My grandmother and I were sitting on her porch yesterday (my mother had momentarily excused herself) when she said something that stuck with me.
She said "Time sure flies."
She said this in relation to how I will soon graduate high school, but as she afterward lifted her withered face up toward the sky I sensed that the saying had a deeper meaning for her.
There's another thing someone said that has stuck with me. In Current America, Mr. Reich was talking about graduation and everyone moving on with their lives.
He said "You probably won't see most of your friends again until the 10 year reunion. And even then, some might move away and some might die."
The class had a generally shocked reaction.
In his typical bloviating manner Mr. Reich responded "What are you all 'awwwwwwwww'ing about? The fact of the matter is that there's a distinct possibility of one of your peers dying before the reunion. I've seen it happen."
The moral of these two anecdotes, I guess, is that, yes, we've got youth, but time flies, and on top of that, we don't really know what could happen to any of us unexpectedly.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Elementary Poetry.
I was pacing around and, later on, sitting in my backyard and the bright sun and blue sky reminded me of something.
---
One day in 5th grade, my teacher Mrs. Krauss decided to take the class outside to write poems out in the yard. She said that it was such a pretty California spring day, especially in comparison to the gloomy weather the week before, that we should all write poems about the beautiful surroundings.
The only line I remember from mine was as follows: "On this day nobody should be crying." The previous line was probably something about birds flying.
Mrs. Krauss loved the poem and said it was perhaps the best poem she had received from a student. She said that she even read it to the principal and other faculty during a meeting.
I didn't think all the praise was particularly merited. Maybe in comparison to other 5th grade level poems, but still I did not expect it to get that much praise. Even back then, the line "nobody should be crying" did not sit well with me. After all, just because the weather is nice doesn't mean tragedies can't occur.
"Sorry about your family exploding in a blimp collision, Mr. Johanson, but hey, look outside--the sun is shining in the sky!"
---
I thought about this for a while and then went back inside. The cleaning woman who I was supposed to drive to the bus stop had already left, presumably on foot. I would have driven her.
---
One day in 5th grade, my teacher Mrs. Krauss decided to take the class outside to write poems out in the yard. She said that it was such a pretty California spring day, especially in comparison to the gloomy weather the week before, that we should all write poems about the beautiful surroundings.
The only line I remember from mine was as follows: "On this day nobody should be crying." The previous line was probably something about birds flying.
Mrs. Krauss loved the poem and said it was perhaps the best poem she had received from a student. She said that she even read it to the principal and other faculty during a meeting.
I didn't think all the praise was particularly merited. Maybe in comparison to other 5th grade level poems, but still I did not expect it to get that much praise. Even back then, the line "nobody should be crying" did not sit well with me. After all, just because the weather is nice doesn't mean tragedies can't occur.
"Sorry about your family exploding in a blimp collision, Mr. Johanson, but hey, look outside--the sun is shining in the sky!"
---
I thought about this for a while and then went back inside. The cleaning woman who I was supposed to drive to the bus stop had already left, presumably on foot. I would have driven her.
Oh, hey there.
I've decided that it's about time I made a blog of my own. I've had some hesitation about further contributing to the abandonment of GlobaLOLization, but there are certain kinds of posts that are better suited for personal blogs. Though I don't post there too much currently, I don't plan to abandon Global despite having a blog of my own now.
As you can tell by the title, this site will be an outlet for some of my deeper personal thoughts. It's not a place where I will simply complain all the time and channel hatred. The underlying goal in some of my posts here will be to reasonably analyze any situation in which I may find myself, without being blinded by hatred or anger. The world might be a saner place if once in a while people would take a step back and just think matters through objectively.
Of course, emotions-anger, love, fear, hope-are all natural and vital components of the human experience. By no means do I advocate complete objectivity all the time. In fact, I can't promise that my posts here will always be without any shred of contempt. I can't promise that my posts will always be contemplative either; I may be in the mood for writing a simple story or a joke here and there. Hell, I can't even promise that there will always be a steady stream of posts. I can say that I hope this blog will serve as an enjoyable way to express and improve myself. I want this to be something of which I can be proud.
"Contemplation sans contempt" is merely a philosophy that I'd like to keep in the back of my head. Also, at least half the reason I chose it as a title was that I thought it sounded cool.
As you can tell by the title, this site will be an outlet for some of my deeper personal thoughts. It's not a place where I will simply complain all the time and channel hatred. The underlying goal in some of my posts here will be to reasonably analyze any situation in which I may find myself, without being blinded by hatred or anger. The world might be a saner place if once in a while people would take a step back and just think matters through objectively.
Of course, emotions-anger, love, fear, hope-are all natural and vital components of the human experience. By no means do I advocate complete objectivity all the time. In fact, I can't promise that my posts here will always be without any shred of contempt. I can't promise that my posts will always be contemplative either; I may be in the mood for writing a simple story or a joke here and there. Hell, I can't even promise that there will always be a steady stream of posts. I can say that I hope this blog will serve as an enjoyable way to express and improve myself. I want this to be something of which I can be proud.
"Contemplation sans contempt" is merely a philosophy that I'd like to keep in the back of my head. Also, at least half the reason I chose it as a title was that I thought it sounded cool.
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