Tuesday, December 9, 2008

bagged lunches with moderately full beards


The people I went to High School with are slowly starting to look like my parents and aunts and uncles look like in old photographs from my childhood. Before I know it they'll look like parents and might even be parents. This is all very strange for me because I still feel my adolescents resonating through the core of my being. However, there is a good chance that it will never go away. I have two theories about maturation and they are the following...

1) People do not grow up. They either think they do or pretend they do.
2) A person becomes an adult the same way a person becomes bald. You simply wake up to find yourself paying bills and making bagged lunches.
3) Adulthood occurs in only certain parts of the mind.
4) That maybe it starts earlier than you think. Maybe one becomes an adult as soon as they truly identify and understand the truth about death and what mortality really means.

On a lighter note I think I may have discovered the perfect sentence. I came across it today while doing some reading for my English class...

"This blind man, feature this, he was wearing a full beard!"
(from Cathedral by Raymond Carver)

This sentence may only be perfect to me. There is a good chance that you will find this sentence far from perfection. I can not understand what is going on inside your head. I won't even say that I could pretend to out of sheer respect. Frankly I respect anyone that is willing to read more than a paragraph on a computer monitor. It is not nearly as pleasant as reading from a warm, textured page.

I got a paper back today that had a series of red marks. Apparently I am addicted to the passive sentence structure. Instead of writing "the frog represents the suffering people", I write "the suffering people are represented by the frog". This makes for boring essays. Be active with your writing and I shall follow suite. A penny for every thought and a feather in every cap.


This is by far my favorite photograph from the photo shoot I did for Ross' senior picture.

Virtue 8: "Moderation" This one is fairly similar to temperance. You ought to avoid extremes. This goes for alcohol, drugs, sex, work, etc.

Speak easy,
Neil

2 comments:

kat(hryn) said...

That sentence is nice, but not perfect. I guess it must be different for everyone.

In a sense, I am Jacob Horner.
I really like the above line. I think I've told you that. It says so much using so little.

I have only words to play with.
I also really like this line as well.

Next step: Write the perfect sentence.
I run into loads of trouble with the passive tense, but mainly run on sentences. I am the king of those. I just have too much to say!

Selina said...

Passive sentences are the best kind. Isn't it frightening that there are people we know and went to high school with who are parents and married now??? Whenever I feel like I'm getting old, I go and reread "Little House on the Prarie" or "Peter Pan." Peter Pan nevers grows up, and I don't ever want to either!

roncip