"
There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?”
And the two young fish swim on for a bit and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”
"
David Foster Wallace, This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
@7 months ago with 9 notes
#David Foster Wallace #This Is Water #life #read #book
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
@1 year ago with 2 notes
#Walt Whitman #O Me! O Life! #poetry #poem #Whitman #life
I had it in my head that today I would write some big long post about what happened. Or maybe an email— a long, eloquent one. And I’d send it out to my best friends and the people who were there for me through everything. It would say everything I never said, it would explain everything I never could, and mostly, it would say thank you. But today is winding down, and, well, that didn’t happen.
The truth is, today was both harder and easier than I expected. I went to work and, honestly, hardly thought about it. Tonight, on the other hand, brought a lot of emotions— most of which, I’m not entirely sure why I’m feeling. So, here is what I have to say:
A year ago something really shitty happened. I can’t blame anyone for it, and I can’t do anything about it. It just happened. And that sucked. A lot. But I got through it, mostly with the help of the incredible network of friends, family, and complete strangers I’m lucky enough to have. I will never be able to thank them enough for everything they did, and I’ll probably never stop feeling guilty for it, either.
It wasn’t the most graceful recovery, and I certainly wasn’t always the best patient. The hardest part wasn’t the physical injury (though I’ll admit, a shattered pelvis isn’t any fun), but really the emotional toll it took. I felt like I had lost every ounce of independence. I felt like a burden on my family and my friends. I was so angry at times that I was stuck there I just wanted to scream. But eventually that ended and I started walking. Then I was climbing stairs. And soon enough I was going out for coffee. Then ice cream. And then beer.
Admittedly, the last year has had it’s ups and downs. The accident (that sounds so ominous) affected me in a lot of ways that I never anticipated… and realizing that has been incredibly hard for me (see: that time in New York I cried over maybe the most delicious meal ever… Sorry, Jo). But I’m trying to work through it and to better myself because of it and get to a point where it’s just some faint memory— and not just because I was heavily medicated.
I feel like this post isn’t going where I want it to, so I’m just going to end it here. Maybe next year I’ll set up some sort of interview scenario (that was a joke, Katie). I’m going to leave you with a quick story about something amusing that has come from “the accident”:
I have two pretty major scars on my chest (in addition to the billions of small ones scattered everywhere else). They have since faded significantly, but were pretty bright red/purple last summer. Now, I was (obviously) completely aware of them, but still slightly shocked whenever guys would use them as a pick up line— yes, they do that. So whenever someone would come over and begin a conversation with “wow, those are some pretty gnarly scratches… do you have a cat or something?” I would decide to tell a significantly more interesting story (i.e. stuck in a tree due to skydiving mishap). I managed to convince more than a few guys that these obscure, unbelievable things happened to me, but I might have taken it a step too far when I told the bartender I have the hots for (it’s always a bartender with me, isn’t it?) that I was mauled by a bear. In Guam.
I don’t even think they have bears in Guam.
@1 year ago with 1 note
#life #accident #bear #bears #Guam #oops
