Your Fierce Invalid
Saturday, September 29, 2018
Fighting For Authenticity
We must always be fighting for our authentic selves. It comes at the cost of the commodity, and the regular production and exchange of the commodity actively convinces us that we are no more than mere commodity. Yet, we can only fully explores ourselves as unique selves if we fight and struggle to create space to do so. Everyday, forces actively work against us, whether they are forces of the need to socially reproduce ourselves in and through work or the forces of social pressure which beckon us to conform. But if we struggle, work and toil to create that special space, and to preserve its wonder and sanctuary of play, self-creation and self-exploration, then we have created something wonderful and beautiful. We do not need to accept what others want of us, what policing words or judgmental glares involve. We are us, wholly and beautifully us. And if we give that up, we give up something essential, critical, integral to our being. We must everyday be following that path, tugging at the pull of what we could and will become, if we follow it, give in to it while not giving in the weakness of giving up. The path is so often lonely and difficult, but if we have faith and trust, we have what we need to survive and thrive. It is the path of who could become, what we want to be.
Saturday, September 1, 2018
Being Too Much
The traumas of one relationship often bleed into others
I carry a fear with me about being too much: texting too much, asking too much, inviting too much, and it interferes with a kind of genuine, authentic expression of interest and being
I do like this or that person, and I know I need to restrain myself somewhat, but if I am interested, is it not OK to express that interest?
There is dating advice that suggests I should hold, that I should take care, but this question also comes up in other than the dating world: when is it OK to act? When must we hold and wait and exhibit patience?
These insights often only come with and through time, and they are hard won
But for not, I refuse to worry: I do not want to live in it. I want to enjoy the world and its fullness and my own hesitation does and will inhibit this if I let it dictate my actions.
Instead, why not let my actions dictate?
I carry a fear with me about being too much: texting too much, asking too much, inviting too much, and it interferes with a kind of genuine, authentic expression of interest and being
I do like this or that person, and I know I need to restrain myself somewhat, but if I am interested, is it not OK to express that interest?
There is dating advice that suggests I should hold, that I should take care, but this question also comes up in other than the dating world: when is it OK to act? When must we hold and wait and exhibit patience?
These insights often only come with and through time, and they are hard won
But for not, I refuse to worry: I do not want to live in it. I want to enjoy the world and its fullness and my own hesitation does and will inhibit this if I let it dictate my actions.
Instead, why not let my actions dictate?
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Love Lost
A million chances
maybe more
Counted, uncountable
on fingers and toes
On bullet points and
journaled lines
Unexpected texts
Surprised encounters
Afternoons together,
Nights apart
Mornings waking, embraced
Sharp, harsh word upon
word
The endlessstormingof
Tit-and-tat
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Figh
Ting
Ting
Figh
T
i
n
g
It felt like
Eternity
Eternity in eachmoment
Every
discrete
moment
this and all
moments
A millioneternities
in
one
Now
Gone,gone
Gone,gone
Gonewhere?
Turned tonothing?
Turned todust? woodchips?
Dirtontheroad
Hiding? disappearing? disappeared? eliminated? submerged? suffocated? drowned? defecated? shot? shit? pissed? fucked? vanished? deleted?
Hid behind leavesontrees, under rugs, under coffee mugs? rocking beds?
Leaving impressions, residues, images seared on minds and objects and hearts
An archive (archives) of the soul, of souls
Lost forever in the movement of whatmustbedone
Dreaded capital, rearing its unceasing self in anticipation of
The new, devouring what comes and leaving behind
The lost
Love, Lost
Don’t tell me about paradise.
Why must we feel? When did we agree
To the hurt and the hell and the pain?
To beiNg rocked
by an ocean
ofloveandloss
I chart a course through uncertain seas
foaming watering seeping inandthrough
cracksinthehull that weneverwantedtosee
I gather every ounce
of myself
I face the
Oncoming
A wave threatens,
A shadow
casts
a pall
Allisforeboding
But I defy
maybe more
Counted, uncountable
on fingers and toes
On bullet points and
journaled lines
Unexpected texts
Surprised encounters
Afternoons together,
Nights apart
Mornings waking, embraced
Sharp, harsh word upon
word
The endlessstormingof
Tit-and-tat
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Fighting
Figh
Ting
Ting
Figh
T
i
n
g
It felt like
Eternity
Eternity in eachmoment
Every
discrete
moment
this and all
moments
A millioneternities
in
one
Now
Gone,gone
Gone,gone
Gonewhere?
Turned tonothing?
Turned todust? woodchips?
Dirtontheroad
Hiding? disappearing? disappeared? eliminated? submerged? suffocated? drowned? defecated? shot? shit? pissed? fucked? vanished? deleted?
Hid behind leavesontrees, under rugs, under coffee mugs? rocking beds?
