{"id":8252,"date":"2011-08-05T11:45:53","date_gmt":"2011-08-05T15:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8252"},"modified":"2011-08-05T11:45:53","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T15:45:53","slug":"getting-through-the-day-and-knowing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/getting-through-the-day-and-knowing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Through the Day (and Knowing It)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

[Image: xkcd.com #324<\/a>. The image’s title<\/code> attribute there says, “Sometimes the best fun looks like boredom.” (Click image to enlarge.)]<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Questions Before Dark<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day ends, and before sleep
\nwhen the sky dies down, consider
\nyour altered state: has this day
\nchanged you? Are the corners
\nsharper or rounded off? Did you
\nlive with death? Make decisions
\nthat quieted? Find one clear word
\nthat fit? At the sun’s midpoint
\ndid you notice a pitch of absence,
\nbewilderment that invites
\nthe possible? What did you learn
\nfrom things you dropped and picked up
\nand dropped again? Did you set a straw
\nparallel to the river, let the flow
\ncarry you downstream?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Jeanne Lohmann, from\u00a0The Light of Invisible Bodies<\/em>)<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There is nothing more alone than being in a car at night in the rain. I was in the car. And I was glad of it. Between one point on the map and another point on the map, there was the being alone in the car in the rain. They say you are not you except in terms of relation to other people. If there weren’t any other people there wouldn’t be any you because what you do, which is what you are, only has meaning in relation to other people. That is a very comforting thought when you are in the car in the rain at night alone, for then you aren’t you, and not being you or anything, you can really lie back and get some rest. It is a vacation from being you. There is only the flow of the motor under your foot spinning that frail thread of sound out of its metal gut like a spider, that filament, that nexus, which isn’t really there, between the you which you have just left in one place and the you which you will be when you get to the other place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Robert Penn Warren, from All the King’s Men<\/em>\u00a0[source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

The Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Guide her, protect her
\nWhen crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord,
\nThat I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.
\n“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget.
\nBut I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Tina Fey, Bossypants<\/em>\u00a0[source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

The God Who Loves You<\/strong><\/p>\n

It must be troubling for the god who loves you
\nTo ponder how much happier you’d be today
\nHad you been able to glimpse your many futures.
\nIt must be painful for him to watch you on Friday evenings
\nDriving home from the office, content with your week —
\nThree fine houses sold to deserving families —
\nKnowing as he does exactly what would have happened
\nHad you gone to your second choice for college,
\nKnowing the roommate you’d have been allotted
\nWhose ardent opinions on painting and music
\nWould have kindled in you a lifelong passion.
\nA life thirty points above the life you’re living
\nOn any scale of satisfaction. And every point
\nA thorn in the side of the god who loves you.
\nYou don’t want that, a large-souled man like you
\nWho tries to withhold from your wife the day’s disappointments
\nSo she can save her empathy for the children.
\nAnd would you want this god to compare your wife
\nWith the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus?
\nIt hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation
\nYou’d have enjoyed over there higher in insight
\nThan the conversation you’re used to.
\nAnd think how this loving god would feel
\nKnowing that the man next in line for your wife
\nWould have pleased her more than you ever will
\nEven on your best days, when you really try.
\nCan you sleep at night believing a god like that
\nIs pacing his cloudy bedroom, harassed by alternatives
\nYou’re spared by ignorance? The difference between what is
\nAnd what could have been will remain alive for him
\nEven after you cease existing, after you catch a chill
\nRunning out in the snow for the morning paper,
\nLosing eleven years that the god who loves you
\nWill feel compelled to imagine scene by scene
\nUnless you come to the rescue by imagining him
\nNo wiser than you are, no god at all, only a friend
\nNo closer than the actual friend you made at college,
\nThe one you haven’t written in months. Sit down tonight
\nAnd write him about the life you can talk about
\nWith a claim to authority, the life you’ve witnessed,
\nWhich for all you know is the life you’ve chosen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Carl Dennis [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

I first heard of singer-writer\u00a0Gregory Alan Isakov<\/a> at the most excellent\u00a0Beat Surrender<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(often my go-to source for new roots\/Americana music).<\/em>\u00a0This little tune, “Dandelion Wine,” is from his 2009 album,\u00a0This Empty Northern Hemisphere<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[Below, click Play button to begin <\/em>Dandelion Wine. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 3:04 long.]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[audio:dandelionwine_gregoryalanisakov.mp3|titles=’Dandelion Wine’|artists=Gregory Alan Isakov]<\/div>\n

Dandelion Wine<\/strong>
\n(Gregory Alan Isakov)<\/em><\/p>\n

summer days were just a magazine, a magazine
\na magazine…<\/p>\n

cutting grass for gasoline, for gasoline
\nso i can see ya soon…<\/p>\n

fall swooned
\nleft me drunk in a field
\ndandelion wine for a year<\/p>\n

and i packed up the dust
\nof all that i owned
\nhandkerchief hung from a pole<\/p>\n

i rolled out the day that the apples fell…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Aspen <\/em>(Colorado) Times<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a> in 2010 that Isakov is a great fan of Leonard Cohen. Furthermore:<\/p>\n

Isakov says he reads a lot of poetry; a current favorite is “Nine Horses,” a collection by the former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins. He is also into comedy, and mentions Steven Wright and Patton Oswalt as two who get him laughing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A passage which hit several sweet notes for me, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: xkcd.com #324. The image’s title attribute there says, “Sometimes the best fun looks like boredom.” (Click image to enlarge.)] From whiskey river: Questions Before Dark Day ends, and before sleep when the sky dies down, consider your altered state: has this day changed you? Are the corners sharper or rounded off? Did you live […]<\/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":[15,247,1393,74,251,713],"tags":[971,1316,2499,2500,2501,2502,2503],"class_list":{"0":"post-8252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-family","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-music","10":"category-poetry-writing_cat","11":"category-humor-writing_cat","12":"tag-xkcd","13":"tag-jeanne-lohmann","14":"tag-robert-penn-warren","15":"tag-tina-fey","16":"tag-carl-dennis","17":"tag-gregory-alan-isakov","18":"tag-beat-surrender","19":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-296","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8252","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=8252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}