New Home
An Echo has a new home: http://lettheechodecide.blogspot.com/
qq. but maybe ill post pictures on here sometimes. and truisms. and rock and roll.
The Bitch Is Quick, I’ve Tried to Trip Her Up
Conversations With Myself
*Me: “What’s wrong with hope?” Me: “It hides the truth.” Me: “Or reveals it.” Me: “Agree to disagree.”
* Me: “Have you considered that maybe you have nothing to offer anyone?” Me: “Yes.” Me: “No.”
* Me: “Do you think I need a haircut?” Me: “At times.” Me: “Do you think it will help?” Me: “No, do you?” Me: “Maybe. Or maybe I just need someone touching my head.” Me: “The things you will pay for.”
* Me: “What’s for dinner?” Me: “Cashews.” Me: “Again?”
* Me: “Why do you do things that hurt you?” Me: “How long do you want to live?” Me: “I don’t know. Old, I guess.” Me: “Exactly.”
* Me: “You don’t believe in heaven.” Me: “I do when people die.” Me: What about when YOU die?” Me: “I can’t help my doubts.” Me: “Do you want to believe in heaven?” Me: “We are better humans with dogs in our lives.” Me: “What does that mean?” Me: “I can’t help my hopes.”
* Me: “You love the wrong people.” Me: “Who’s to say?” Me: “The people.”
* Me: “You love the right people.”
* Me: “Why are you wearing flip-flops.” Me: “I call them sandals.” Me: “At least you don’t call them thongs.” Me: “Finally. Common ground.” Me: “This doesn’t mean anything.”
* Me: “Why do you always bet it all?” Me: “It’s all or nothing.” Me: “You don’t believe that.” Me: “Okay, It’s most, or a bit.” Me: “Answer the question.” Me: “It’s easier to lose it all than to keep something and have it remind you of your loss.” Me: “No, it’s easier to keep what you have and not lose anything.” Me: “But what do you gain?” Me: “Everything.” Me: “But you also lose a shot at everything.” Me: “Therein lies the rub.”
* Me: “You need to stop thinking about her.” Me: “You’re one to talk.”
* Me: “Why are you doing this?” Me: “I don’t know, I guess I want to see if I’m alone.” Me: “You will never know that.” Me: “I can’t help my hopes.”
Lyrics and an Old Typewriter
Why is it that we want to create when we should be doing something else?
Well, I’ve toyed with the idea of posting some songs here, but i get too nervous. And since i am more a writer than a singer, i decided for this happy medium. I used my typewriter and iPhone to put some lyrics/poems up here.
And I just have to say, the typewriter is so physical, so intentional. beautiful, in a concrete way. I guess that’s one reason I like the following pics.
Take em for what they’re worth.
Thunder Road (More than Survival)
A look at Water for Elephants
I’m gonna take a minute to share my thoughts after finishing Water for Elephants. Because if we don’t write em down, well, they will be lost forever, right?
Like many depression era art forms, one of the big themes to Water for Elephants was survival, and more specifically, the need for something more beyond survival. It touches on the fact that we can all live our lives day-to-day, but deep down, existence simply doesn’t cut it. There is a need for more. For passion, for interest, for love, for food that is better than bland mush served at an elderly cafeteria. For a reason to sing when we feel caged like a bird.
Oh there are more themes in the book: reality vs. fantasy, a personal sense of morality, guilt and absolution, and of course the reliability of memory because, as we all know, elephants never forget. But it’s the survival aspect that sticks with me today. And, I suppose, memory, cus that one’s gonna get us all, in the end.
The setting was a circus, and it contained pretty much everything you might imagine that goes with it. Fat ladies, burlesque dancers (and their after-show professions), charismatic and tyrannical big-boss personalities, alcohol, a midget with a heart of gold, class divides, and a menagerie of wild animals, including an elephant who only understands Polish and is always on the lookout for lemonade (or gin) because water will sustain you, but the possibility of more will drive us to greater lengths than we could possibly imagine.
I guess I’m not really here to tell you about the book much. Other than the fact that, first, it was a good read, second I felt it was well orchestrated and refreshingly intentional with its images. For me, when I realize that the author is being intentional with imagery, I’m all the more drawn in, and willing to trust him or her. In Water for Elephants it came kind of late in the game, but I still felt like an insider when I caught it.
The female protagonist’s name was Marlena. But about three quarters of the way in her maiden name is revealed as L’Arche. I have a bit of history with a little French community called L’Arche, so I knew that the name meant “The Ark.” As in a bunch of animals being saved from the flood.
Significant, I thought. But none of the other names particularly stood out to me. Well except for Jacob. If I was writing a story about a circus in the depression, you can bet I’d be scouring the OT for cool-sounding, prophetic/magical names. So I called on my time spent as a Sunday school student as I thought about Jacob, and surprisingly, I had some clear recollections. I brought to mind flannel-board, doe-eyed, and white-faced Jacobs herding sheep. Living in limbo, wrestling with god, stealing birthrights, climbing ladders. Oh, and didn’t he have an Uncle that made him stick around for a few years? “Uncle Al” in the book was the owner of the circus that had Jacob waiting for his Marlena, who rightfully belonged to someone else. (Literary point: Jacob in the OT had Uncle LAben who made him stick around and work with animals for a bunch of years. And Jacob of WFE “stole” something that belonged to another.)
Okay maybe this is getting dull, but all of this is to say, it was worth the read for me. There also happens to be an Esau character here, but I’m not too willing to get too theological and make the mistake of reading way too far in.
What’s important to me is that Water for Elephants was a win. It was for two reasons: it was a good and interesting story, and the author crafted the story into something more with symbols and structure to give it a deeper resilience.
And regarding the theme …on the backside of the book I ask myself: am I settling for existence? Where am I existing when I should be reaching out for more?
Do I settle for water when, at the end of my life, my memories will deceive me to think it was more?
We need to live beyond our daily existence. We need to take small steps toward our passions on a daily basis. We need to take drastic steps, to ensure that life is more than water. And at the end of life, we will remember that we truly lived.
And sometimes, I think we need to join the circus.
Stucco-n Christ!
Looks like i have been chosen. A witness to a miracle. Look at the pictures above and basque in the glory that can be found in my back-side-porch.
The Story…
Sitting there, minding my own business, i felt a special hedge of protection around me. So, i looked to my right, and there He was. Clear as the morning sun, and offering traveling mercies like crazy. about 4 millimeters high, He was. (Not that i actually know what a millimeter is, but if 2 millimeters = half my pinky nail, then, call me a european.) My mind was reeling, and my fingers started to get a little tingly. And I thought, This must have been what it was like when Elisha sent a bear to maul and kill the throng of children for laughing at his baldness. Man that’s an awesome story.
World, without any more ado, in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets, i now present:
Stucco-Christ
If you don’t mind keeping this one under wraps, I’d appreciate it. not a lot of room for the hundreds of thousands looking to find the famous miracle of the Stucco-Christ of San Clemente.
P.S. pray for my soul.
Created with my iPhone