Leaving impressions, residues, images seared on minds and objects and hearts
An archive (archives) of the soul, of souls
Lost forever in the movement of whatmustbedone
Dreaded capital, rearing its unceasing self in anticipation of
The new, devouring what comes and leaving behind
The lost
Love, Lost
Don’t tell me about paradise.
Why must we feel? When did we agree
To the hurt and the hell and the pain?
To beiNg rocked
by an ocean
ofloveandloss
I chart a course through uncertain seas
foaming watering seeping inandthrough
cracksinthehull that weneverwantedtosee
I gather every ounce
of myself
I face the
Oncoming
A wave threatens,
A shadow
casts
a pall
Allisforeboding
But I defy
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Seeing Things
Brrrrreak
Up
And com
e
Back
Up
Bre
Ak and
Comeback
A whee
L turning
Cre
Aking
Break
Up and
Come back
“Well, he’s been
Dead before”
“It’s just a matter of time”
Brrrrreak upandcome back
You
You
Brrrrreakupandcomeback
You
You
You
You
Brrrreakupandcomeback
Brrrr
Eakup
Come
Back
You
Me
You
This time?
Never,
Never
Maybe
Never
“But this time, I think it might really be true”
Maybe?
Up
And com
e
Back
Up
Bre
Ak and
Comeback
A whee
L turning
Cre
Aking
Break
Up and
Come back
“Well, he’s been
Dead before”
“It’s just a matter of time”
Brrrrreak upandcome back
You
You
Brrrrreakupandcomeback
You
You
You
You
Brrrreakupandcomeback
Brrrr
Eakup
Come
Back
You
Me
You
This time?
Never,
Never
Maybe
Never
“But this time, I think it might really be true”
Maybe?
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Control
Control
Holding more tightly,
thinking we can
Grip more rightly
Make the thing do
the thing we want it
To do
Opening up
Letting go
Letting up
Letting be
These do not come to me
Naturally
But we all have
The capacity to become
And change and develop
And I can learn
To let be, let go
The tighter the vice,
The more it pushes
The other to go
But we can
To some extent
Control ourselves
This is really all we can do
And I should do
If there is one thing I have learned
It is this
But I we all forget
And learning is something I
Need do again and again
One day I hope to be
Where I want to be
But where will I want to be then?
All I can be now
Is the strongest person I can
And the rest I can little
Control
________________________________________________________________________________
I am at a moment of great personal change, and I am facing the challenges. I feel some anxiety and some uncertainty, but it is part and parcel of not knowing what is to come
Thursday, May 10, 2018
It's Just A Matter Of Time
Things do have a tendency of turning up, whether they are
lost, misplaced, mishandled or mistaken. Things find their ways to places
unknown, places heretofore undiscovered. But so often they find their way back
again. It is a kind of an eternal return.
I do fixate, I do
I will hear a line, and it will ring true and stab through
my very self like a dagger. Watching a brief clip from a dirty harry film the
other day, Harry Callahan disobeys his superior in visiting a crime scene that
Harry himself feels is his (as it later turns out, his superior had
intentionally reassigned him). In
criticism of Harry’s own reputation for being forceful, his superior proudly
states that he has never taken his gun out of its holster in all his years on
the police force. Harry, knowing his subordinate position and knowing that an
outright critique would render him fired, disciplined or demoted, smartly
replies: “You’re a good man lieutenant,” in a patronizing manner,” continuing “a
good man always knows his limitations.” The lieutenant, while unhappy with the comment,
thinks better than to say anything else, knowing he is the authority. After
reviewing the scene, Callahan comments to his superior that whoever committed
the murders at hand did a good job and that the lieutenant would need someone
like him to pursue the murderers. The lieutenant declines. The scene ends with
Callahan opening the door of his vintage car while exchanging banter with his
partner. His partner asks him “what’s with you and briggs anyway?” In a self-assured way, Callahan comments that “jealousy,
he knows this is the kind of case I should be on: it’s just a matter of time.” Casually
watching clips and thinking nothing of the descriptive or prescriptive value
they might present for me, I was struck head-in-the-lights by this quote
(exaggerating a bit here). This line “it’s just a matter of time” perfectly
described a situation I find myself in, and while there is the possibility of
betrayal of the significance of the line or misappropriate or misapplication to
my own circumstances, it reverberated throughout my body in a way wholly
unexpected. And I hadn’t heard this particular phrase in some time, and I think
this is why it held such significance. Even a few short words can be produced,
reproduced and apply to so much.
What do I make of it? A kind of non-divine insertion of
truth in a moment that otherwise was filled with emptiness? Or total coincidence?
It is hard to know, but it did affirm some of my own feelings on the matter I
feel here reluctant to share too publicly. Words and phrases anchor and buoy
us. They inspire and discourage us. We must see them as tools but as tools that
can be mishandled and used to hurt. But I do feel I have a pretty good sense of
when they are truthful or not, and this is what seems to make all the
difference.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)