For *those that have just lost their keys *those that are well-versed *inebriated ones *wanderers *mermaids *those that belong elsewhere *whippersnappers *marvelous ones *those that are not included in this classification *those that flutter because the moment is fleeting *boundless ones *those colored with slippery fingerpaint *others *those that resemble someone I know from a distance

Thursday, June 26, 2008

How I Spent the Last Hour at Work.

Since I am a dork and enjoy playing the game of Telephone almost as much as I enjoy pondering the fallibility of language, I am madly in love with the Lost in Translation web app created by Carl Tashian, which translates a phrase back and forth between several different languages. "The resulting half-English, half-foreign, and totally non sequitur response bears almost no resemblance to the original...Something is lost and sometimes something is gained."

I decided to "babelize" some of my favorite quotes. "Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why," from Vonnegut becomes, "Here that interests them, hung before amber. Because it does not have, it is." I kind-of like it.

Andrew Bird sings, "In time you need to learn to love the ebb just like the flow." Lost in Translation replies, "In the time you must learn, because one sufficiently appreciates the later river like the river." It's like something a zen robot would say! I know what I am going to be for Halloween!

"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake" from Fight Club becomes "They are not pretty and only tape." Hmm. True dat?

Marianne Williamson calls us to awaken with the words "It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us." Ten translations later we arrive at, "It is our light, not our density, of that scares to majority we." Actually, I think it is the presidency of George W. Bush that scares to majority we.

Joseph Campbell tells it like it is when he writes, "I think that what we're really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive in our bodies." This babelizes into "Task that, observes the interior in true, a experience of being the alive creature who our experiences of the duration in the only physical surface that resonances in ours to being the greatest piece of the secret and the truth, since then that really we create the enthusiasm, to be alive in our bodies." Wait, where can I get the greatest piece of the secret and the truth?

Maybe these are too complex. Let's keep is simple. Let's try the classic "There is no spoon." End result? "It has spoon" Well, there is only one thing to say to that. Whoa.

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Yes.

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
Yes.

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer from The Invitation

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Dancing makes you smarter!

Researchers from The Albert Einstein College of Medicine studied the link between mental acuity and physical and cognitive recreational activities in senior citizens 75 years and older. Turns out, the best protection against dementia was frequent dancing!

"They studied cognitive activities such as reading books, writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles, playing cards and playing musical instruments. And they studied physical activities like playing tennis or golf, swimming, bicycling, dancing, walking for exercise and doing housework.

One of the surprises of the study was that almost none of the physical activities appeared to offer any protection against dementia. There can be cardiovascular benefits of course, but the focus of this study was the mind. There was one important exception: the only physical activity to offer protection against dementia was frequent dancing.

People who played the hardest gained the most: For example, seniors who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a 47% lower risk of dementia than those who did the puzzles once a week.

Reading - 35% reduced risk of dementia
Bicycling and swimming - 0%
Playing golf - 0%
Dancing frequently - 76%.

That was the greatest risk reduction of any activity studied, cognitive or physical."

Musings by Richard Powers can be found here.
The original article is over here.

Labels: , ,

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Warning: Dancing to this song may cause your brain to re-wire itself

Eurythmics vs. Eminem - Mashup

I mean...it's just so...I'm not sure what...it's like...CANNOT.STOP.LISTENING.

I am so transfixed by this. I really think it might be re-wiring my brain. After all, how often do the Eminem-related neurons get to talk with the Eurhytmics-related neurons? NEVER. Granted, the first time I heard it was at Flipside after four days of eating nothing but intoxicants and breakfast tacos, so my judgement might be a little skewed. But it's good, right? You want to listen to it again, right? Plus, I don't know what happens around 1:37, but I do know you should not fight it.

Labels: , ,

Monday, June 02, 2008

The Other Side of Desire

It's strange not too hold on to every instant so goddamn tightly. Strange to uncurl my strained, hungry fingers and let the air kiss the lines on my palm. Somewhere, when I was looking the other way, I stopped wanting to suck every last drop of poetry from the moment. The constant longing has subsided. I can drop the metaphors of hummingbirds and honeysuckles. I can run across the street in the brightness of the Texas sun and not want so very, very much to find the truth of the moment.

It's even stranger that I am okay with this. I am okay with letting go of the truth of the moment. Who can imagine a Wendy not infatuated with the truth of the moment, a Wendy not trying to rub up against every shade of meaning, graph every nuance of feeling?

Whatever. The other side of desire seems nice enough. There still seems to be dancing and silliness and wordplay and good music on the other side, so I should be fine. I will let the moments dance themselves. I will let them dance me. I will show God the palms of my hands so she can see they are open open open. I am pretty sure she will want to kiss them too.
Share/Save/Bookmark

Labels:

Things that make me cry in my cubicle. Part II

(Clickity click to make bigger). From Get Your War On.

Labels: ,