page five

"I really can't tell what's beautiful anymore. I passed two young fellows on the street the other day. I know who they are, they work at the garage. They're not churchgoing, either one of them, just decent rascally young fellows who have to be joking all the time, and there they were, propped against the garage wall in the sunshine, lighting up their cigarettes. They're always so black with grease and so strong with gasoline I don't know why they don't catch fire themselves. They were passing remarks back and forth the way they do and laughing that wicked way they have. And it seemed beautiful to me. It is an amazing thing to watch people laugh, the way it sort of takes them over. Sometimes they really do struggle with it. I see that in church often enough. So I wonder what it is and where it comes from, and I wonder what it expends out of your system, so that you have to do it till you're done, like crying in a way, I suppose, except that laughter is much more easily spent--When they saw me coming, of course, the joking stopped, but I could see they were still laughing to themselves, thinking what the old preacher almost heard them say--I felt like telling them, I appreciate a joke as much as anybody. There have been many occasions in my life when I have wanted to say that. But it's not a thing people are willing to accept. They want you to be a little bit apart. I felt like saying, I'm a dying man, and I won't have so many more occasions to laugh, in this world at least--That's the strangest thing about this life, about being in the ministry. People change the subject when they see you coming. And then sometimes those very same people come into your study and tell you the most remarkable things. There's a lot under the surface of life, everyone knows that. A lot of malice and dread and guilt, and so much loneliness, where you wouldn't really expect to find it, either. " --Gilead, A Novel.

it's a home remedy.

my dad and i were able to sing together today. 'it's a home remedy'. my mom and i held hands while we watched my brother entertain a room full of laughing and loving community members that we've all grown to think of as family. the fluffy constant in my life that some call 'just a pet', has been tip-toeing two steps behind mine since they walked through the front door. the new addition to our family, is still learning and adjusting-but the spunky four legged 'lily' comes with more love than i sometimes wonder if i can even handle. it's all instinctively just there. it's natural. it's wonderful.


spring is here.
my words are not. i'm ok with that. the loss of words does not necessarily mean a loss of thought.

Long week...

Top Five:

1-The e-mail address linked to the school I attend failed to forward all e-mails to my Gmail account...in February. It is April-just figured it out. Awesome.

2-buzzball.

3-Some Sweet birds.

4-Today's Front Page 'here's your sign': Facebook is the cause of lower grades.
...really?! go figure.

5-This man-genius. I watched a lecture of his on tv this week, which was my favorite highlight.

Nick's Efforts.

Nichols Copernicus put forth the idea that: the earth is not at the center of the earth. The sun does not revolve around the earth, the earth revolves around the sun. Crazy right!?

To make such a bold statement during this Jacobean era was more than absurd, it was insane. It completely threw people off of their steady ball and rocked with their idea that they were the center. At this time, most thought that 'God put us here, naturally, we are supposed to be the center of the universe'. To argue anything different was-unfathomable. (This was also an era where 'deep' mystery of what it means to be human and questions such as 'why does the cosmo exist?' were not raised as often as they once were. Characterizations became extremely perverse, perverted, and just odd).

Putting that aside, today, people don’t go to bed just completely sick with thought that we are not important because the sun does not revolve around us...do we?

...I feel that a lot of us might go to bed with frustrations and thoughts that are often as silly as this.

There's no real point to this except for the fact that Nichols was bold with his idea because he believed in it wholeheartedly-and it shook millions. The thought can't stop ping-ponging around my brain of the fact that if we all stuck by our beliefs wholeheartedly because we were passionate about it, what change could we effect upon the whole world? Could we change accusations that 'the sun does not revolve around the earth-but the earth revolves around the sun'? Beyond that, and what I feel is sometimes even greater, what change can we have with one another? What thoughts, ideas, and even words do we plant in each others mind?

Sometimes it blows my mind that when watching others, you can tell that their actions and the words they say-they have no idea the effect they might have. I mean this in both the negative and the positive...I wish it were more in the positive sense...

The power an individual has for change is abundant-sometimes it just needs a little push for jumping off with what seems like a bold and sometimes crazy statement. I mean, it could be crazy and you could be wrong-The thing is-what if you're right? What if you really do have the power to change? The power to affect others?



Nick did.




.. .Just a thought. ..

..dot. tuesday..

I've got nothing.

...Actually, I have lots-but they are just fragments and incomplete thoughts at this moment. Maybe they will develop into something of value that I feel is worthy to share.

I saw a guy on campus today with a real live brown snake wrapped around his forearm-that's kind of cool, I guess. Is this even legal to carry such animals on public academic grounds-what if someone is allergic to these scaly slithery bellied creatures? How awful.

.music.

California.
Korey Dane



Korey Dane and Tess Shapiro "California" from Dana Morris on Vimeo.

another.

Marketing Tactics.

So...four out of five dentists approve certain dental hygiene products, yes? Ok. That's fine, I'll buy that...BUT...how many dentists did they survey before they actually found that magical number FIVE? AND, where did they find these dentists...hmmmmm?

Just saying.


Side Note: In a class, that I love, we are making puppets...to perform a puppet show for three years olds...I love my major.

SLOOOTH!

"Everything. OK! I'll talk! In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max's toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog... When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out...But the worst thing I ever done - I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa - and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life."

The Goonies.

so much depends

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

-- William Carlos Williams

Re Arranging

It's been said that time is of the essence. I've never been so keen to understand this until recently. It has also recently occurred to me that not only is there no better time than the present, but there is also no better time than to take inventory on yourself.

One of the better things in life that you can do for yourself, is to learn how to eloquently balance the ability to give and receive. In my opinion, there is no real successful way to go forward until you realize where you have been and where you currently stand.

There is no better example of this than my life as of late. Meshing and squeezing and stacking things one on top of the other. When growing up, and even to this day, the nagging that I hear is constantly 'DON'T STUFF, THERE IS A PLACE FOR THAT! Erica, don't just hide the mess, deal with it now, put it where it needs to go, not in that drawer.' Moms do know best. They really really really do.

Passions, jobs, priorities-all worthy of time, but what to give and what to give up? It's tricky. There is a balance. There is that lesson that most learn early on of what is needed and what is just...'just'. I have to keep re-learning this. I'm ok with that. It is a process, as all things are. However, the product of this particular process, feeds that hunger with ease. It's nice. Things are simpler. It's like a pretty pottery barn white washed country kitchen. Everything is where it should be. Organized. Placed. Set, ready to be used when needed, knowing where everything is and how it should be used.