Astonishingly Beautiful, Frequently Thrilling

Lately I've been thinking about the attitude that Midwesterners have about the quality of life they project.  I'm talking about those moments when people respond to a question about how things are going by saying, 'Can't complain.'  What they really mean is 'I'm doing well' but they can't SAY it.  Or they don't allow such great heights to get to them.  Usually I imagine that older men say this when they are sitting around at a general store playing checkers...except where would that be these days? 

In the past, I've found myself amused and exasperated by it.  This week I found myself guilty of it.

I haven't come to a very brilliant discovery about anything, but I am going to choose to express the affirmative words when someone asks about my life.  I'm going to quit aligning my daily thoughts with the 'so so'.  I think in life that so much of what we express about ourselves anyway really has to come from thoughtful awareness of our own internal pace.  

When people don't live in the 'Can't complain' genre of thinking, they show that they are alive. 




This week at school, things were messy and good and alive and overwhelming and just overall very human.  I admire the exuberance you find in many people when they are 14.  These people are excited about life.  Sure, it's a giant mess sometimes, but it's always right there in front of you, and you can't avoid it.

I was in a meeting yesterday at school that was opening up a new conversation about education, one I had never heard about before.  And it was there that these thoughts really came to the surface internally.  I wondered about all of the subgroups of interesting things in education that I am still uncovering, and suddenly felt that everything was interesting and I wanted to know more.  Then I thought about what a refreshing feeling it is to see every single thing that way.  Even what could be crackly and boring and dry. 

Some people have theories that would say that people are the boring subjects.  In light of a 'Can't complain' attitude, I think I might agree.   The quote that came to mind in that oddly inspiring meeting was this....

"The world is grand, awfully big and astonishingly beautiful, frequently thrilling."

Dorothy Kilgallen said that.  I like it because she put a lot of lovely words together to explain this alive world we're in. 

This morning I woke up and suddenly Alpha Rev's 'New Morning' came to mind.  All things met when I heard the line, 'I'm getting kind of rich on the sight of any soul alive.'   It's so true.  Being alive is exciting.  I'm reclaiming this today.  And living it too.