Meeting in the middle

I saw this Prickly City (pricklycity@gmail.com) cartoon by Scott Stantis awhile back (15 August 2010) and saved it because I thought it was so great.



It does a great job of showing the contentiousness involved in upholding binaries--up vs. down, in vs. out, for us vs. against us. Perhaps even more importantly, however, it shows the difficulty of attempting to work beyond binaries. That is, that even when do desire for unity/reconciliation/negotiation/etc. that we find ourselves in an environment where there is no middle ground.

However, it's not there is no middle ground available, just that we have not envisioned or created it (yet). So, here's to reminding us all that we can meet in the middle, but that sometimes in order to do so, we must create that middle!

Will Grayson, Will Grayon

Finished reading my first book of 2011, John Green and David Levithan's Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

As a fan of David Levithan, it was interesting to experience this collaboration with John Green. Having co-written an essay for a college class eons ago, I can only imagine that the process of co-writing a novel can be a difficult task, especially if the authors have different visions for the project at hand, or even different ideas of how to achieve a shared vision.

I certainly enjoyed the way in which Will Grayson, Will Grayson works it way together, as Will Grayson and the other Will Grayson's paths cross. I definitely appreciate the work Green and Levithan undertook to tell this story.

I found the following quotation from the book especially timely as I celebrate the start of a new year:

this is why we call people exes, i guess - because the paths that cross in the middle end up separating a the end. it's too easy to see an X as a cross-out. it's not, because there's no way to cross out something like that. the X is a diagram of two paths. (277)

I wanted to send holiday cards to a few exes this past year, in recognition/celebration/thanks for the time that our paths had crossed. Though those moments have passed, I felt the urge to send good thoughts and warm wishes to them now. In the end, I sent only one such card...fearing that the others wouldn't understand the appreciation I was trying to convey. But, if any of them happen to stumble across this blog, I hope they know that my sentiment of appreciation is sincere, and that I would not be where I am today without them.

I'm here now

I've been alive and well, though this blog has been more dead than alive for quite some time. I doubt anyone really comes across here regularly, except maybe spambots, so I don't expect to have been missed by others...but I do think that I've missed myself.

I started this blog as a way to encourage myself to write, as a way to chronicle my life and all the fullness of it which too often slips my mind. Then, I started living such a full life, that I didn't "feel" like I had time to blog. The reality is that I didn't make the time to blog, just like I don't make the time to do other things...

I want to make time again, for blogging, and for so much more!

Today I made the time to walk to the post office (and was amazed at all the changes in my neighborhood I saw--one restaurant almost opened, another one closed, one retail store closing, another one remodeling to enlarge...) and to read Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

One quick gem from the book, then back to it!

when things break, it's not the actual breaking that prevents them from getting back together again. it's because a little piece gets lost--the two remaining ends couldn't fit together even if they wanted to. the whole shape has changed. (174)