Notes From Me
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Sunday, December 12, 2004
beer vending machines that talk, washing machines that have "fuzzy logic" printed on them as a motto, roadwork signs featuring cartoon elephants taking showers, blacklit karaoke rooms with galactic images on the walls, customers smoking while ordering at the counter of a quick lunch shop. Today I asked my students to make up questions for each other using words like exciting, frustrating, etc. So Kenkichi was asked what was boring about his weekend and first he said, "I was walking on a mountain path from Tanaka to Nachi and I met a man who told me it would be better to walk to a different peak, but that it was very steep. I went that way, and it was almost straight up. When I was within sight of the top I stopped because I had met another man who said a bear lived there and I was frightened. I went back down, and then walked a few hours to Nachi peak, then went out drinking and singing for five hours. I had a hangover the next day, and had nothing to do, so I was bored." I was reminded of Clarissa Pinkola Estes' version of a Japanese story about a mountain and a bear, which is meant to teach about handling rage and forgiveness. I was also thinking of the short story A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor, because whenever people hear about a bear or a mountain lion somewhere, they seem to get nervous, while I always think, cool, because there are so few wild animals left, but if I myself went hiking thinking how cool it was only to be harmed by an animal it would be like the grandma in A Good Man is Hard to Find... Mandatorily had to work at our school's Christmas party, a dual event, first for the kids then the adult students. It was mildly amusing. |
The Journal
Define and Concur, wild like cloudlight The Writer
Wooden boats, musical instruments and fireworks are some of the best inventions. And cameras. I don't believe in following any one person or set of ideas. There are tiny satiations like orchids along the viny forest floor, blooming unseen, more gorgeous than some could keep from weeping over. Whenever I see the occasional sun rise the colors always surprise me like the flavor of tahini in Holland. Subway cars make great rhythm along the tracks, as does wind in treebranches, the sound pattern of running engines, and sometimes clothes in a dryer. I like Sumerian poetry. Archives
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