goood afternoon. pottery tonight! more glazing!! (i hope!) and breathing deeply, trying to believe i'll get everything done that i want to today. boop boop boop.
a poem, responding to a conversation overheard recently (about how we live in such an unimpressive time in history. a point i can see, but on the other hand, why complain about it? seems like we ought to be able to move and shake things up if we choose to...not that i do, anyhow.)
Complain of passion-drained complacency,
Of how you weren't alive when jazz was young
Missed all the most momentous history,
The pulse, pursuit-of-right, the waving gun...
And all that's left is violent and vain,
Or sitting on a couch, consuming scripts
Engaging just enough to keep you sane,
But when they break--you start to lose your grip.
But can't you make the history you have,
And write the music that you want to hear?
Are you not alive, with choice-at-hand,
Your call, your role--uncomfortably clear?
A vivid life does not require war,
Just waking up, and walking out your door.
Love this poem. We talked about this very phenomenon in my lifespan/development counseling class. I think our generation is pretty interesting... or maybe that's just psychologically ;) It seems like we're bothered by our own cynicism/complacency but not sure what to do with it. I love the last two lines. Is it ok if I save this one for possible use in a paper? I'd be sure to cite you.
ReplyDeleteoh thank you! of course you may save it, and i'd love to read a paper of yours sometime too if it's available :) yeah, it was a weird conversation because when you talk about how other generations had more to be passionate about, etc...alot of the reason for that passion seems to be war (or other negative things) and surely no one would actually wish for more war! i've read a few books lately (mentioned on the blog, i think...maisie dobbs for one series), that have to do with living through and through the aftermath of WWI, or WWII...and it's crazy. anyway, hope you're doing well!
ReplyDeleteThank you thank you. I am working on revising a paper on adolescent girls... not sure how much that has to do with this, but you can read it when it's done if you want :) And yeah I thought the same thing when my prof was critiquing our generation for being passive... I wonder if part of it is that earlier generations had big concrete problems HERE like the lack of civil rights or the wars (which seem to have impacted them a lot more than the war that's going on right now) whereas people in our generation want to mobilize about more slippery problems like poverty here or wars in other countries... ha anyway if you figure it out let me know, I find this quite interesting!
ReplyDeletesounds like an interesting paper, i'd love to read it :) ugh, i doubt i'll figure anything out, ever...but will be happy to pass on any acquired wisdom. it is interesting...sigh...i know the last thing i want to do is start thinking about political issues, because it all seems so big and nebulous (possibly 'slippery' :) ...which i'm sure is not a great attitude. confession of slothfulness. i don't know, but i'm pretty certain that feeling like there's nothing important going on is a sign of just not seeing things...if that makes sense. have a good evening!
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