Joan Didion says about a particular west-coast child moving east, "...It must have seemed to such a western child that he had at last met the 'real world,' the 'great' world, the world to beat." I didn't know that, in 1979, people thought that way about the east coast. I certainly bought into the myth that my life back east, although unyieldingly difficult, was more 'real.' When I thought about the idealism of the west, I judged it as clouded in brushfire smoke - dense heads, oblivious to harsher weather, stronger personalties, and multiple cultures.
Why do westerners equate difficulty with progress? I'm sure Joan Didion would argue that it's a sentiment that originates as far back as the westward expansion. The Donner Party. And continues with our masochistic residences in prime earthquake and fire zones.
All this new-agey metaphysical thinking tells us to follow those things that make our souls swell, not those things that make us tired, bog us down. It's in our body - the signals for what we do and don't want. Therefore, why did I live in New York so long? To live out a life that I perceived, as Didion writes, as "more real?"
In her writing, I think I've finally found the predecessor to blog - or short snippet writing - anecdotal, strange, wandering, seemingly unconnected even though everything is connected.
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In other news, using the word 'donkey' as an adjective is my newest favorite thing. As in, "What a donkey recipe for cheesecake." Or, "That's the donkiest position on the war that I've ever heard."
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