...or are you just happy to see me? Yeah, blogging's addictive. Everyone in the office is huddled around the television evincing mock-elegies for Ronald Reagan. There was a tornado warning last night and I stammered up to my balcony to try to espy a glimpse of the vortex funnel, only to get doused with massive amounts of golf ball sized hale. Uncle Mike was being ornery last night, too. He still had on his Caterpillar work-badge and said that if the tornado did sweep through our abode, the coronary would be able to identify him immediately. Whereas I would probably get my laminated-wallet identity pillaged by looters and remain anonymous until my first novel-- a horrible novel I wrote when I was twenty about Basketball and Opera (?)--somehow arises from the shelves of its underground cult status and becomes recommended reading, henceforth adding to the aura of my mysterious demise....
The Harry Potter books are brilliant and I'm head over kneecaps in love with JK Rowlings. Reading THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX last summer it was just like....there were PERFECTLY constructed sentences. Perfect. Sentences that read like a shaft of light streaming through stain glass windows inside of St. Pauls cathedral. So-called snobbish "literary" theorists and critcs despise this sort of ' low art'--but my personal aesthetic is this...the absolute HIGHEST form of art their is occurs when a writer (artist) creatively propels and encourages young minds to read and write. Very few writers I know of can do this (CS Lewis and a few scholastic scholars comes to mind). I think Rowlings achieves this and does so with class and grace....
My friend Chrissy just strutted in and filled me in about the Swissy-Missy fiasco (sniff). Why do all these transient girls have Sweet Valley High teen-age monikers for names?
Uncle Mike panned a few of my short stories last night. Told me that I'm very good I just try to go for the 'shock' value too much. 'Geez. I've known Mike for three years and his normal cavil in regards to my work is that "People won't be able to understand it."
Although one time I read him a short story about Sarejevo called "WHERE ALL THE DREAM CHARACTERS DREAM,TOO." and he was silent for a long time and then told me that it was pretty good for a human. Not that a caged Chimpanzee doesn't harbor a random plunge at Hamlet every now and then.
Uncle Mike then told me some cool stories about Pearl last night then told me not to write them down.
"You're getting people too excited." He said. He then blathered about mis-firing of chemical synapses in the brain. "People need to be attracted to the faith because of the threading of both spiritual and practical principles into one universal strand." Mike huffed.
He said that when he worked for the Universal house of Justice in Haifa if one of the hosue members had a 'dream' or a 'vision'--that was the person the house as a whole body believed the least.
"The House members are the most practical people you'll ever meet." Mike says.
When Mike asked me if I'd write down the stories I told him what I tell everyone. That I write everyday and that I'd write with unbidden honsety if granted the opportunity.
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2 comments:
that's a very yang thing for them to do, to dismiss a dream, don't you think? i wonder if you walked around the arc to the international teaching center, how they would react to a dream.
uncle mike is right. precisely why the jewish mystics turn away a seeker three times. many people are attracted to the allure of mystical things. that is not what the faith is about. rather, mysticism is a consequence of being a lover. it cannot come first, it must come second. i believe (but i may be wrong) that most of the covenant breakers were mystics. it is a dangerous path and not a healthy thing to want or look for. listen to uncle mike, he knows what he's talking about. i agree with uncle mike, most people (in the faith) will not understand your stories, the rest of the world will, of course. i personally love your honesty and you have a wonderful way with the written word. will you teach a class that i can attend?
Your in a class by yourself, Ms. Badiyan (smiles).
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