Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 57

CarrollBlog 3.25

What Teachers Make, or

Objection Overruled, or

If things don't work out, you can always go to law school

by Taylor Mali

He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn

from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about

teachers:

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his

and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner ...

CarrollBlog 3.24

Yesterday I was talking with someone about motorcycles.They really knew their stuff and it was interesting to hear about that world from an expert. Along the way I casually asked if he had ever read ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE. He smiled ironically, as if I were kidding with that strange title. No, he'd never even heard of it. Something inside me immediately lit up. For the next few minutes I described what that wonderful book was about, saying again and again he really should g...

CarrollBlog 3.23

My neighbor is a pleasant man but one of the worst drivers I have ever seen. The fact he has not died or killed someone in a car accident is astonishing. Stupidly I once accepted a lift from him. By the time we reached the destination I had aged six months. Reckless, obnoxious, dangerous, he drove as if he were on fire and there were no other cars on the road. Today I saw him speeding down a busy street and without a second's pause, blow through a traffic light that was changing to red. Not l...

CarrollBlog 3.22

I used to write fan letters to people whose work I admired. I don't do it much anymore and that's wrong. It's a very important thing to tell someone that what they do genuinely matters to you. Especially artists, who work so much of the time in solitude but receive little feedback other than reviews and if they're lucky, sales. I read about a film being developed from a Charles Bukowski novel. That reminded me of the letter I received from Bukowski years ago. While in college I'd written to t...

CarrollBlog 3.21

In school I was always terrible in math. If I passed I was thrilled, but I usually didn't pass and had to repeat or go to summer school. In tenth grade, my parents shipped me off to a difficult private boarding school because I was doing so poorly in public school. It was a disaster. That first year I flunked math and other classes as well. Summer school loomed. Not only that, but summer school there which meant I would have to live on campus. I didn't like school but my best subject was...

CarrollBlog 3.20

"Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no whenever you don't want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you're doing here. Believe in kissing."

Eve Ensler

CarrollBlog 3.19

I was reading an article about what rich people do with their funny money these days. Most striking was the $600 haircut the really cool women in Beverly Hills have done at least once a month. $7200 per year seems a bit steep for blond streaks, but more than anything that item reminded me of where I used to go to have my hair cut when I was living in California in the 90's. I discovered the place because in front it had an actual old time-y striped barber pole that whirled round and round. I ...

I was reading an article about what rich people do with t...

I was reading an article about what rich people do with their funny money these days. Most striking was the $600 haircut the really cool women in Beverly Hills have done at least once a month. $7200 per year seems a bit steep for blond streaks, but more than anything that item reminded me of where I used to go to have my hair cut when I was living in California in the 90's. I discovered the place because in front it had an actual old time-y striped barber pole that whirled round and round. I ...

CarrollBlog 3.18

I was reading an issue of MEN'S JOURNAL magazine. The lead article was "100 Things To Do Before You Die." On the list were things like climb Mt. Everest, parachute from a plane, hand feed a shark, etcetera. I skimmed the other things they suggested should be on everyone's list. I had no desire to do even one of them. So then I thought is there anything I'd like to do before I die that I haven't done yet? Hypothetically if someone is living fully, they're doing what matters (or is important...

CarrollBlog 3.17

"Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them. We are like people living in a country whose language they know so little that...