Dive Deep and Swim Far

"Be not a slave of your own past.  Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old."

                                                                                                                                    -Emerson

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Ralph Waldo Emerson was from the last Lost Generation.  Generation X is also considered a Lost Generation....


(c) 2012 photography by Chloe - all rights reserved

This Hurt Will Hurt No More

It is said that Joey Ramone was listening to U2's "In a Little While" when he died in 2001. Although the lyrics are clearly about being in love, I got to thinking about how parts of this song would resonate with me if I was in a place where I was about to cross over to the other side.  My eyes were drawn to these lyrics as I dusted off my All That You Can't Leave Behind album: 

...In a little while
This hurt will hurt no more
I'll be home...

When the night takes a deep breath and the daylight has no air
If I crawl, if I come crawling home
Will you be there? 

After hearing about the death of Joey Ramone, Bono said that the song was initially about a lovestruck hangover, but that Joey turned it into a gospel song.  It's kind of amazing the way things come full circle - back in the days of  U2 as a garage band, their initial influences included a lot of punk, including the Ramones. 

And now here we are approaching a time of year that is hard for many Xers: the holidays.  While we try to keep up our spirits with new traditions that we have made with our own families, and while we are intentional about bringing back good things we remember - like the TV specials we held dear or good food we ate, there is the undertow of the memories of growing up among a lot of fracture in society - fractures that usually became even wider when the holidays came. 

As the holidays approach, I'm thinking a lot this year about the brevity of life - it helps me to keep things in perspective when it all starts to get overwhelming.  I'm thinking a lot these days about how, in a little while, this hurt will hurt no more. 

The Days Go Rushing By

Today I went online to find a person from my very distant past, only to find that they had passed away.   Unfortunately, the older we get, the more this happens.   Life is so incredibly short, and when you are a kid, or a teenager, or even a twenty-something, you hear older people say that and you don't believe it.  You're not sure what they're talking about.  When you are young, time goes by so slow, the minutes and the hours drag on relentlessly.  The days and the weeks are endless.  It feel like ages just to get from fall to winter.   As an adult, time just keeps going by faster. 

In the autumn days of my younger years, time was slow and my mind was always drifting.  I would get in trouble for not paying attention in class.  My punishment was to stay in at recess....

While winds were blowing out on the playground, I was toasty warm inside. The room was peaceful and I would catch up on my work while listening to the comforting sound of staples being pushed into corkboard as my teacher attached orange and yellow construction paper leaves to the bulletin board. One day of time then is like one month of time now.

When long months stretched out in front of me, I feared that I would be small forever.  When seasons seemed to last for years, I hoped that the leaves would stay gold forever.  It felt like those days might go on forever.