Thinking about Thoreau

I saw Thoreau's name in passing a few days ago.  I had been feeling the desire to sit outside of society and place judgement.  I thought of Walden and how lovely it would be to sit lakeside and dream and ponder and wish for better things in the world beyond the trees.  I, too, wish life were simpler.  I wish we could slow down and enjoy the little things.  I wish we had time to think about what we wanted and who we wanted to be.  And, I wish we had time to stop and think about not just ourselves, but our friends and even those who aren't our friends.  We live in a society marred by convenience.  We want to fill our lives to the extent that we never have time to sit and contemplate and look around.  What if we all just stopped for a moment.  Would we like what we saw?   Or, would we really see anything different than you might see lakeside?  We are a part of nature, afterall; we are just animals.  And animals are instinctually self preserving.  Nature is just as cruel and selfish as civilized society.  It just has an air of simplicity and dignity we seem to have lost.

As I was walking around thinking about this, I was also thinking about how nice it would be to have a giant to-go coffee in my hand...and how much more I could see and get done if I could just jump in my car...and how much I missed Trader Joe's ready-made pretty much anything.  So, really, I was missing the U.S. for all the reasons I so often complained about.  Apparently, even Thoreau walked into town on a regular basis for a little convenience. 

Trust and Balance

I spent my day Friday recovering from Thursday night and Friday night recovering from Friday day.

And, my favorite thing to do on a Friday night at home is to watch Bill Moyers on PBS. Yes, you heard me correctly. Anyway, this Friday he had on the poet Nikki Giovanni. She was amazing. I was so moved by everything she said and loved her poetry. Her latest book is called Bicycles. During the interview, Bill Moyers asked her why bicycles:

“Well, when I grew up, you learned to ride a bicycle by getting on a bicycle. Which means you're going to fall off. And love and life and bicycles are about trust and balance. It's about riding it and believing that this thing that doesn't make sense for you to be on, can move.”

Trust and balance. If I were searchable and had keywords, those would be mine.

…OK…well, I was going to expand on that, but my evening is starting earlier than expected. When faced with blogging vs. showering, I’ll go with showering.

I recently dated this guy who used to irritate me by saying “because I’m a Cancer…” bla bla bla. So, I’ll be irritating and leave you with this: Obviously trust and balance is important to me, because, after all, I’m a Libra.

Here's one of my favorite poems by Nikki Giovanni:

Choices

If i can't do

what i want to do

then my job is to not

do what i don't want

to do

It's not the same thing

but it's the best i can

do

If i can't have

what i want . . . then

my job is to want

what i've got

and be satisfied

that at least there

is something more to want

Since i can't go

where i need

to go . . . then i must . . . go

where the signs point

through always understanding

parallel movement

isn't lateral

When i can't express

what i really feel

i practice feeling

what i can express

and none of it is equal

I know

but that's why mankind

alone among the animals

learns to cry

-Nikki Giovanni