Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Hi all--remember Xanga?

Back where I began in more ways than one.
Currently on South Street by the Seaport. Haven't spent much time down here since freshman year of high school--back when the greatest thing ever was watching X do front handsprings on the Battery Park black top. He went away for the summer and learned something wonderful, I thought. Meanwhile I studied topics that only half-interested me, while I looked forward to the time when all of life would be as exciting, because I had shaped it and wanted it that way.

(I did not necessarily anticipate the overwhelming psychological effects of the demands of employability and respectability--a massive chink in the gears--can't spend all one's time perfecting one's front handspring--a fact i've only become more and more aware of as I became older)

Now, Stuy and a college diploma later, I finally have not-much-to-do. And I do feel more than ever that my future is like so much clay in my hands--though the facts may not necessarily measure up to that feeling--I majored in something I won't pursue, and I am unemployed. Meanwhile my bank account leaks away, close to a hundred percent of my money spent on coffee and train-fare. An undernourished (and overprivileged) life, maybe. Regardless-- I am enjoying myself.

I'm also reading a lot. Joseph Campbell, again. I read the transcript of the Power of Myth for the first time three years ago in India, on top of my grandparents' corrugated metal roof, while the sun set in broad swaths of tropical pastel colors. Blown away as I was by Campbell, why I didn't realize then that what I was most interested in wasn't so much social science, but more that unwonted black hole at the center of the universe, and everything that arises from it (which includes social science). I mean I'm most into what is most universal. And then (consciously/subconsciously) you ask that poisonous question--how is that employable--and you continue to study the dirty stunted business of government and economics...blegh.

(intolerable idiot waitress talking to UEdinburough philosophy (of music!) student at the next table. How does one make_contact? By realizing the crushing life-depriving consequences of avoiding it. Not today, though.)

This last biography of Jung was earth shattering. Identification = earth shattering, at least in your own world. That's all I'll say about that. And...that's all for now..

6 comments:

dk said...

tell me more about jung. i'm too lazy to get through any of Him, even through my intense interest in synchronicity. and by intense i mean passing.

Kimmeh said...

I've never really had much respect for Joseph Campbell, and I think it's in large part due to the worshipful nature in which he was constantly referred to by a very hateful English teacher my sophomore/senior year of high school. It's hard to overcome such entrenched biases, but I'm trying!

p.s., how ever did you find me?

Anonymous said...

whoooo are you? and who are the other people you link to? they seem to be terribly creative.
(i've never heard of another human being who was also interested in jung's synchronicity. we should talk.)
km

A.M.M. said...

kingson you idiot..it's annmary


..those are dartmouth folks

Anonymous said...

fuck, yo. maybe i should've gone to D after all.
km

Anonymous said...

any updates forthcoming? come down to dc during restaurant week! i'll chip in for your meal...