The story will open; the good idea will hint at what is changed, at what is ambitious.
If no one sounded the alarm, if no one sounded the future, the soundless would sit similarly. The tension, that trill, lies in the better days. The thrilling is so close.
I think about what will thrill me then
*
In Yiddish, verklempt means to be overwhelmed with emotion. In German, it means to be uptight. Maybe feeling escalates us to odds. Maybe it spirits us into our manifesting of what is strict or shrill.
*
What is in the second wave, other than what is numerical?
What do we rebuild?
*
A student tells me she hates this and wants to be back at school and we both laugh because that’s a first and we know it. In a poem, she writes that a breath of air outside was like her soul on fire and I meditate on that flare.
There is so much that we miss. There is so much that we take for granted. There is so much good we are waiting for, but who wills the sound of it?
*
Did you know that once, lightning hit limestone, which created cement and thereby created ancient cities? It makes me think about the cradle of modern civilization. What does that even mean anymore?
What is modern?
What is civilized?
*
Another student tells me there’s a new app for people who want pen-pals. The app delivers electronic mail in real time. It simulates the waiting. It simulates our longing and thrill. I love the idea of connecting, but why not write a real letter? Why simulate something that already exists? Slowly, we are remembering what we already remember. It is a renaissance, a doubling, a kickback of feeling.
Leave a Reply