Jordan, ‘10

In February, classes pick up–hearts pick up (it’s almost Spring Break)–and life revolves around the library.  Where you’re studying, who you’re studying with, and what you need to know become the topics of many conversations.  We hibernate with our books in the study rooms scattered across campus and only emerge from the bubble to eat and sleep (and maybe party, if you’re into that). 

I had two mid-terms on Wednesday and am now done.  And you know what?  It wasn’t so excruciating as I thought it was going to be.  Now I find myself daydreaming, which is time consuming.  My friend Steph is in Rome, studying abroad, and I just found a flight to Rome from Richmond for $352 dollars, including tax.  Ah, if only, if only.  My parents are planning what they think will be our last Great Summer together and when they tell me the places they’re thinking of taking me, I just want to GO NOW.  There is no pleasure in resisting the inevitable in this case.  I ate at a horrible Greek restaurant in Richmond last night and then my parents said they’re thinking about taking me to Greece in the summer.  My mind conjures up images of lightly-battered, fried zucchini with vinegar and large Greek salads with realGreek dressing, Tzatziki sauce and hummus and freshly made pita.  Then I dream of climbing ruins in insufferable heat and listening to loud people argue in languages I only barely understand.  I dream of being there, which is one of my character flaws I think.  I tend to enjoy being other places and when I return to base-camp–a hometown some would call it–I spend an abominable amount of time thinking about where I have just been and where I will go in the future.

As a journalism major, we have to take a Colloquium with Professor Steve Nash.  In the class, we have Skype and/or live chats with journalists from across the United States.  If anything, the discussions have left me wondering how to specialize myself for travel magazines, science journals that will send me places, and perhaps TV and video media that will fly me to faraway locals.  I hope to learn how to get myself ready for that market.

 Oh Qantas, British Air, Continental, Delta,

Jordan

Patrick at the River.  Yes, that is a huge shard of ice.

Quote of the week:

“Delayed gratification is a form of self-discipline that is necessary for emotional mastery. It is a battle of id against ego.  People often think it means “no fun”. That’s not true. It means sacrifice now to experience even more enjoyment and rewards later.”  - Al Duncan
 

When you acknowledge the intensity of your devotion for something, when you let the passion, desire, and determination flow through you like an electric, pulsing river, when you embrace responsibility for the task you love you will understand that what you have done, are doing, and will do with that black auger of fortune…is right.

We lose a lot of things when we are grown.  We forget the words of child secrets and what it feels like to bathe in leaves.  We submit ourselves to turn away from our desire to grow and to know more.  We say, “No more now.  We must put away our childish dreams and ideals.  We must seek out the secure and the stable.” We move into an artificially-sustained dimension like cattle, one behind the other, without questioning whether this new adult “reality” carries with it the promise of truth.  We let go of the purest thoughts we might ever have for an insulated state of being with the most successful and unavoidable PR agent of all–Time.  We cannot go backward, they say, we must cling to the future. 

As children, we were told that we held the power of god in our hands.  We were convinced that we could do anything, be anyone, and envisioned a state of being that we embodied simply because we knew we were in it.  It wasn’t ignorance; it was a glimpse of what is possible and, perhaps, what should be.  Then, we surrendered to the safe, circular, inconsequential false assumptions of older growth.  We forgot to ask why the strange compulsions of many adults to be competitive, hurtful, oblivious, and passive were not listed in the fine print on the application for adulthood.  We didn’t ask why those qualities should be cultivated. 

I am not trying to be obscure or controversial, if what I’ve written seems controversial to you at all.  I am simply airing a request.  The time has come to relinquish the grown-up things–and especially grown-up secrets.  We need to re-embrace those positive aspects of childhood that carried us so gently in the direction of truth, selflessness, generosity, strength, openness, and goodwill.  And this new path, this better way, is not based in a single religion or culture or political system.  There is no one way to become enlightened–that would actually defeat the point.  Truly, there are trillions and trillions of paths to this state of being and we get a glimpse whenever we make eye-contact with someone, embrace or alienate, and open our hearts and minds to the experiences of others.  This includes animals–all of nature, in fact.  A new possibility is born with every sentient being on the planet.  And whatever makes you happiest, and special, is a skill or quality that can be donated to the world with the intention of building a better place for everyone–animal, plant, and inanimate. Even those who have already succumbed to the cow mentality still feel that strong pull toward innocence, creativity, and passion.

You can do anything, if you’re willing to make the finanicial and prestigious sacrifices to get it.  If you can’t do that, then help others so that they might help you.  Watch Pay It Forward and Seven Pounds, if you would like a visual representation of the compassion about which I speak.  And though what I just wrote may appear particularly idealistic and childish, it only seems that way because you have forgotten the power and strength of the dreams of childhood.  You have forgotten the truthful power of a child.  And while you may cry out that children are fragile and that their ideas are newly formed and oblivious of the ways of the world, delicacy is inherent in every system on the planet and neither children nor adults are exempt.  Just because something at first appears breakable does not mean that it is easily broken.  Delicately, then, but with strength individuals must be willing to step up and be productive.

Childish things,

Jordan

Quotes of the Week:

“The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves” - Kahlil Gibran

“The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic.” - Bill Cosby