“‘Nothing in the voice of the cicada intimates how soon it will die,’” Teddy said suddenly. “‘Along this road goes no one, this autumn eve.’”
“What was that?” Nicholson asked, smiling. “Say that again.”
“Those are two Japanese poems. They’re not full of a lot of emotional stuff,” Teddy said. He sat forward abruptly, tilted his head to the right, and gave his right ear a light clap with his hand. “I still have some water in my ear from my swimming lesson yesterday.” he said. He gave his ear another couple of claps, then sat back, putting his arms up on both armrests. It was, of course, a normal, adult-size deck chair, and he looked distinctly small in it, but at the same time, he looked perfectly relaxed, even serene.”
From Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger. The last story, which I just finished. It’s called Teddy.
I tried reading Moby Dick, got a third of the way thru it. Then in another spate of self-immolation attempted The Odyssey. Started skimming after 17 pages. Long books, heavy with words are not for me. I just don’t have the stamina. Short pieces like Substack essays, poetry, Flash Fiction, short stories are all I can manage before my short little attention span runs out of fuse, sputters and dies.
Nine Stories begins and ends with his strongest work. It’s book-ended. A Perfect Day for Bananafish and Teddy. Masterpieces of the genre like Raymond Carver’s collection, What We Talk About When We Talk about Love. Stories that take you apart and put you back together again but slightly differently. You will never be the same.
But isn’t that the literature experience? Would we want to read something that’s boring, tedious, where nothing happens? No, we want to be transformed.
It’s powerful. Like music. The Dove of Peace is the name of the music playing right now, if you are on the podcast. J.J. Jones. I’ve played it before, on one of my earlier posts. There’s so much good music out there. A source of solace for me. Transformative.
Once upon a time I was really down, down so far it looked like up to me kind of a down, and I discovered Skinshapes’s music. It was healing, it was like almost visually charged with energy. The album Filoxiny with its transcendent Breathe and the life changing I didn’t know were the first ones that got to me. I was hooked and went on to Oracolo and Mandala the lead song. Then I graduated to Life & Love - he’s at the peak of his powers here. Take My Time leads to Inside, both will chill you out, my friend, and Don’t Call My Name will melt down anything that’s left. I was released from my suffering by this music.
You can find him in Bandcamp or on Youtube. Buy his stuff. That’s what I did out of sheer gratitude. Of course my emotional body was ripped wide open and an open hall and a cathedral existed where there was nothing but debris before and I felt like a river was flowing thru me.
We need healing energy in all its forms: music, literature, art, theatre, dance - the celebration of the human spirit in whatever way you do it, baking peanut butter cookies, sharing kindness with a child. Whatever you do. This is what I do, I write my screed, tap out my message, send it in a bottle to the farthest shore, say something interesting and hopefully hopeful.
Add some music. I Won’t Be There is the final song on Life & Love. So true. So true. The truth is more powerful than all the bullshit.
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