This cat lives at our house. We're not allowed to have pets, don't tell.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Thanks! featured photo etc.
This cat lives at our house. We're not allowed to have pets, don't tell.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Skiing in Durango, notes on redundancy, and a curious case of the buts
Much to say about Not Skiing
A free write.
I decided long ago that I needed to do more things in life to enjoy it more. I agreed to go on a ski trip to Durango. It has been a wonderful experience mostly because I did anything BUT ski. That's right, 'but' in capital letters and standing out as a preposition works in many ways here. But here, I must interject more buts. (Here my but functions as a conjunction and another is the subject). The things that I did instead of ("instead of" is quasi functioning as my but here) was lots of hot tubbing, going on a dangerous run that could have cost me my life if I had serious heart problems (but I don't), and enjoying the laughter of great friends I made who wanted nothing but laughter.
They teach you not to be redundant but I beg to differ.
Redundancy is a part of life and it is something necessary to enjoy it properly. For example, if you are going on a ski trip to Durango as I did, but (or "though" in this case) I didn't actually ski, you would want to go on the ski lifts over and over again and you would go down the slopes over and over again in a redundant fashion. That's the only way you enjoy yourself and eventually get better at it or anything in life.
If you ski a lot you will be better at skiing, but writing is different, or so they insist. For instance, it would be completely silly for me to repeat myself in a college essay they say. But I repeat my thesis at the end of that essay, and I repeat my thoughts just in case you missed it. In fact this is how they tell you to write an essay basically: "Tell them, Tell them what you just told with three solid points, and tell them again." But don't be redundant, that's just annoying.
So, to review. I went skiing, but I didn't ski. I'm ok with talking about and using buts a lot while I write. And I think that redundancy is necessary in life, but it's annoying to English professors even though they profess that doing it is what makes the best essay. "Just kidding but don't, but seriously, do it."
I wrote no essays while I didn't ski. I began a letter which "should" be a lot like an essay, but it's not. I began a journal entry which probably should be freely written but it always ends up being summed up and more organized than most essays I've ever written. That's the trouble with writing, the more you practice, (like skiing) the better you get. The more I practice writing, the more I think about all the rules I'm supposed to be following.
I sat in a hot tub in Durango while my friends skiied. I told myself to relax and do very little to keep my mind occupied and worried about things that don't need to be worried about. These rules about having no rules are quite troubling and hard to follow like writing, skiing, using buts, and snowboarding. There is a time to follow no rules and there is a time to follow all the rules, and relaxing is a lot like free writing where inhibitions in your mind still interrupt your freedom. It's like, "no I want to write about candy, but I don't want to forget those awesome turnips that I ate too!"
Going skiing on my trip would have been like deleting a bad paragraph that just didn't fit with the tone of my college essay. That paragraph would have likely been redundant with lot of buts. Though I wanted to, relaxing, thinking, praying, spending time with people, and such, was what I came for. "That was what I was going to do dang it!" I had time to run up and down the hill to the ski resort from the highway, catch amazing vistas, spend some quality time with some quality people, and get some quality relaxation in.
I share my inhibitions about writing with you dear reader (if you have managed to make it this far) because it is a lot like the way my mind works. You see, my mind skis down slopes and manages to make the best runs at times with nothing getting in its way. If it does see a tree, it coolly goes around, if it makes a jump on a pass, it lands smoothly. But. It isn't always like that. Many times it is like a bad run, it thinks that the tree really does affect it, it is afraid of the jumps and never lands smoothly. If it lands terribly, it pretends to get up and say it was just fine with excuses as to why it fell down in the first place.
At times your mind wants nothing to do with skiing, it wants to take no risks, not fall down, not win awards, not be the best. Because the best thing for it is to enjoy what is around it and not make any more or less of what is around it than what it is.
On this ski trip, I learned all the more about wanting more and more. That is I learned about the concept of "wanting" itself not wanting more things necessarily. The thing that causes us pain is wanting things to go a certain way. This is the thing I've learned most this year. Knowing that everything will NOT go as planned is a relief. Because you know that much already. Some things are just inevitable. You will likely loose money, you will likely mess up, you will probably feel bad. But the nice thing about that all is that lots of good things will happen in a way that you never expected as well.
It was nice to NOT want to ski. Because then I didn't have to want to ski better, or perfectly, or something. I don't mean to say, "avoid things and you'll be happy" or "don't ski and you'll appreciate things more" or something lame like that. I'm using skiing as an example to say something bigger.
Here it goes: Why want so many things when we already have everything to begin with? God gave us everything we need. Everything is inside us if we look to it an accept it. With that knowledge, we can do something with it. With the understanding and the choice to live life as if you have been given all you need already, there is so much to do.
