Tag Archives: Jambi

literature

Passion and Gratitude

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So I was talking to a recently acquired friend about my love affair with Chekhov. God help us all when I get to talking about Chekhov.

I don’t even know a whole lot about Anton Chekhov. I only know “Lady with the Pet Dog.”

Actually we were talking about what I would consider “good literature,” but even that was after the point of origin. We were talking about passion. Yes, that was it, indeed.

We were talking about passion, about living a passionate life, about what made one passionate.

So I started discussing literature, which, is as far as I’m concerned, started for me with Anton Checkhov’s “Lady with the Pet Dog.”

Anton Checkhov’s story is all about passion, or rather, it culminates in what I consider to be the perfect example of passion. It’s a rather unoriginal story when reduced to its plot: man meets girl, man gets girl, man loses girl, man summons courage to get her back, and the end is left open, while optimistic (at least in the mind of the lovers) it is open ended and ambiguous.

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college, semester break

A Very Jambi New Year

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I’m in a weird mood. A making-up-words mood (this post was originally titled “Musically Unvocabulated”). A sore mood. A coughing, agitated mood.

But overall, a very Jambi mood.

I took a long, hard look over 2007. The first thing I noticed was how much had happened last year. The second thing I noticed was that a lot of the stuff that had happened was loss. Some good in it, but mostly sad, aching loss.

There was a lot of loss this year. Not just for me, personally, but for a lot of people I know as well.

It was a tough year, seemingly comprised of losses, set backs, and frustration.

But it was a really good year, too, I think, despite all of that.

I’m hoping that 2008 will have magnificent losses: loss of old habits, of old fears, that sort of thing. Which is good, because I have my work cut out for me.

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Journey, semester break

A Brand New Year (Or Close Enough)

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This time is normally a time of reflection and writing for me. I accomplish more non-school related writing between the middle of December and the middle of January than any other time of the year.

I haven’t done my normal end of semester activities: devoured movies, gone to the country, or driven all over hell and back. I’ve mostly slept and sneezed.

I looked at the blog entries: inconsequential things, really, and not at all reflective of what’s been going on.

I thought when I’d finally get around to doing a New Year’s blog entry, I’d be full of optimism or, possibly, pessimism. I’d cry “I’ve taken stock and this is what I want, where I am, yoohoo!”

Instead, I’ve found myself thoroughly lost within a song.

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