometimes get my best ideas when driving. Comparing myself with mad genius? Maybe a little.)

Funny, this entry has started to feel like an assignment—in the best possible way. This is the kind of thought I miss. The kind I often don’t have time for.

Hm. I don’t know if I made any of the points I meant to. It’s after midnight. I’m too tired to edit.

(But I feel like something is telling me to slow down.)

“Society has a great span of resources to assist someone in doing what he’s not cut out for yet still must be done.[...]But life is more than spontaneity and whim. To live well, we must sometimes stop and think, and then try to remake the work in progress that we currently are.”

“Dwell in Possibility” 21 February 2008

Readers who are Drury people will understand this post.

The title was the inspiring quote at the bottom of Myrna’s bookstore e-mail today. I like it, for a few reasons:

1) Myrna’s inspirational quotes are a good reason to tune into each “spirit day sale” e-mail. Even if I don’t need another Drury hoodie at 25% off…I’m sure to find a reason to smile—for better or for worse—at the bottom of the e-mail.

2) On an ice storm day like today, it’s nice to think about possibility…that spring and flowers and bunnies and sunshine really are just a few weeks away.

3) “Dwell” is such a delicious word. It feels spiritual: I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
I will [LIVE in], I will [surround myself with], I will [claim my space in] possibility.

4) It’s much better than the alternative: dwelling in frustration. dwelling in stress. dwelling in “this is how it’s always been.”