Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 56

CarrollBlog 3.3

Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of...

CarrollBlog 3.2

You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book… or you take a trip… and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this...

CarrollBlog 3.1

To My Son's Girlfriend

by Michael Milburn

I'm tempted to ask

what you see in him.

Although you probably

see the good that I see

I wonder if you realize

how much he is my handiwork,

or which of the qualities

you daydream about in class

are the ones that I take pride in,

his cordiality, for example,

or love of silliness.

It's uncomfortable for me

to think of anyone else

loving him the way I do,

possessing him in a way

that only his mother and I

have ever possessed him,

and I c...

CarrollBlog 3.31

The novelist Douglas Coupland (GENERATION X) made an interesting observation in a recent interview. The interview took place at an indoor restaurant. At the next table, a woman was talking on her cell phone. Her voice was very loud, as is often the case when people are on their phones in public. Coupland became annoyed and said he wished she'd pipe down and talk with her 'indoor voice' and not her 'outdoor voice.' As soon as I read that I thought—exactly! No one wants to hear others gab on...

CarrollBlog 3.30

DID I MISS ANYTHING?

Tom Wayman

Question frequently asked by

students after missing a class

Nothing. When we realized you weren't here

we sat with our hands folded on our desks

in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth

40 per cent of the grade for this term

and assigned some reading due today

on which I'm about to hand out a quiz

worth 50 per cent

Nothing. None of the content of this course

has value or meaning

Take as many days off as you like:

any...

CarrollBlog 3.29

Samurai Song

by Robert Pinsky

When I had no roof I made

Audacity my roof. When I had

No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.

When I had no ears I thought.

When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made

Care my father. When I had

No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made

Quiet my friend. When I had no

Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made

My voice my temple. I have

No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no...

CarrollBlog 3.28

A Man Alone

by Stephen Orlen

I hated breaking up and I hated

Being left, finding myself in an apartment

With an extra set of silverware and a ghost,

Impatient to be gone. Then to summon up

Who I was before the bed was full with woman.

To shift the street-mind from getting to

To slowing down and window shop. In the bar down the street,

To let my eyes simplify again, and make no judgments,

And breathe in the smoke that drifts

Through one body then another,

And find myself close enough

To...

A Man Aloneby Stephen OrlenI hated breaking up and I...

A Man Alone

by Stephen Orlen

I hated breaking up and I hated

Being left, finding myself in an apartment

With an extra set of silverware and a ghost,

Impatient to be gone. Then to summon up

Who I was before the bed was full with woman.

To shift the street-mind from getting to

To slowing down and window shop. In the bar down the street,

To let my eyes simplify again, and make no judgments,

And breathe in the smoke that drifts

Through one body then another,

And find myself close enough

To...

CarrollBlog 3.27

I'm intrigued by clothing designers who make identical copies of vintage styles right down to the same buttons, zippers and thread that were used in the originals, but then charge a fortune for their 'updated' versions. For example you have the Levi's company reproducing jeans made in the 1940/50/60's. But the company markets them today as "classics" and charges $200 for pants exactly like ones that cost $22 decades ago. Sure, you can factor inflation into the equation, but ten *times* the...

CarrollBlog 3.26

One of the most terrible losses man suffers in his lifetime is not noticed by most people, much less mourned. Which is astonishing because what we lose is in many ways one of the essential qualities that sets us apart from other creatures.

I'm talking about the loss of the sense of wonder that is such an integral part of our world when we are children. However as we grow older, that sense of wonder shrinks from cosmic to microscopic by the time we are adults. Kids say "Wow!" all the time...