Chekhov's Mistress
The Funniest…
things are funny because they are tiny mirror into some aspect of our lives – From the first installment of “Can Reading Poetry Ruin Your Career?”:
The other morning, as I sat yawning on the 8:13 express while plenty of good, responsible Americans around me got on their handheld devices and started pecking out important instructions to their underlings and real estate agents, I came across a short poem by Robert Bly, a haunting four-liner called “Watering the Horse.”
“How strange to think of giving up all ambition!” Bly writes in the poem. “Suddenly I see with such clear eyes / The white flake of snow / That has just fallen in the horse’s mane!”
At first I thought: Yes! He’s right! Clear eyes! Look around: There’s the wake of a Canadian freighter on the surface of the Hudson River, the summer-green cliffs of the Palisades, the blur of cars on the George Washington Bridge.
Then I thought: Jesus, what am I doing? I’ve got work to do. Why am I contemplating this river-and-cliff stuff? I ought to be on my handheld device tapping away important instructions to somebody; otherwise I’ll look lazy.
Jeff Gordinier at the Poetry Foundation Website.
comments
Today a toddler with her mother got into the elevator in the building I live in in NYC. The little girl was babbling something about the buttons and the mother said: can you press our floor please? She pressed 8 and the mother said: what number is that? And the little girl, truly adorable in her little outfit and curls said: “i don’t know...” so the mother said: well, what floor do we live in? and she said: “eight” and the mother said: “see… you knew, don’t say you don’t know, OK?” and I thought: here’s this adorable child, just two years old, already having to perform in an elevator for some stranger, having to show that she’s smart, that she knows. Can’t just be admired for her innocence and be allowed to be a toddler that excuse me, doesn’t know and so what. I’m in Manhattan, maybe parents here are so much more competitive, show off about their kids, but it’s sickening. Can’t just let them babble, make mistakes, be silly, be kids so full of mischief and magic. I see it too often, breaks your heart.
– luchy (10/13 at 11:01 PM)
Oops, my comment above was meant for Jeff Gordinier’s post…
– luchy (10/13 at 11:07 PM)
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