It's amazing how we get into these ruts of day-in-day-out, "going through the motions" type situations where before we know it the days all run together and we can't remember what it means to actually feel the life we are living.
Over the past week a chain of events has happened for me that have re-opened my eyes to just how inspiring life can be. I know what you are thinking.....easy with the cliche's John......but just go with me on this.
When I was an undergrad (many a year ago), I remember getting excited about reading thoreau excerpts, or going to the cinemateque theatre and watching an independent film. I was inspired by good art, good music, and good conversation.
Then years went by of the "same old-same old", and I lost touch with that side of myself. Even after my 4 months of hiking, that part of me never fully woke back up. Once in a while, I'd pick up an old Kerouac book from my hayday, or pop in a Haydn symphony...but it just wasn't there.
But...tonight it was. This past week has been chock full of little things that have snowballed into something greater. Earlier tonight, a friend and I went up to the State Theatre here in town and saw a very small independent film called "Goodbye Solo". Other than one guy down in the front, we were the only two in the entire theatre (and the only two in the balcony). The basic storyline of the film dealt with a very upset/crodgity old man who befriends a taxi driver. The story progresses....and ends up becoming incredibly moving. There were scenes in this movie that were extraordinarily poignant. In particular there was one scene where the two men are looking at each other and say nothing for over 10 seconds.....yet more is "said" in those 10 seconds than could possibly have been put into words. One of the most powerful moments in cinema I've seen in a very long time.
So blah blah...right john....I know It's midnight and I'm getting all melodramatic. But to bottom line all of this: Things are going to be a little different tomorrow than they were today.....and I'm pretty darn happy about that.
and to the rest of you......stop putting off that trip to the orchestra or the road trip across the country....or the hike on the A.T.......or the trip to the independent film festival. There's so much life out there for the "seizing". Go and seize it dammit. Make your lives extraordinary.....
make it shake in your shoes......like the:
final scene in "Dead Poets Society"
final scene in "last of the mohicans"
the ice scene in "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind"
the mountain scene in "into the wild"
Willem Dafoe's scene in "platoon"
...or listening to the Cleveland Orchestra, from the balcony, as they play Holst's "Planets"
...or the quote from Kerouac's "Desolation Angels":
"Hold Still, regain your love of life and go down from this mountain and simply be. be the infinite fertilities of the one mind of infinity, make no comments, complaints, criticisms, appraisals, avowals, sayings, shooting stars of thought, just flow...flow....be you all, be you what it is, it is only what it always is. So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry....."
...or the the moment you first realize you're smitten over someone.
...or the moment you worked the hardest to achieve:
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