Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 66

CarrollBlog 12.21

"I once knew a woman who liked to imagine Love in the guise of a sturdy dog, one that would always chase down the stick after it was thrown and return with his ears flopping around happily. Completely loyal, completely unconditional. And I laughed at her, because even I knew that love is not like that. Love is a delicate thing that needs to be cosseted and protected. Love is not robust and love is not unyielding. Love can crumble under a few harsh words, or be tossed away with a handful of...

CarrollBlog 12.20

People in Austria who are blind or sight impaired wear large yellow armbands with three black dots arranged in a triangle to alert the world that they are handicapped. Passing one of them today, I thought wouldn't it be convenient if others wore color coded bands like that for various "handicaps" or positive qualities. For example, white would mean this person is a son of a bitch-- proceed at your own risk. Orange would connote false friend. All black would indicate this person is...

CarrollBlog 12.19

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready...

CarrollBlog 12.18

My friend the SWAT policeman told a funny story. One of his colleagues is a no-nonsense, straight arrow cop who also happens to be physically huge and very scary looking. This man likes nothing more than to pull a car over, scold the driver for breaking the law, and then give them a summons. He prided himself on never letting anyone talk their way out of a ticket, no matter how valid or sad their reason. If you broke the law, you were punished. One day he stopped a car that was flying along w...

CarrollBlog 12.17

Every year at this time a pal goes a little crazy and bakes hundreds of Christmas cookies which she then gives away to her friends and co-workers. Each person gets a box that must weigh three pounds. Even if you're a Christmas cookie fanatic, it takes weeks to eat all of them. I got my stash earlier today. Carrying it home under my arm, I bumped into a really raggedy street person who looked like he hadn't had a merry Christmas in one hell of a long time. He asked for money. Instead I...

CarrollBlog 12.16

Every year at this time a pal goes a little crazy and bakes hundreds of Christmas cookies which she then gives away to her friends and co-workers. Each person gets a box that must weigh three pounds. Even if you're a Christmas cookie fanatic, it takes weeks to eat all of them. I got my stash earlier today. Carrying it home under my arm, I bumped into a really raggedy street person who looked like he hadn't had a merry Christmas in one hell of a long time. He asked for money. Instead I...

CarrollBlog 12.16

Love: Beginnings

by C. K. Williams

They're at that stage where so much desire streams between them, so much

frank need and want,

so much absorption in the other and the self and the self-admiring entity

and unity they make--

her mouth so full, breast so lifted, head thrown back so far in her laughter

at his laughter,

he so solid, planted, oaky, firm, so resonantly factual in the headiness of

being craved so,

she almost wreathed upon him as they intertwine again, touch again,

cheek, lip...

CarrollBlog 12.15

Passing a bunch of husky men unloading stuff from a large moving van, I remembered reading a list somewhere that of the ten most stressful events in life, moving house was near the top-- right up there with death and divorce. For the first time it struck me how most every time you see people moving in or out of a place, you're witnessing a paradigm event in their lives. Beginnings and endings. Great happiness or anticipation ("We're moving to Rio!") or at the other end of the scale, failure a...

CarrollBlog 12.14

It's always interesting to watch deaf or hearing impaired people conversing using hand language. Almost without exception, their faces are incredibly animated and *involved* in whatever it is they are discussing. It doesn't matter whether it is the speaker or the listener-- everyone in that conversation is fully immersed in it. Contrast that to people talking to one another who can hear. Just the expression on their faces tells you how frequently distracted or detached they are from what's...

CarrollBlog 12.13

One evening in the beginning of the relationship when they were getting to know each other and had written back and forth several times, he asked her to take a digital picture of herself right at that moment and email it to him. Surprised, she asked why? He wrote back--Spontaneity, no posed stuff, I'd just like to know what you look like right now, this minute. She responded But I still don't understand why. What if I asked you to do the same thing? In minutes she had a picture of him...