Pat Schneider Poem

The Patience of Ordinary Things

"It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea.
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare
How the floor receives the bottom of shoes or toes.
How soles of feet know where they’re supposed to be
I’ve been thinking about the patience of ordinary things
How clothes wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in a dish
And towels drink the wet from the skin of the back
And the lovely repetition of stairs
And what is more generous than a window?"

Pat Schneider
From: Another River, New and Selected Poems

Excuse me but...

What does William Defoe, Chelsea Clinton, and The Postal Service have in common? Little or nothing really, but it sounds funny to list them as if they were all part of some chain of events or story.
The only thing they really have in common is that I've been thinking about them all lately.
I've been trying on new English terms like penned and unreliable narrator more to get used to them, but so far they don't really fit into my vocab wardrobe. For instance someone might say that William Defoe "penned" Robinson Crusoe where as I would like to put it Bill D. wrote it.
This English class has been many things to me so far. I've found some people that are more intelligent than I am. A wonder at USC Upstate. That sounds cocky, but it really isn't. Most people I've met at Upstate aren't very bright. I've learned to be humble as well. I'm not the smartest in my class, in my row, or even than any other person in the class. I'm in a room full of English majors. Experienced in the wiles of analyzing literature on a higher level. I think I fall under the "book club" level of analysis and criticism. I'll let you know after the first paper.
The only "ah ha" I've really had in class was today when Dr. W. made a reference to The Postal Service and I was able to chime in. Thank you P.S.



I sat around with Chelsea Clinton last Friday. She almost convinced me to vote for her mother but nothing really stood out that made me switch from Senator Obama. I will say that Chelsea is good looking in person, she needed some chap stick and a nap, but when you are meeting and greeting for your mama, tiredness and neglected lips happen. If you see her on the side of the street pay her attention, I mean the poor girl has Bill and Hillary for parents.

Appreciate people

Xury didn't die. Rob sold him.
That is ironic- you'll see why by the end of this blog. I hope.

I've always thought a lot about things. I think I can attribute that to many things. Allow me to speak on two. Number one, I am an only child. When I tell people that they tend to understand right away. I hear, "well that makes sense" or, "I could have guessed that". I think it has something to do with my selfishness but I also think that it has something to do with my independence/stubborness as well. I've always had my own mind about things, and those that challenged my way of thinking needed to be squashed like a bug with my cruel tongue, or ignored and labeled as radioactive material or as a bag of horse shit. I can tell that thinking things over and over again is partly due to my "only childness".
The second thing that I feel makes me an over thinker is my dear mother. I think I've heard her say exactly what she means six times. I can remember those times because they allowed me to understand how she felt right away and didn't involve me looking into things, asking questions, and coming up with my own conclusions. It was nice. For the other times though, I think those trained me to hear one thing from people and to believe another.

What I wanted to write about tonight was how people enter and leave our lives so frequently, sometimes to great sorrow and some not soon enough, which is how Xury and Robinson Crusoe were. In and out of each others lives. Call me a sentimental wah-wah, but because of my darn thinking, I have come up with a conclusion about people in our lives. They are precious. Your third grade teacher, the gas station attendant who looks you in the eye and says have a great day and means it, your best friend in elementary school who you have no idea where he is now, your first crush, those people who have hurt you and made you cry until tears wouldn't come, and those who made you laugh with joy until tears were in your eyes. There are countless people in our lives and they make a difference in who we are and how we think. I don't think we really give a damn for people who are starving on the street until we meet someone who is starving. Now, I'm not saying that the person who flicked you off the other day because you pulled in front of them in traffic will alter your life, or that the man at the groccery store who lets you go ahead of him because you only have three items will melt your heart enough to give money to the Alzheimers Association, but don't dismiss encounters as just encounters. People are brought into our lives for a reason, and vice-versa.

All this so I could tell you to appreciate people. Funny how something so simple to say turns into a rant at 12:30am. If I am to do anything with my life, taking chances with my heart has to be a part of that. Will you open yours?

Xury is going to die soon.

Two blogs in one night. I know what you're thinking: "he must be bored". Maybe a little.
I had my first day of class this morning. Synopsis: OH CRAP. Haha.
I was only able to keep one class this semester. Times are tough but I feel pretty secure. I think it is a "deer in the headlights" kind of secure. Eh, time will tell.

So the one class I'm taking satisfies an ethnic/diversity credit I need. (These phantom credits keep popping up in advisement sessions). It is a high level English course. I could have taken another history class but I couldn't do that to myself again. I find it very boring, or have been taught the subject by boring teachers. Anyway, this class is on The Development of the Novel. Right off the bat it sounds like a lot of reading. I was prepared for that. I already knew that it involved 8 novels- heck, I like to read, so why not?

Well...(deep subject I know)
The syllabus we received in class today was daunting. There will be a lot of work involved.
Call it divine intervention or a "lesson to be learned" that I can only take one class, either way here goes.

This is my reading list for the semester.

• Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe and J. M. Coetzee, Foe: A Novel
• Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
• Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary and Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot
• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway and Michael Cunningham, The Hours

If you have any insight about any of these works in general, do tell.

First up- Mr. Crusoe.
On page 28. So far I like young Xury: Crusoe's "ship" mate.
Don't spoil it for me, but I think lil' Xury is soon to be toast.

Good thing my magazine subscriptions are up- no time to read by choice.

*Small warning- I'm going to be talking about this until May.*
Sorry.

Heroes

Here are some quotes from some people I admire. I admire them for different reasons, you'll see.

"I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes cowards of us."
Dorothy Day
-May I reccommend, "The Long Loneliness" by Day, Dorothy. This idea has been quoted many times, but never so vividly with a phrase like, "dark menace". That really captures the feeling I've experienced in the past.

"...of songwriters who sing in their own voice, Spektor says, 'It's almost like putting a ball and chain around your foot and being sentenced to being yourself. Who the hell wants to be themselves all the time? It's so boring.'"
National Public Radio, "Stories in Song Regnia Spektor
-To be honest, I didn't know about this quote but I hoped she would say something like this. This quote is meaningful to me for obvious reasons.



"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
C.S. Lewis
-I had to include my man Lewis. This man is intelligent, a speaker of truth and love...He speaks from an "I've experienced that" perspective. I like that.



So, more heroes tomorrow maybe.
Who are your heroes?

Some new stuff

I changed some stuff including my profile and some list stuff over to the right.


I talked with my pal Amber last night about poetry and today I looked at lots of poems thinking about what poem I might like to memorize. She came up with the idea to memorize poetry: her co-workers are doing it too.
I have to admit that I don't understand a lot of the poems I read today. I'm still looking for one to recite- Library on Thursday. Looking will be fun...I hope.