10.12.2008

Cut What is Bad, and Reveal What is Good

I was talking today with Ammi, about how terrible things, things that heart are so widely known. We were discussing how some times our lives can be so unbelievably tragic and devastatingly awkward. "Those times are like realizing your car is stalled train track and there's an amtrack coming..." I summed up to her "CRASHES, [loud explosions]. Then afterwards, people leave crosses and flowers."
"Jeeezzz," she was thinking out loud, "I hate tragic things, they're so much more dramatic when they are publicized, than they would be otherwise."
My conclusion: "Life would be better if we publicized the good things and hushed the bad."

What if for example we focused on this:
What about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them, and they played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls? When you skateboarded down the street at night you could hear everyone's heartbeat, and they could hear yours, sort of like sonar. One weird thing is, I wonder if everyone's hearts would start to beat at the same time, like how women who live together have their menstrual periods at the same time, which I know about, but don't really want to know about. That would be so weird, except that the place in the hospital where babies are born would sound like a crystal chandelier in a houseboat, because the babies wouldn't have had time to match up their heartbeats yet. And at the finish line of the New York City Marathon it would sound like war.
(Foer, Johathan. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.)

Let's focus on the good, and leave the bad to the world at large.

That is not to say that we should completely disregard hurt. No, we need to be aware of hurt, we need to experience hurt. We need to know what it is to be without, to be unrejoicing--that's what keeps us tenderhearted.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is so true.

the longer I think about it, the more i'm convinced of it. I made a list yesterday of all the things that encourage negativity (despite the pop nature of my music, it does NOT compare with Christian songs) & I am in the process of trying to let go of them.

there's just no reason to make it easier for God to be farther away.

I really like this post. keep these thoughts close, dear.

katie said...

I love that quote from the book :) I need to read it soon.

Also: I just watched the Sufjan video a few posts down and it is the most dear thing to my heart ever :)