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23 de Diciembre 2008
look at this: http://nathanhollifield.blogspot.com/2008/12/snow-days.html
if you went to nathan's blog you will see exactly what i mean when i say
it has been snowing way too much around here and we are all making the best of a messy situation. we are no longer constrained by our functional fixedness, due dates and deadlines: when it snows in seattle everything, but everything, comes to a slushing hushing halt. baristas are writing poetry, pastors are popping pain pills and buying boots to slide all the way to preside over holy communion, small children are volunteering at food banks, busdrivers refuse the fare.
and then,
i got this great little email from emile about hope and i thought i should make like a graduate student and tell you what it means to me, the overeducated critic:
here is how it all went down, as i imagine it:
her stepmother calls her early enough in the day to catch her before the daily distraught sets in and she is less than shocked, but more than surprised that not only is she waking for another day, but that she isn't feeling too many feelings about this phone call happening.
and the voice on the other end explains why there will not be wine, that someone in particular is battling the booze
(and Emile, who in this part of the letter is finally able to out-allender dr. daniel b., the former president of my graduate school, quietly thinks to herself:)
who isn't?
and then she goes on to confess, in her own way, how she has come to be addicted to hope and she isn't sure but maybe it is getting a little out of hand,
and yet she is none the worse for it.
which is why i love her: she can't help but hope. she thinks Christmas is a time to wish, to make wishes and grant wishes and get excited. she likes the tradition and bears the family gatherings gracefully. she wears gratitude close like undergarments: under her outer layer.
she unabashedly busies herself with something other than drama... it must be that she enjoys the mundane because she knows how to relax into circumstance and make do. she has let go the outlandish expectations frothing on the bit
and, though we thought they would run madly off in all directions and be lost forever, they are somehow tame and lowing: less like wild horses, more like cattle.
she has a way of evening the playing field, which is what that crazy locust eater John the Baptist wanted us to do. how does she do this, you might ask? well, for one, she has suffered so much loss already, been handed so many lemons in this life ...and seen mixed nuts so many times.
and so it is in her honor that i am writing the first Jimenez family Christmas letter. (don't worry--i won't be mailing it, that would be too much.)
here it is for your perusal:
Dear you,
you are probably receiving a slew of letters written by proud parents attempting to keep you up to date and wish you a merry holiday at the same time.
i'm writing to tell you we are fine, fixing up the house we bought and staying out of trouble. we read a lot and walk the dog almost everyday.
thanks for thinking of us, we comfort ourselves with memories of being with you whenever we feel too far from loved ones.
we hope to inspire you to tell the truth and try not to be too judgmental.
these are trying times and some good, old fashioned kindness--not the blind niceness you get so cheap and easily, but real kindness--goes a long way.
M and I will be Masters of Divinity in a couple years; we hope you'll celebrate all the acheivement in your lives the way we celebrate the end of term graduate student style: with a cold beer, a hot meal and a good friend.
take care of yourselves, and if we don't see you soon enough, keep hoping we'll be together again when circumstances allow.
Abigail
helpful | By crymytinyflood | 2:55 PM
Comments
I'll be in seattle dec 31-jan 2 is all, but email me if you want to ang out. I've had you on my mind lately.
Posted by: jenny schurk at 23 de Diciembre 2008 a las 07:17 PM
