This little light of mine

Is it really dark?

Or have you just grown used to 

florescent lighting?

Sitting at a coffee shop, trying my hardest to get some homework done, I cannot help but ease drop on the group of college students preparing for their mission trip to Japan this summer. It is hard to ignore the group of 7 huddling together in prayer, crying a bit, and flashing their promotional powerpoint straight in my direction. I guess it could maybe be inspirational. They are obviously passionate about their mission. They probably feel a strong desire to improve the lives (afterlives?) of people who they have never met. However, I am not inspired. I cannot stop reading this powerpoint they are flashing around the coffee shop. I think I have read this quote with a puzzled expression about ten times:

"I have but one candle to burn, and I would rather burn it our in a land filled with darkness than a land flooded with light." -John Keith Falconer

Is Japan really flooded with darkness? So dark that they need your Christian, upper-middle class candle to brighten the place up? Japan is pretty advanced; I am not sure that they feel like they need your candle. What makes our light so much better than others that we need to spread it around to people that probably don't feel like they need any more light. If you want to help others, to give others a better life, do it because you are compassionate about their suffering, not because you have a brighter candle than them.

Intramural Softball

Idealized:

Stadium lights cast 

shadows on outfield spring grass,

bases loaded, two outs. 

Realized:

Bruised tailbone, sore legs.

Run-ruled in the third inning.

The other team's drunk. 

Vocal Inflections

I can read glances,

inflections, eyebrow placements.

I think you're mad, right?

It's hard to tell what someone wants to say when they don't say it. Though, I'm not sure where the problem lies in this common communication gap. Is the problem in the person listening to noises with no sounds? Or is it in the one making noise without opening their mouth? Is it the eyebrow raiser? Or the eyebrow reader? Maybe it is just better to make your eyebrow raises vocal and ask your eyebrow questions than to try to communicate without opening your mouths. 

Massage in a Bottle

My feet are hurting.

Could someone please rub them with 

a bottle of wine?

What is it about a literary analysis journal over post-modern short stories that makes me want a glass of wine? Oh, wait, I know. Because a literary analysis journal over post-modern short stories is boring. And wine is fun. Because a literary analysis journal over post-modern short stories is tedious. And wine goes down fast. Because a literary analysis journal over post-modern short stories takes a lot effort and bull-shitting. And wine is factual and simple. Because when I write a literary analysis journal over post-modern short stories I have to sound smart. And wine doesn't judge me based on intelligence.

Wine, you have everything a literary analysis journal over post-modern short stories lacks. Except for a due date. 

Gravity

Living, breathing, Earth

We all feel stationary

while spinning around.

Molehills

Too many little 

insignificant details

crowd the big picture.

I sweat the small stuff. I cry over spilled milk. I make mountains out of molehills, and I fail to see the forest through the trees. I do all of those cliches that my mother warned me about. I obsess over that which does not matter. I fight with my boyfriend over whether I should have asked him for a ride or whether he should have offered me a ride. I rewrite emails four times before I send them. I change my profile picture based on who I think might be viewing my Facebook page. I worry about whether I am using "I" to many times in this blog. I know I have a problem, and I do not anticipate solving it. 

Mistackes

A hero-story

is still a hero-story 

with the words spelled wrong. 

Yesterday, a  kindergartner showed me the book he had written for his teacher. He had illustrated it, narrated it, titled it, and even taped a new piece of paper over a mistake to correct what he had written without having to re-do the drawing. He had put some work into this thing, and he was proud. 

The story was about a crystal that was on an orb. The orb was in a castle attached to the White House, and some hero was trying to retrieve it. This crystal was "ancient," like it was probably around "before my grandmother's grandmother." 

The only problem was that I only could read the story through translation, because crystal was spelled something like, "chrills" and castle was something like, "kassel." But once I had heard the story, I was was damned impressed. Even if this kid couldn't spell, he was still talking about orbs and using the word ancient. And, like I said, he had put a lot of time, effort, and CREATIVITY into this story. 

So, did it matter that he couldn't spell? I would say no. He had still come up with a pretty cool story. He was putting a lot of effort into a project, just for fun. And he had expressed himself creatively. If I, or some other menacing adult had turned the project into a spelling lesson, would he have still be proud enough to show it off? I would say no. Just let him write and draw and create. The more he does this, the better at it he will become. Most likely, spelling will come along with the rest of it. But if we scare him away from writing with spelling lessons, then what good will the spelling do him anyway?