Hah! That should be the title of every post.
As some of you may have noticed in between the incautiously welcomed End of All That’s Wretched and the funny stories about New Mexico, I’m a man who tries to watch himself. I don’t mean “be cautious,” I mean observe. You know, accept responsibility for shifting subtexts, learn to find my center. Since most of us were raised by farm animals, I figure it’s not necessary to go into why this is important, right? And those of you who grew up on love are certainly excused, because why bother looking for what you’ve always had.
What I’ve slowly come to learn, however, is that we all “grew up on love,” only some of us don’t know it. It’s like there’s this one giant vault that holds this stuff, and when you’re born, your parents open an account for you. Failing that, the only way to get some is to try to bust your way inside. No, that doesn’t work, but never mind: it sets you up for things that do.
If anyone’s still with me, what I want to say is that no matter what, even after all of that, you’re still gonna get bit! With sufficient effort of spirit, however — we might call this will or conscious attention — you can pry the python off your neck. Each time you do, it gets a little easier. A little, I said! And yes, that’s supposed to cheer you up.
Works for me, muchachos. And on its deepest level, life is good.
Comment by K.J. Webb
1 January 15, 2008, 11:39 am o'clock |
I found myself nodding approvingly as I read this piece, John. Some very bad things have happened and will happen to us all, but the human spirit is a resilient thing. I just read in the papers this morning the story of a young woman now 25 years old who had this in her past: At the age of 6 she had been sexually abused by her father, who went to jail for that crime. Her mother, for reasons one can only surmise, poured gasoline over the girl, herself and two other children and set all of them ablaze. Everyone died except this young girl. She was brought up thereafter in a good though very large home of a couple who made a specialty of taking in very badly damaged children. (These folks were evangelical Christians, so keep that in mind when you think hard thoughts about such people.) The girl ended up thriving in school and university, shedding light and happiness around her as she grew up. She’s now about to get married and looks forward to having children of her own….
The newspaper story is probably a bit rosy-coloured, but I hope it is halfway true. It really brought tears to my eyes. Reminded me of some of Shakespeare’s great late plays (called “the Romances”) in which similarly innocent abused girls mysteriously transform the world, bring good out of evil and emerge unscathed from the most horrible of experiences. The human spirit is a mysterious and potent thing.