Leave No Trace

So in going through How To Train a Wild Elephant and working on Mindfulness this weeks goal was to leave no trace. I decided to focus that on the living room and kitchen, with special emphasis on the dishes.

I’ve gotten into the mindset of having meals and leaving the dishes in the sick for the rest of the day and either my roommates or I would wash them at the end of the day. It was always a chore that I avoided doing and really turned into a poisonous, negative thought throughout my day and I wanted to change that. With the exception of a few times when I had poor time management I was able to keep up with this.
It really helped me focus on my time and motivation to stop what I was doing. As the week went on this became so much easier and the negativity of dishes slowly changed. Almost like checking someone off my list, my brain enjoyed each time I completely this task.
The thing that helped keep me accountable was that this task was almost other-people oriented. In that, though my roommates didn’t know I was doing this, I could tell myself that they would notice if I didn’t keep up with my task.

"How was it possible to wake up every day and be recognizable to another when so often one was barely recognizable to oneself?"

Nicole Kraus, Man Walked Into a Room

"Tell me, was I the sort of person who took your elbow when cars passed on the street, touched your cheek while you talked, combed your wet hair, stopped by the side of the road in the country to point out certain constellations, standing behind you so that you had the advantage of leaning and looking up?"

Nicole Kraus, Man Walked Into a Room

A Man Walks into a Room

“It was only that he couldn’t remember how he’d become whoever he now was.”

Only 20 pages into Nicole Kraus’ A Man Walks into a Room and I am already obsessed with this book. I’m also really annoyed that I started it on a week where I can’t give it the attention it derserves (freaking Aristotle essay!), but I guess it will make a good reward! 

So far it is a man with retrograde amnesia (already in love with this, right?) but it is unusual because he remembers his life before age 12 and he is trying to figure out who he is now that he is 30-something. Again, only twenty-odd pages into this, so I am still trying to get a grasp on the essence, but  it usually takes me a lot longer to know that I will love a book. But Kraus is one of the best authors I have come across (History of Love was perfection).

Anyways, just saying that I am excited for this book. 

"Ponyboy, I asked the nurse to give you this book so you could finish it.The doctor came in a while ago but I already knew it anyway.I keep getting tireder and tireder.Listen,I don’t mind dying now.It was worth it. It was worth saving those kids.Their lives are worth more than mine,they have more to live for.Some of the parents came by to thank me and I know it was worth it.Tell Dally it was worth it.I’m just gonna miss you guys. I’ve been thinking about it,and that poem , that guy that wrote it , he meant you are gold when you’re a kid,like green. When you’re a kid everything is new , dawn. It’s just. When just when you get used to everything it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets,Pony. That’s Gold. Keep it that way,it’s a good way to be.I want you to tell Dally to look at one.He’ll probably think you’re crazy , but ask for me. I don’t think he’s ever really seen a sunset.And don’t be bugged over being a greaser. You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still alot od good in the world.Tell Dally. I don’t think he knows. Your Buddy, Johnny"

Johnny (The Outsiders)

“…perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.”

Found in ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

"I do not know anything about Art with a capital A. What I do know about is my art. Because it concerns me. I do not speak for others. So I do not speak for things which profess to speak for others. My art, however, speaks for me. It lights my way."

Zampanò (House of Leaves by Danielewski)

"There are seven incarnations (and six correlates) necessary to becoming an Artist: 1. Explorer (Courage) 2. Surveyor (Vision) 3. Miner (Strength) 4. Refiner (Patience) 5. Designer (Intelligence) 6. Maker (Experience) 7. Artist. ¶ First, you must leave the safety of your home and go into the dangers of the world, whether to an actual territory or some unexamined aspect of the psyche. This is what is meant by ‘Explorer.’ ¶ Next, you must have the vision to recognize your destination once you arrive there. Note that a destination may sometimes also be a journey. This is what is meant by ‘Surveyor.’ ¶ Third, you must be strong enough to dig up facts, follow veins of history, unearth telling details. This is what is meant by ‘Miner.’ ¶ Forth, you must have the patience to winnow and process your material into something rare. This may take months or even years. And this is what is meant by ‘Refiner.’ ¶ Fifth, you must use your intellect to conceive of your material as something meaning more than its origins. This is what is meant by ‘Designer.’ ¶ Six, you must fashion a work independent of everything that has gone before it including yourself. This is accomplished through experience and is what is meant by ‘Maker.’ ¶ At this stage, the work is acceptable. You will be fortunate to have progressed so far. It is unlikely, however, that you will go any farther. Most do not. But let us assume you are exceptional. Let us assume you are rare. What then does it mean to reach the final incarnation? Only this: at every stage, from 1 thru 6, you will risk more, see more, gather more, process more, fashion more, consider more, love more, suffer more, imagine more and in the end know why less means more and leave what doesn’t and keep what implies and create what matters. This is what is meant by ‘Artist.’"

Cassandra Rissman LaRue (Seven Stages to Accomplishment) found in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves

From Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman. 

I find this oddly beautiful.

"Give US Torment, Deaths and Futures. Then curl up with you through Reunions, Abuses and Departures. Too when you arrive. When you’re allone. When I go. When I’m allone. But allways beside you whenever we roam"

Mark Z. Danielewski