This is basically a free write. But. You know, there were some touch ups here and there. So to sum again: Skiing is great, do it because you already have JOY in you, not because you need JOY from it. And Joy will come of you doing it. (Skiing is a life example here, not something to live your life by.)
Like I said, this was a free write. Conclusion, conclusion, conclusion, something that sums up things with Buts, skiing, redundancies, redundancies, redundancies and free writes now I guess. God gives you so much so accept it.
Also: Cats.
A free write.
 |
| A sea monster relaxing in a Durango ski resort hot tub. |
They teach you not to be redundant but I beg to differ.
Redundancy is a part of life and it is something necessary to enjoy it properly. For example, if you are going on a ski trip to Durango as I did, but (or "though" in this case) I didn't actually ski, you would want to go on the ski lifts over and over again and you would go down the slopes over and over again in a redundant fashion. That's the only way you enjoy yourself and eventually get better at it or anything in life.
If you ski a lot you will be better at skiing, but writing is different, or so they insist. For instance, it would be completely silly for me to repeat myself in a college essay they say. But I repeat my thesis at the end of that essay, and I repeat my thoughts just in case you missed it. In fact this is how they tell you to write an essay basically: "Tell them, Tell them what you just told with three solid points, and tell them again." But don't be redundant, that's just annoying.
So, to review. I went skiing, but I didn't ski. I'm ok with talking about and using buts a lot while I write. And I think that redundancy is necessary in life, but it's annoying to English professors even though they profess that doing it is what makes the best essay. "Just kidding but don't, but seriously, do it."
 |
| The same sea monster relaxing in the same hot tub. |
I sat in a hot tub in Durango while my friends skiied. I told myself to relax and do very little to keep my mind occupied and worried about things that don't need to be worried about. These rules about having no rules are quite troubling and hard to follow like writing, skiing, using buts, and snowboarding. There is a time to follow no rules and there is a time to follow all the rules, and relaxing is a lot like free writing where inhibitions in your mind still interrupt your freedom. It's like, "no I want to write about candy, but I don't want to forget those awesome turnips that I ate too!"
Going skiing on my trip would have been like deleting a bad paragraph that just didn't fit with the tone of my college essay. That paragraph would have likely been redundant with lot of buts. Though I wanted to, relaxing, thinking, praying, spending time with people, and such, was what I came for. "That was what I was going to do dang it!" I had time to run up and down the hill to the ski resort from the highway, catch amazing vistas, spend some quality time with some quality people, and get some quality relaxation in.
I share my inhibitions about writing with you dear reader (if you have managed to make it this far) because it is a lot like the way my mind works. You see, my mind skis down slopes and manages to make the best runs at times with nothing getting in its way. If it does see a tree, it coolly goes around, if it makes a jump on a pass, it lands smoothly. But. It isn't always like that. Many times it is like a bad run, it thinks that the tree really does affect it, it is afraid of the jumps and never lands smoothly. If it lands terribly, it pretends to get up and say it was just fine with excuses as to why it fell down in the first place.
At times your mind wants nothing to do with skiing, it wants to take no risks, not fall down, not win awards, not be the best. Because the best thing for it is to enjoy what is around it and not make any more or less of what is around it than what it is.
On this ski trip, I learned all the more about wanting more and more. That is I learned about the concept of "wanting" itself not wanting more things necessarily. The thing that causes us pain is wanting things to go a certain way. This is the thing I've learned most this year. Knowing that everything will NOT go as planned is a relief. Because you know that much already. Some things are just inevitable. You will likely loose money, you will likely mess up, you will probably feel bad. But the nice thing about that all is that lots of good things will happen in a way that you never expected as well.
It was nice to NOT want to ski. Because then I didn't have to want to ski better, or perfectly, or something. I don't mean to say, "avoid things and you'll be happy" or "don't ski and you'll appreciate things more" or something lame like that. I'm using skiing as an example to say something bigger.
 |
| An unfortunate man. (His identity kept secret). |
Here it goes: Why want so many things when we already have everything to begin with? God gave us everything we need. Everything is inside us if we look to it an accept it. With that knowledge, we can do something with it. With the understanding and the choice to live life as if you have been given all you need already, there is so much to do.
This is basically a free write. But. You know, there were some touch ups here and there. So to sum again: Skiing is great, do it because you already have JOY in you, not because you need JOY from it. And Joy will come of you doing it. (Skiing is a life example here, not something to live your life by.)
Like I said, this was a free write. Conclusion, conclusion, conclusion, something that sums up things with Buts, skiing, redundancies, redundancies, redundancies and free writes now I guess. God gives you so much so accept it.
Also: Cats.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)