4.4.14
Internet Inspiration – April 4, 2014
April 4, 2014
enlightenment_vs_embodiment
Enlightenment vs Embodiment
April 16, 2014

Internet Inspiration – April 11, 2014

Next week I may even have some food links for your perusing pleasure. As I might have mentioned, I’m throwing a Bridal Shower this weekend and I have all the recipes lined up, but since my sister-in-law-to-be sometimes reads this blog, I gotta wait till after the fact to share.

I’ve never heard of Layla Martin before this video, but I’m crazy about it. What to do if you’re worried about “taking too long” in bed. Wonderful notes on experiencing pleasure. (Note: this video is about sex, so click accordingly, that said, it’s not in any way explicit.)

Loved these updates on Michael Vick’s fighting dogs and their Life After. Pitbulls are so awesome.

So the A.V. Club has a segment called HateSong where people talk about a song they hate and why. I’m super glad it exists. I think if they interviewed me I’d hate on a lot of songs where men sing about how the best part of themselves is their significant other. To that I say, “Step up your game, gents! I am already the best and most interesting thing about myself, thank you very much. I don’t have the time or desire to be the best and most interesting thing about you, too!”

I don’t remember if I’ve told you guys about my BFF Julie, but… she knits things. And not things you’d expect. Here is her contribution to dog owners matching their dogs. I can’t even. It’s too cute. It ALMOST makes me upset that I’ll never have a pet.

I needed to read this post from Mike this week on writing one true sentence. I find that I often only have one sentence to say, and so I keep myself from publishing. This was a balm to my anxious mind.

Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.

– Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Lastly, this week I think I’ve had 5 friends give birth and several friends die or have family members die. The circle of life in practice, I guess. And it’s fine, it’s just a surreal. And that’s what I’m having trouble with. I’m not sad enough to believe that I’ve really… understood what’s happening, you know? Or maybe it’s just that my old paradigm of experiencing death isn’t right for me anymore.

In any event, my favorite band in the world is Zac Brown Band, and they have a beautiful song that’s been on my mind this week. It’s called Day that I Die, and I really love that for most of the song the chorus is,

On the day that I die,
I wanna say that I,
Was a man who really lived and never compromised.
And when I’ve lived out my days,
Until the very end,
I hope they find me in my home, a guitar in my hands.
I hope they find me in my home with my guitar in my hands.

and then the very last round of the chorus changes to:

On the day that I die,
I wanna say that I,
Was a man who really loved and never compromised.
And while I live out my days,
Until the very end,
You can find me in my home, a guitar in my hands,
And you can find me in my home with my guitar in my hands.

I love this: that I can think about how I’d like to die and let it inform how I live.