that NPR view of life


There's this wonderful rich perspective [in your emails] on a life that others might find mundane; like listening to the stories on NPR, you know? Sometimes I hear their "slice of life" things, and I wonder, why doesn't my life seem so rich and profound in the midst of all its ordinariness? And then I realize it's because the commentators have this ability to live an ordinary life and yet simultaneously see the depths beneath the surface. Sometimes they seem to stand bemused by the simultaneous banality and profundity of it all — as I think you do.

Really, I think it's good for us. We need the comforts and the ritual and struggle and grittiness of the morning scramble to get a family to church, the humbling (if not humiliating!) experience of working through conflict and confronting our own and others' failures. And yet sometimes, there is something incredibly rich about standing at one's kitchen window watching the sun slowly sink into the sky as children play outside and we stand there washing dishes or perhaps enjoying a late-afternoon cup of coffee.

Although I often chafe at the slothfulness of time's gait (especially when waiting/hoping for a husband! ;)), other times I am so grateful for its ponderous tread. I feel my shoulders drop, I start to breath more deeply, and if I close my eyes just briefly, I begin to exult in what must surely be the presence of God.

And then it's back to the clamor and chaos of muddy shoes, a hurried dinner and a once-more cluttered kitchen. But having had those brief little respites of tranquility (though perhaps I romanticize this too much), I think it's still possible to sneak in a brief deep breath of remembrance and smile at my momentary reconnection with the quiet depth beneath all that is ordinary and unremarkable.

I sense that in your writing, often — in the stories about 13 puppies, and the struggle to drag a Christmas tree (??) in from the garage. It's part of what gives you and Kurt that wonderful sense of humor about your lives.
—from an email to a friend in Arizona

posted @ 03:20 PM on Sat - March 15, 2003 remark! Email |  as quoted:
before I said ...  but more recently: 

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