All at once, if I let it, the world can overwhelm me. The last couple of (blogless) days haven't been too out of the ordinary, but have seemed heavy... Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the loss of the baby birds we've been watching near the house, maybe it the pressure of meeting with a graduate studies program on lunch today, maybe it was me just being me and adding too many things to my plate as usual...and maybe I'm being a big whiner right now :-) Yeah, that's probably it...
Instead of babbling on in Whinese, I'll leave you with a little excerpt I've enjoyed pondering lately about decisions, and envy (connotations of green takes on another facet). This is by Elizabeth Gilbert: "The philosopher Odo Marquad has noted a correlation in the German language between the word zwei, which means "two," and the word zweifel, which means "doubt" - suggesting that two of anything brings the automatic possibility of uncertainty to our lives. Now imagine a life in which every day a person is presented with not two or even three but dozens of choices, and you can begin to grasp why the modern world has become, even with all its advantages, a neurosis-generating machine of the highest order. In a world of such abundant possibility, many of us simply go limp from indecision. Or we derail our life's journey again and again, backing up to try the doors we neglected on the first round, desperate to get it right this time. Or we become compulsive comparers - always measuring our lives against some other person's life, secretly wondering if we should have taken her path instead."
Food for thought? I'll have pictures of real food soon. Promise.
Love that passage. Elizabeth Gilbert is the Eat Pray Love author right? I really enjoyed the book, but I think the movie would be terrible. What I loved about the book, her analysis, her descriptions, her philosophical tangents would all be totally lost in the translation.
ReplyDeleteLaura, I think you and I are on a very similar fundamental wavelength. When you write things, I think "That's exactly it! That is how I have been feeling!" Except you are better at expressing it all than I am.
And I love Whinese. :-) What a great descriptor! Descripter? Whatever.
Hi Laura. It took me forever to realize who you were when you commented on my blog, but I really appreciated the comment. I just keep writing, and even though I know some family and close friends are reading, it meant a lot to find that I was able to reach someone else outside of that circle.
ReplyDeleteBethaney commented on a piece of mine from yesterday with your quote from Elizabeth Gilbert, so I took the effort to come read it for myself. Thank you for posting this! I'll come by more often. :)
Hi both of you! I'm not sure if this sends an alert when I've commented on your comment... maybe? Anyways, sorry that I am a bit slow in responding. I was glad to read that you both feel on the same wavelength. It makes me feel a little less crazy (:
ReplyDeleteVerity - I might have to work on the profile picture - that tree isn't exactly a clear indicator of who I am either, except that I like trees. Glad to be connected to you and your blog!