Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 13

Your Rushmore list

“She’s on one of my shit lists. I just haven’t decided which one yet.”

“You have more than one?”

“Three, actually. There’s the temporary, the permanent, and for those very special horrible people in my life, the Mt. Rushmore shit list. Carved in stone forever.”

Your Rushmore list was originally published in Jonathan Carroll on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A Church on her finger

As she loaded her groceries into a bag at the market, I saw the woman had what looked like a very detailed stained glass window tattooed down the length of her index finger. It was well done and lovely, mysterious too. A friend told me as a rule, tattoo artists don’t usually like to do fingers because ink fades too quickly there, I assume because of all the movement. Had the artist told her that but she wanted it done anyway? I wondered why the woman chose to have this image put on obvious di...

She Leaf

She was as passive and aimless as a leaf floating across a quiet pond. But instead of breezes blowing her this way and that, she let life or whatever people happened to be around who showed the slightest interest do it to her. There were enough of them. She was alluring and poised. There were always men circling like birds of prey…

She Leaf was originally published in Jonathan Carroll on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Friend Blindness

“Why did they stay together so long?”

“Because of friend blindness, or in his case girlfriend blindness. You know — when you purposely blind yourself to lousy things a friend does because that person’s important to you. It’s a strange thing because sometimes it’s temporary, sometimes permanent. But then it becomes very dangerous obviously.”

Friend Blindness was originally published in Jonathan Carroll on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this...

The Perfume Times

Most of the time our right now is boring and forgettable. Sit at your desk. Walk to the kitchen. Take a pee. Take a walk. Take a nap. Take your time because it is so uninteresting that nobody else wants to take it. We remember few details about how we lived our days because most of them are like air with no fragrance. We breathe them in and out without thinking. What did you eat for dinner two days ago? When was the last time you laughed out loud? Or ate something that made you close your eye...

Homework Assignment #2

Homework assignment —

Try to remember the three worst meals you’ve had. Then ask yourself was it because of the food, or the people, the situation, or all of them combined? Walking down the street today I was thinking about this and realized to my surprise that one of the most delicious meals I’ve had was by far one of the worst meals because of the situation surrounding it. Quite a surprise and an interesting revelation.

Homework Assignment #2 was originally published in Jonathan Carroll on Me...

What if?

““What if?” is one of the most helpful questions a writer can ask himself if he’s looking for a subject to write about. What if two teenagers from warring families fell crazy in love? What if a mad scientist created an almost human being out of dead flesh and lightning? What if a man woke up one morning and discovered he had been turned into an insect? What if you came downstairs one night and encountered your fifteen year old self waiting in the living room, really pissed off at you for not...

The Best Thing in the World

“The best thing in the world, the most anyone can hope for, is to wake up in the morning liking where you are, what you do, and if you’re very very lucky, who you’re with. To ask or expect more than that you’re a greedy fool.”

from a new novel

The Best Thing in the World was originally published in Jonathan Carroll on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Love like Tissue paper

When he held her love up to the light, he was shocked to see how transparent it was, how fragile. Saddened of course to realize it was as thin and temporary as tissue paper.

Love like Tissue paper was originally published in Jonathan Carroll on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Happier New Year

“No matter where we are in our lives we always have some options. We still have all of our senses and our minds are clear, those we love are safe for now, food tastes delicious, there are sweet animals everywhere who want to be our friend, good coffee is available on most street corners, some really fine people love us more than we love ourselves, and one day all of this will be gone. That’s really important to remember. We can carry the load so long as some or all of these things still keep...