Status: Thanks for reading, feel free to talk about your own thoughts and stories. If you could be anyone living any life, who and what would you be?
One Life to Live a Million
Introduction
Ernest Hemingway said in A Moveable Feast, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
When you have an obsession, the world gets a little bit brighter. I don’t mean an unhealthy obsession with an individual or with some hateful thing that has been done to you. I mean an obsession with something wonderful and challenging.
Say, nature. You have an obsession with nature and with exploring it and all of its secrets. Each day you wake up and you look out your window and you wonder about the grass spreading out before you and the trees in the distance. What creatures are there, crawling on their bellies or standing on tall straight legs? Are they sleeping, are they looking back at you? Do they have intelligent thought? Do they live on freedom and spirit? They certainly seem as if they do. Life is better that way, believing that wild animals feel the most beautiful freedom and they connect with the earth in a way that we do not and can not ever. We humans are too focused on comfort and modern technologies to live as the animals of the forest and oceans do. I wonder if the Earth hates us for abusing it and ignoring it so much as we have. Or if it loves us like children as God does? If a child turns away from his or her mother and says atrocious things and hits them with their hands is that mother’s love broken? I like to think not. If we turned back to the earth and professed to it like a lover would and offered it our bodies I would think it would accept us like it does all other animals. And from this obsession you become a poet pursuing knowledge and the betterment of nature and its connection to you.
But consider a different obsession. Say, running, and then the world is brighter still, because surely we humans are closer to the earth than we realize. When we travel long distances on its surface and let our sweat drip to the ground to nourish it. When the storms come we throw our bodies into them, into the whirling thoughtful winds and the pounding, angry rain. We ran until our muscles ached and our lungs were straining and our hearts were full and then we felt like we were flying. It’s a wonderful chaos, its escape and meaning. It’s like feeling all of life at one open moment. And then when you go back home feeling wild and calm and happy and sad and like the very being of absolute true life has enlightened you with a precious secret, everyone else is watching the television and you wonder if their hearts have ever been trusted with the same knowledge. And from this obsession you become a runner, striving to feel that feeling every day for the rest of your life and to share it with others.
I wish I had a chance to follow every obsession and experience everything. I wish I had time to explore and watch and wonder and feel. I wish I had a million different lives to live. So what if I did?
When you have an obsession, the world gets a little bit brighter. I don’t mean an unhealthy obsession with an individual or with some hateful thing that has been done to you. I mean an obsession with something wonderful and challenging.
Say, nature. You have an obsession with nature and with exploring it and all of its secrets. Each day you wake up and you look out your window and you wonder about the grass spreading out before you and the trees in the distance. What creatures are there, crawling on their bellies or standing on tall straight legs? Are they sleeping, are they looking back at you? Do they have intelligent thought? Do they live on freedom and spirit? They certainly seem as if they do. Life is better that way, believing that wild animals feel the most beautiful freedom and they connect with the earth in a way that we do not and can not ever. We humans are too focused on comfort and modern technologies to live as the animals of the forest and oceans do. I wonder if the Earth hates us for abusing it and ignoring it so much as we have. Or if it loves us like children as God does? If a child turns away from his or her mother and says atrocious things and hits them with their hands is that mother’s love broken? I like to think not. If we turned back to the earth and professed to it like a lover would and offered it our bodies I would think it would accept us like it does all other animals. And from this obsession you become a poet pursuing knowledge and the betterment of nature and its connection to you.
But consider a different obsession. Say, running, and then the world is brighter still, because surely we humans are closer to the earth than we realize. When we travel long distances on its surface and let our sweat drip to the ground to nourish it. When the storms come we throw our bodies into them, into the whirling thoughtful winds and the pounding, angry rain. We ran until our muscles ached and our lungs were straining and our hearts were full and then we felt like we were flying. It’s a wonderful chaos, its escape and meaning. It’s like feeling all of life at one open moment. And then when you go back home feeling wild and calm and happy and sad and like the very being of absolute true life has enlightened you with a precious secret, everyone else is watching the television and you wonder if their hearts have ever been trusted with the same knowledge. And from this obsession you become a runner, striving to feel that feeling every day for the rest of your life and to share it with others.
I wish I had a chance to follow every obsession and experience everything. I wish I had time to explore and watch and wonder and feel. I wish I had a million different lives to live. So what if I did?
♠ ♠ ♠
I love, love to hear people's stories. Please send me a short story about either your life, or a life you'd love to live if you could. You could be anyone! Maybe you're a photographer in a jungle. Maybe you're a devoted athlete. Maybe you are a florist with a charming corner store. Maybe you are a man living in a cabin you built for your family. A farmer, a traveler, a drifter, a singer, an artist. Just for the "what if" imagination.And if you want to share it I can add it to the story!