{"id":12626,"date":"2013-01-18T14:24:55","date_gmt":"2013-01-18T19:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=12626"},"modified":"2013-01-19T13:56:50","modified_gmt":"2013-01-19T18:56:50","slug":"somewhere-not-quite-here-not-quite-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/somewhere-not-quite-here-not-quite-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Somewhere Not Quite Here, Not Quite There"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3afZip4BTRc?rel=0\" height=\"338\" width=\"600\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[Video: clip from <\/em>Seinfeld<em> episode #118. &#8220;The Pool Guy&#8221;]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0<a title=\"whiskey river: Flannery O'Connor, on the only place you've got\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2013\/01\/where-you-come-from-is-gone-where-you.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place. Nothing outside you can give you any place. In yourself right now is all the place you&#8217;ve got.<\/p>\n<p>You needn&#8217;t look at the sky because it&#8217;s not going to open up and show no place behind it. You needn&#8217;t search for any hole in the ground to look through into somewhere else. You can&#8217;t go neither forwards nor backwards into your daddy&#8217;s time nor your children&#8217;s if you have them. In yourself right now is all the place you&#8217;ve got. If there was any Fall, look there, if there was any Redemption, look there, and if you expect any Judgment, look there, because they all three will have to be in your time and your body and where in your time and your body can they be?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Flannery O&#8217;Connor)<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a title=\"whiskey river: 'A Valley Like this,' by William Stafford\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2013\/01\/a-valley-like-this-sometimes-you-look.html\" target=\"_blank\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>A Valley Like This<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes you look at an empty valley like this,<br \/>\nand suddenly the air is filled with snow.<br \/>\nThat is the way the whole world happened &#8212;<br \/>\nthere was nothing, and then . . .<br \/>\nBut maybe some time you will look out and even<br \/>\nthe mountains are gone, the world become nothing<br \/>\nagain. What can a person do to help<br \/>\nbring back the world?<br \/>\nWe have to watch it and then look at each other.<br \/>\nTogether we hold it close and carefully<br \/>\nsave it, like a bubble that can disappear<br \/>\nif we don&#8217;t watch out.<br \/>\nPlease think about this as you go on. Breathe on the world.<br \/>\nHold out your hands to it. When mornings and evenings<br \/>\nroll along, watch how they open and close, how they<br \/>\ninvite you to the long party that your life is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(William Stafford)<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Not from\u00a0<em>whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>A Real-Life Drama<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This dog standing in the middle of the street,<br \/>\ntail stiff, fur bushy with fear, and a pedigree rabbit,<br \/>\nits neck broken and bleeding beneath his paws,<br \/>\nmight have been forgiven or simply taken away<\/p>\n<p>and shot under different circumstances<br \/>\nand no one would have said much, except his owner<br \/>\nwho&#8217;d gone out into the yard at the start<br \/>\nof the commotion, having been involved<\/p>\n<p>at other times with the dog&#8217;s truancies, and yelled,<br \/>\n&#8220;Bosco, Bosco, goddamnit!&#8221; but unavailing,<br \/>\nand everyone understanding that once more Bosco<br \/>\nhad been taken over by the dark corner of his nature.<\/p>\n<p>But this other sentiment we shared as well: the man<br \/>\nWho&#8217;d raised the rabbit shouldn&#8217;t husband something<br \/>\nso rare and beautiful he couldn&#8217;t keep it<br \/>\nfrom the likes of Bosco.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Michael Collier [<a title=\"Google Books: 'The Wadsworth Anthology of Poetry,' by Jay Parini (ed.)\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=7dFohviLlOkC&amp;pg=PA1276&amp;lpg=PA1276#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Silence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is the sudden silence of the crowd<br \/>\nabove a player not moving on the field,<br \/>\nand the silence of the orchid.<\/p>\n<p>The silence of the falling vase<br \/>\nbefore it strikes the ?oor,<br \/>\nthe silence of the belt when it is not striking the child.<\/p>\n<p>The stillness of the cup and the water in it,<br \/>\nthe silence of the moon<br \/>\nand the quiet of the day far from the roar of the sun.<\/p>\n<p>The silence when I hold you to my chest,<br \/>\nthe silence of the window above us,<br \/>\nand the silence when you rise and turn away.<\/p>\n<p>And there is the silence of this morning<br \/>\nwhich I have broken with my pen,<br \/>\na silence that had piled up all night<\/p>\n<p>like snow falling in the darkness of the house&#8212;<br \/>\nthe silence before I wrote a word<br \/>\nand the poorer silence now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Billy Collins [<a title=\"Google Books: 'The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems,' by Billy Collins\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=dtMhdlM_q48C&amp;pg=PA85#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The contention that time is unreal and that the world of sense is illusory must, I think, be regarded as based upon fallacious reasoning. Nevertheless, there is some sense &#8212; easier to feel than to describe &#8212; in which time is an unimportant and superficial character of reality. Past and future must be acknowledged to be as real as the present, and a certain emancipation from slavery to time is essential to philosophical thought. The importance of time is practical rather than theoretical, rather in relation to our desires than in relation to the truth. A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is. Both in thought and in feeling, to realize the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom. But unimportance is not unreality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Bertrand Russell [<a title=\"Google Books: 'Contemplation and Action, 1902-1914,' by Bertrand Russell\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=yqolyQXrB5UC&amp;pg=PA170#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>Re: Michael Collier&#8217;s poem&#8230; It&#8217;s hard for many people of my generation and tastes to hear the word &#8220;Bosco&#8221; without thinking of&#8212; what? the\u00a0<em>drink<\/em>? are you kidding me? Heck no.\u00a0<em>The <\/em>Seinfeld<em> episode<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mr5EVGhp3BY?rel=0\" height=\"450\" width=\"600\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Which, also of course, suggested the video which opened this post. I just love circular posts (especially on\u00a0<a title=\"About RAMH's 'whiskey river Fridays'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/about-whiskey-river-fridays\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>whiskey river<\/em> Fridays<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Video: clip from Seinfeld episode #118. &#8220;The Pool Guy&#8221;] From\u00a0whiskey river: Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place. Nothing outside you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,247,1393,405,196,5,713],"tags":[1141,1345,3042,3324,3332,3333,3334,3335,3336],"class_list":{"0":"post-12626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-everyday-life","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-nature","10":"category-television","11":"category-06_writing","12":"category-humor-writing_cat","13":"tag-billy-collins","14":"tag-william-stafford","15":"tag-michael-collier","16":"tag-flannery-oconnor","17":"tag-blurring-the-lines","18":"tag-bertrand-russell","19":"tag-seinfeld","20":"tag-george-costanza","21":"tag-bosco","22":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-3hE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12626"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12635,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12626\/revisions\/12635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}