Sunday, December 14, 2003

I have been sorting through the thousands of pieces of paper that fill my room. Some of this stuff I will get into electronic form (and will never have to tumble out of a house clutching a precious box of papers ever again...I hope). Some of this stuff has been with me for a long time. Attempts at writing, cuttings, cut-ups, quotes and poems, pictures and such. Some of it just references to lead me back through the library again one more time. For instance, I wouldn't think to read back through William Burroughs right now, but here was a wonderful quote from The Western Lands (p213 in my edition).

"I saw a picture of a balloon suddenly and unexpectedly soaring and some people still holding onto the ropes connected to the balloon were suddenly jerked into the air and most of them didn't have the survival IQ to let go in time. Seconds later they are sixty, a hundred feet off the ground. Those who didn't let go fell off at five hundred feet or a thousand feet. A basic survival lesson is: Learn to let go.

Put it another way: Never hang on when your Guardian tells you to let go.

RIGHT NOW.

Suppose you were holding one of those ropes? Would you have let go in time, which is, of course, at the first upward yank? I'll tell you something interesting. You would have a much better chance to let go in time now that you have read this paragraph than if you hadn't read it. Writing, if it is anything, is a word of warning..."

No comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails