Letters to the Editor
alislaura
Published Letters: 47 Editor's Choice: 2
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@ michael huggins
[Read the article: Our office manager is a dental despot!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You amuse me strangely. You really went to the trouble of having Cary’s words counted? Are you on a mission? If so, of what dimensions and gravity? Does your blood begin to boil at the mere sight of the Cary Tennis caricature, are you grinding your molars and telling yourself no! no! no! as your cursor moves inexorably toward the “Since you asked” button? Have you lost sleep, sworn to never read another word again of it…or do you open the column with zest and eagerness, grinning a sharkish smile as you gleefully hit “Post a letter” in happy anticipation of declaring to the world and confirming to yourself that yes, Tennis is still a babbling softhead, Michael Huggins is a force to be reckoned with and so today, once more, God is in his throne and all is in order with the universe?
(OK, OK, I'm just having fun here.)
If I may venture a few helpful observations: Cary doesn’t give straight answers. He’s not at all interested in that. His column, nonetheless, is popular and flourishing. Also, the world is round. We are all eventually going to die. Two plus two equals four.
I enjoyed the Car Talk sketch, by the way. (The one from godmonkey, too.)
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ED....?
[Read the article: I peed at my desk in third grade and now I'm afraid to sing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You should read "The Life of Emily Dickinson" by Richard Sewall. I am reading it myself right now and it's long but interesting. Maybe you have a number of things in common with her. That can't be a completely bad thing.
ED was an extremely original and sensitive person. She was very guarded about her calling, which she knew to be extraordinary and life-sustaining. She opened herself carefully and only to a few people, and she received very little encouragement or confirmation. This may have played a role in her gradual withdrawal from society. Or maybe that was necessary to protect her gift - she was, after all, so sensitive and nervous. Sewall, however, seems to think that if her friends and confidantes had been more receptive and encouraging, her life would have been much different.
Who wouldn't love to have just a fraction of her talent, to accomplish just some part of what she accomplished? But if the price were to live her life....hm. Perhaps for ED it was not too high a price to pay; she may not have had a choice. Maybe if I knew what it meant to have her vision and relationship to language I would be scornful of the suggestion that her life was in any way regretable.
But, geez, isn't there a middle road? Spazzy girl, you sound very young to me. I don't think peeing in the third grade because you were afraid to raise your hand is all that unusual. I did that very, exact same thing. OK, I was in the first grade, but I had a very nice teacher who loved me. I was teacher's pet and the restroom wasn't even down the hall but right in front of the classroom, about four steps away from my front-row desk. I still couldn't get up the nerve to raise my hand. I never, ever, wanted to do anything wrong. I remember trying to excuse myself by telling my teacher. thorugh my tears, that, "I eat a lot of raisins and my Mom tells me if you eat a lot of raisins it will make you have to go to the bathroom." (I give Mrs. Mansfield high scores for not bursting out laughing.)
I think you should keep trying, make music with the friend, risk rejection, live. I don't think you have to go the ED route. I don't think so, but I don't know.