Really appreciated this one, Annie. I think a lot about what you said around the transition between high school and "adulthood". Specifically, when you wrote "we adults have tasted the lie that is thinking we can ever know where we will end up." I wonder sometimes about whether or not life circumstance allows for this type of liberated understanding of what adulthood can be. I feel that there are many people, actually, who actually can and do know exactly where they'll end up. Are they happy or satisfied or even aware? I don't know. I also love the idea of life as a thesaurus, but who gets to take advantage of the Roget-style litany of themes and who is stuck with the limits of thesaurus.com? Just something on which I'm noodling. Thanks, as always, for writing.
It makes me so happy to know that across the country, there is someone as thoughtful as you Jerry reading my musings. I think this year in particular has reminded me that we don’t really know at all what is in our paths - whether that’s loved ones passing, world events, sudden natural disasters, accidents. I guess what struck me is how often I found myself planning 10 steps ahead without realizing that that narrowness didn’t take into account all of these bumps that would inevitable take me off course. I find it helpful to think in these more whimsical ways, knowing at the same time that my particular position makes them possible, because it allows me to give myself the permission to take each day as it comes. Even the acknowledgment that there are other paths allows me to settle in a little and I also wonder if it is a way of thinking applicable to others. I am definitely going to think more about this broader tension you pose though, and I’m sending you a big hug and thank you for receiving what I put out <3
Really appreciated this one, Annie. I think a lot about what you said around the transition between high school and "adulthood". Specifically, when you wrote "we adults have tasted the lie that is thinking we can ever know where we will end up." I wonder sometimes about whether or not life circumstance allows for this type of liberated understanding of what adulthood can be. I feel that there are many people, actually, who actually can and do know exactly where they'll end up. Are they happy or satisfied or even aware? I don't know. I also love the idea of life as a thesaurus, but who gets to take advantage of the Roget-style litany of themes and who is stuck with the limits of thesaurus.com? Just something on which I'm noodling. Thanks, as always, for writing.
It makes me so happy to know that across the country, there is someone as thoughtful as you Jerry reading my musings. I think this year in particular has reminded me that we don’t really know at all what is in our paths - whether that’s loved ones passing, world events, sudden natural disasters, accidents. I guess what struck me is how often I found myself planning 10 steps ahead without realizing that that narrowness didn’t take into account all of these bumps that would inevitable take me off course. I find it helpful to think in these more whimsical ways, knowing at the same time that my particular position makes them possible, because it allows me to give myself the permission to take each day as it comes. Even the acknowledgment that there are other paths allows me to settle in a little and I also wonder if it is a way of thinking applicable to others. I am definitely going to think more about this broader tension you pose though, and I’m sending you a big hug and thank you for receiving what I put out <3