{"id":17523,"date":"2015-12-11T11:40:16","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T16:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=17523"},"modified":"2015-12-11T11:40:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T16:40:16","slug":"mountains-of-love-switchbacks-of-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/mountains-of-love-switchbacks-of-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountains of Love, Switchbacks of Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'COFFEE<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “COFFEE Storyboard,” by user perezvictor on Flickr<\/a>. Says the photographer (among other things), “This is a story about a man and a woman whose relationship ends. All the events occur in the time of having a coffee.”]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n

Not Anyone Who Says<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not anyone who says, “I’m going to be
\ncareful and smart in matters of love,”<\/span>
\nwho says, “I’m going to choose slowly,”
\nbut only those lovers who didn’t choose at all
\nbut were, as it were, chosen
\nby something invisible and powerful and uncontrollable
\nand beautiful and possibly even
\nunsuitable—
\nonly those know what I’m talking about
\nin this talking about love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Mary Oliver [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

What We Miss<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who says it’s so easy to save a life? In the middle of an interview for
\nthe job you might get you see the cat from the window of the seven-
\nteenth floor just as he’s crossing the street against traffic, just as
\nyou’re answering a question about your worst character flaw and lying
\nthat you are too careful. What if you keep seeing the cat at every
\nmoment you are unable to save him? Failure is more like this than like
\nduels and marathons. Everything can be saved, and bad timing pre-
\nvents it. Every minute, you are answering the question and looking
\nout the window of the church to see your one great love blinded by
\nthe glare, crossing the street, alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Sarah Manguso [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved, and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed, and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time.<\/p>\n

When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip something on, some added layer of protection that keeps us from feeling the world, and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which, if not put down, diminishes our chances of joy.<\/p>\n

It’s like wearing gloves every time we touch something, and then, forgetting we chose to put them on, we complain that nothing feels quite real. In this way, our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world, but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold, and the car handle feels wet, and the kiss good-bye feels like the lips of another being, soft and unrepeatable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Mark Nepo [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

When I came upon the mountain, I was in a hurry. I thought it would take too long to make my way around, so I set out to break a path through. Each rock and branch felt like a waste of time. If only the mountain weren’t in the way. I cut my legs and arms as I rushed along. It grew harder to breathe, and I lost all sense of direction. Now I had to climb high enough to see.<\/p>\n

Once I broke the treeline, something in me had to see the top. Then I hurried my way up, and strangely, as I worked the climb — step after step — I kept rising, but felt as though I were going nowhere. Finally, I broke the clouds. I had never seen sun on top of clouds. I sat in a clearing on a cliff, the light on top of my head, like a cloud. Suddenly, reaching the top or getting beyond the mountain no longer seemed important. I liked it up here and felt that I could live on the mountain. But I had to return. I had to eat. I needed love. But now when someone asks about breaking through what’s in the way or being in a hurry, I look both ways and say, “Pursue the obstacle. It will set you free.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Mark Nepo [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

\n

v<\/p>\n

I was not aware of the moment when I first crossed the threshold of this life. What was the power that made me open out into this vast mystery like a bud in the forest at midnight? When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment that I was no stranger in this world, that the inscrutable without name and form had taken me in its arms in the form of my own mother. Even so, in death the same unknown will appear as ever known to me. And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well. The child cries out when from the right breast the mother takes it away to find in the very next moment its consolation in the left one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Rabindranath Tagore [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Mountain Dulcimer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where does such sadness in wood come
\nfrom? How could longing live in these
\nwires? The box looks like the most fragile
\ncoffin tuned for sound. And laid
\nacross the knees of this woman
\nit looks less like a baby nursed
\nthan some symbolic Piet\u00e0,
\nand the stretched body on her lap
\nyields modalities of lament
\nand blood, yields sacrifice and sliding
\nchants of grief that dance and dance toward
\na new measure, a new threshold,
\na new instant and new year which
\nwe always celebrate by
\nremembering the old and by
\nrecalling the lost and honoring
\nthose no longer here to strike these
\nstrings like secrets of the most
\nsatisfying harmonies, as
\nvoices join in sadness and joy
\nand tell again what we already
\nknow, have always known but forget,
\nfrom way back in the farthest cove,
\nfrom highest on the peaks of love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Robert Morgan [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “COFFEE Storyboard,” by user perezvictor on Flickr. Says the photographer (among other things), “This is a story about a man and a woman whose relationship ends. All the events occur in the time of having a coffee.”] From whiskey river: Not Anyone Who Says Not anyone who says, “I’m going to be careful and […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,250,5,50,36,251,4159],"tags":[215,272,595,3752,3927,4105,4229,4230,4231],"class_list":{"0":"post-17523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-art","9":"category-06_writing","10":"category-language-writing_cat","11":"category-reading","12":"category-poetry-writing_cat","13":"category-essays","14":"tag-love","15":"tag-sadness","16":"tag-mary-oliver","17":"tag-mark-nepo","18":"tag-rabindranath-tagore","19":"tag-sarah-manguso","20":"tag-robert-morgan","21":"tag-choice","22":"tag-ideal","23":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-4yD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17523","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=17523"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17534,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17523\/revisions\/17534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}