Introduction

Dear Reader,

This is my attempt to connect with you. If we were meeting face-to-face I would shake your hand, give you a hug, or kiss you (depending on who you are...). But, then again, if we were meeting face-to-face you would be saying a lot more, and I, obviously, would be saying a lot less. I would be feeling a lot less egocentric, and perhaps blogging just really isn't my thing because I have the constant insecurity that no one gives a fuck what I have to say... ok, and now i'm whining [sorry]. Anyway, I believe an important factor to this blog is that we are eliminating physicality-- simplifying speech, which often confuses the intent of the words spoken, and attempting to reach a higher form of expression through writing (and reading). 

I don't really know what I'll be doing with this blog. I guess I'll post some poems, analyze some literature and philosophies, attempt to sound intelligent, try to crack a few jokes here and there, and- hopefully- be able to reveal many things that make life bearable and beautiful. (This is supposed to be a letter, but so far it sounds like a syllabus.)

Now to pose a question: 

Yesterday- courtesy of my school's English department- I was able to take a trip to Kirby Cove with fellow Moby Dick-reading english classmates, and spend the evening finishing the final 4 chapters of that epic book. It was a surreal experience. All the discomforts that I would commonly expect from reality (i.e: cold weather, smoky air from the campfire, lack of light to read, etc.) were not applicable. It felt entirely dream-like; not only was I engulfed in the fiction of Moby Dick, but my life felt like something written in one of those obnoxiously optimistic teen fantasy novels. The surrealism led it to be a seemingly life-altering experience for me. I am curious to know if other's have had such an experience. Anyway- I raise this question: Is our perception of reality so negative that we cannot grasp that it can be magical? If we discarded the notion that perfection comes only in fiction and fantasy, [how] would we change? 

I don't know how relevant anything I say is to you, but as I said before: I am trying to connect. I have recently decided that relationships with humanity is a very valid step towards understanding one's self. I am testing that former notion with this blog, and I hope you are interested in helping me in this test. 

In conclusion; I think this poem fits the moment: 

Jam

  Our love is not the short

courtly kind but

upstream, down, 

long inside-- enjambed,

enjoined, conjoined, and 

jammed, it's you, enkindler, 

enlarger, jampacked man of many

stanzas, my enheartener-- love

runs on from line to

you, from line to me and me

to you, from river to sea and sea to 

land, hits a careless coast, meanders

way across the globe- land

ahoy! water ahoy!-- love

with no end, my waters go 

wherever you are, my stream

of consciousness. 

- by Karen Chase