Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 64

CarrollBlog 1.9

Near my apartment is a theater that specializes in putting on children's plays. It's nice to pass there in the early evening because a matinee is often just over and the kids spill out of the building joyous and frenzied and making LOTS of noise. But last night was different. It had been dark since four. As I walked towards the theater I saw literally hundreds of white balloons milling around in front of the theater. It was a surreal, startling image. Were my eyes playing tricks? But as I...

CarrollBlog 1.8

O Best of All Nights, Return and Return Again

by James Laughlin

How she let her long hair down over her shoulders, making a

love cave around her face. Return and return again.

How when the lamplight was lowered she pressed against

him, twining her fingers in his. Return and return again.

How their legs swam together like dolphins and their toes

played like little tunnies. Return and return again.

How she sat beside him cross-legged, telling him stories of

her childhood. Return and ...

CarrollBlog 1.7

Two interesting quotes from David Foster Wallace:

Both destiny's kisses and its dope-slaps illustrate an individual person's basic personal powerlessness over the really meaningful events in his life: i.e. almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it. Destiny has no beeper; destiny always leans trenchcoated out of an alley with some sort of Psst that you usually can't even hear because you're in such a rush to or from something important you've tried to e...

CarrollBlog 1.6

After New Year's Eve there's always some lone wolf shooting off the last of their fireworks. Four days later you're walking down the street and suddenly there's a BAM! or that long whistle of a rocket going off. I always feel vaguely sorry for these late launchers. I picture a man, a young man (never a woman--that's a compliment, ladies) with nothing to do and a few firecrackers, stragglers, left over from the festivities. He's bored and those red devils on his dresser are just going to...

CarrollBlog 1.5

It is a given that almost every time I see X, we will talk about her nutty family.

Most people have several abiding themes in their lives that preoccupy them, whether they are aware of this or not. As a result, they incessantly return to them in different guises and conversations. Someone I know is always agitated about the difficulty of everyday life. Nothing seems to fit right for them; nothing really functions the way it should. Another friend obsesses about the ongoing challenge of...

CarrollBlog 1.4

A beautiful August day, I take the dog for a long walk in the Augarten park and then stop for lunch at a favorite garden restaurant nearby. The place is half filled, mostly with lone morning drinkers. Dog and I sit down, order and then settle in to enjoy the moment. Bliss. The kind of bliss you have on a late summer day when there is nothing to do but hang around and enjoy the sun on your face. No time at all later, two very dolled up old women come over and ask if I'd mind sharing my table w...

CarrollBlog 1.3

In both movies and books we often see portrayed those moments of enlightenment when suddenly, miraculously, everything becomes clear to a character. They abruptly stop walking on a crowded street and standing there, stare off into the distance while people pass by. Or they lift their head from a book in the library as their jaw drops open in surprise. NOW they know what to do! Some people call these "light bulb moments" because if the scene were portrayed in a cartoon, we would see a light...

CarrollBlog 1.2

I always enjoy watching people who wear sunglasses on cloudy days or at night. Or those who wear clothes like heavy leather jackets in summer. You look at the expressions on their faces to see if you can detect what they're trying to broadcast to the world by wearing those inappropriate things-- I'm cool. I'm mysterious. I'm famous. I'm all of these things. I mentioned this to someone the other day and they said, "You're being mean. Maybe they just want to wear the new sunglasses they bought ...

1.1.2010

Youth

by W.S. Merwin

Through all of youth I was looking for you

without knowing what I was looking for

or what to call you I think I did not

even know I was looking how would I

have known you when I saw you as I did

time after time when you appeared to me

as you did naked offering yourself

entirely at that moment and you let

me breathe you touch you taste you knowing

no more than I did and only when I

began to think of losing you did I

recognize you when you were already

par...

CarrollBlog 12.31

I've never been a big Bible quoter but recently I came across this one and it struck a deep note. Around the end of any year I'm always on the hunt for a good quote, poem or prose passage that might put us in the right frame of mind for the next 365. This line from the Bible does that really well. So Happy New Year, everyone. I hope 2010 both lifts and anchors us all in the best ways at the same time.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is...