—THERE’S A SONG CAUGHT IN MY THROAT, THERE’S A PRAYER CAUGHT IN MY LUNGS
…I had a few things
published this week. Here is one of my
favorite stories, mostly true, published in a magazine I’ve always wanted to be
in:
…Here’s another (entirely different) piece, published in the fabulous GHOST PARACHUTE, that has struck
a surprising chord with many:
…It’s raining,
thumbnails tapping on my tin roof. It’s
chalkboard black outside. I’ve been
awake for hours and it seems like no one else has. But that’s okay.
…Here is some
randomness I like for the weekend:
(A letter from John Steinbeck to his lovesick son:)
New York
November 10, 1958
November 10, 1958
Dear
Thom:
First
— if you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that
can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.
Second
— There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping,
egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and
crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of
kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners
but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and
valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second
can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t
know you had.
You
say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply — of course it isn’t puppy
love.
But
I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone.
What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it — and that I can
tell you.
Glory
in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.
The
object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.
If
you love someone — there is no possible harm in saying so — only you must
remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that
shyness into consideration.
Girls
have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear
it also.
It
sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another
— but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.
Lastly,
I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.
We
will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all
such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to.
She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.
And
don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to
hurry. Nothing good gets away.
Love,
Fa
...“What does it matter
how many lovers you have if none of them gives you the universe?" -Jacques Lacan
...“Weapons will do you no good in that cave, Luke. You will
only find what you bring with you.” –Yoda
...“You can either swim
or drown, but it is going to keep raining.” -Jessica Katoff
..."I
walked down three streets to the boardwalk and listened to the ocean until I
started to feel ridiculous for being another stupid sad boy in America looking
out at the stupid ocean, and if I’d known how to play a saxophone I would’ve
played something moody and aching to amplify my pain and the pain of all the
other people I knew, and somewhere on the boardwalk a couple new to each other
would take off their hats and slow dance under a mercury powered streetlamp,
and all the tourists would honor their love by walking around them, and near
the shoreline bottle rockets would pop and fizzle, and the ocean, this fucking
ocean, would break like it always does." -Jeff Landon
...“Don’t tell me the
moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” -Anton Chekhov
...“Be kind, because
everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you know nothing about.” -Plato
No comments:
Post a Comment