Well

All is well.

Prin dorm. 1.11.10

"Quit acting like a wolf, and feel 
the shepherd's love filling you."

Principle 2: And Ye Shall Love Them Right Away

England Abroaders. August 26, 2008.

I've told people so many times, "I learned so much on the England Abroad." But I rarely venture into the specifics–I guess because it's almost painful to reduce such beautiful lessons to words.

Usually, if asked, "Well then, what did you learn?" I share the easiest lesson to describe: I learned to love everyone right away.

I learned that if you spend six weeks with anyone on an abroad in England, you will love them, so why not love them immediately?

You might object, "But if I spent six weeks with this person, I'd be even more eager to vandalize their garden gnomes." But really, the key to the England Abroad was that all of us were prayerfully supporting it the whole summer before we went and the whole time we were there. So, I'm saying, if you're in that type of environment with any individual, you'll come to love them.

When we got back to campus, we spent three and a half weeks rehearsing for our production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. People who peeked in the Black Box and saw us rehearsing noted that we were like one light. I'd never been in such a cohesive group, a group in which every member poured forth affection and support and dearness.

At the end of the abroad, I thought, "Why didn't I just love them all immediately? It was going to come to love anyway, so it would have been best–most efficient, most accurate–to start out with that assumption." Love is the most obvious end result in every case, so it makes sense to start with it.

Principle 2: Try to love everyone right away, before they've done anything to acquire your love, before you know their favorite cereal, before you know their name.

"I don't care
Who you are (who you are)
Where you're from (where you're from)
What you did"

Principle 1

People don't like creepo bathroom self-portraits. October 9, 2009.

I graduated in June 2010. I've had a year to think about the principles I want to keep in my life, ideas I care about that I don't want to ever lose sight of.

Principle 1:
Don't let your weird and generalized conceptions of what people think interfere with your doing what you intuit to be the most right. Kenneth Branagh said in Ivanov, a play Ripe saw at Shakespeare's Globe, "Who is 'people'? I’ve never met 'people.'"

"How many looks does it take
to read your mind, oh, on your face?"

Rain, Snow, Sleet, Hail, Sun

I like Sleek’s comment on my last post: “But I love talking about the weather! I couldn’t get out of the habit after going to England, hehe.” I wish to find all things magical, including weather talk, so it's nice to hear someone I love defend it.

I don’t think the statement I made about weather talk is complete–maybe not completely accurate.

The most absolute statement I could make, and thus the most accurate, would be: I love everyone, and I love them when they’re talking about weather just as much as I love them when they’re talking about Moby Dick.

Salmon Pie by Blondie. February 2011.

"You took your coat off and stood in the rain,
You were always crazy like that."

Nothing New vs. Everything New

I have intimated before that I stick up my nose to conversations about the weather. I won’t participate in it. When people ask, 'Could it get any hotter?,' I give them a quick nod, thinking 'Yes, I know. Hot. Big surprise. It’s June 1.' I won’t even LOOK at a weather report.

Maybe I shouldn’t be such a priss.

If I’m going to take a stand against weather talk, why don’t I also refuse to answer the question 'What’s up?' and spit when someone uses an idiomatic phrase? The reason I’m upset about weather talk is that it lacks freshness and originality. But, so what? A lot of people say, and the Bible says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” I know, to a certain degree, that is true, but I also love originality, and I think we should settle as little as possible for the, uh, dronespeak, and try to, um, really say something.

“Courts, it’s really hot outside.” “Oh, really, IS THAT ALL YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT?!”

"I push my fingers into my eyes
It's the only thing that slowly stops the ache
But it's made of all the things I have to take
Jesus, it never ends, it works its way inside
If the pain goes on
Aaaaaaaah!"