8/19/11 08:27 am - sorting through things
I'm back from a month and a half trip I took by myself through Europe. The countries I visited (in chronological order) were Spain, France, Germany, Greece and Italy. The experience can't really be reduced to words. The things that occurred did so intensely in my body. My feet bled, I felt faint from heat, got a heat rash, froze in the cold, licked dried salt off my shoulders. That type of living can change one's aesthetics of morality. I felt limber. When nothing is expecting of you anything is possible, there's less reason to hide.
Overseas, dynamics in relationships are malleable. The minute someone overstepped a boundary I didn't even hesitate, I disappeared. Control-- I felt more entitled to take what I wanted. There were some moral qualms with this, of course, which I far from tortured myself over. My life has always had a certain element of fantasy. There are memories I have from my childhood that I, at least in a small part, know aren't actually real. Accuracy and relevancy to truth isn't always what's important, and it certainly isn't important in terms of shaping the body. So there it is: these friendships, these tender glances and heart-felt late-night talks, they are all a part of my fantasy, and there is really no need to moralize a dream. Let's not lie to ourselves: real relationships have something at stake, they need to be able to transgress time. It almost seems banal to keep in contact with the people I met. Paris won't be Paris again the way it was, and sharing a beer won't have the same effect. These events were stagnant, locked, and soon enough I won't even remember the faces of the people I met. I do wonder, however, with a mixture of excitement and terror, what marks the trip has left on my flesh and how they will develop.
More often than I believe is probably healthy I find myself thinking, "How ought I feel about this?" without giving concern to how I actually feel. The necessary step of checking-in-with-myself is totally left behind. I think that's because my natural reaction to feeling overwhelmed is to completely turn off my feelings. There's too much to say, too much to feel, better to just not and say we did, right? Life is simply too absurd to obsess over sometimes; there's no good that will come from trying to create an ordered meaning. If I had to describe how it felt to be back in Los Angeles, though, I'd have to admit that I am beyond fucking terrified of this homeless/jobless limbo I'm in and that the thought of falling into a routine again or having responsibilities (particularly being responsible for other people and their feelings) makes me want to vomit bile while gauging my eyes out with the blunt end of a knife. All in all, that's pretty normal. This shit (growing up) is pretty fucking exciting, and I wouldn't change anything about it.
I like how this entry just turned into me giving myself a pep talk. GET IT, GIRL!
Overseas, dynamics in relationships are malleable. The minute someone overstepped a boundary I didn't even hesitate, I disappeared. Control-- I felt more entitled to take what I wanted. There were some moral qualms with this, of course, which I far from tortured myself over. My life has always had a certain element of fantasy. There are memories I have from my childhood that I, at least in a small part, know aren't actually real. Accuracy and relevancy to truth isn't always what's important, and it certainly isn't important in terms of shaping the body. So there it is: these friendships, these tender glances and heart-felt late-night talks, they are all a part of my fantasy, and there is really no need to moralize a dream. Let's not lie to ourselves: real relationships have something at stake, they need to be able to transgress time. It almost seems banal to keep in contact with the people I met. Paris won't be Paris again the way it was, and sharing a beer won't have the same effect. These events were stagnant, locked, and soon enough I won't even remember the faces of the people I met. I do wonder, however, with a mixture of excitement and terror, what marks the trip has left on my flesh and how they will develop.
More often than I believe is probably healthy I find myself thinking, "How ought I feel about this?" without giving concern to how I actually feel. The necessary step of checking-in-with-myself is totally left behind. I think that's because my natural reaction to feeling overwhelmed is to completely turn off my feelings. There's too much to say, too much to feel, better to just not and say we did, right? Life is simply too absurd to obsess over sometimes; there's no good that will come from trying to create an ordered meaning. If I had to describe how it felt to be back in Los Angeles, though, I'd have to admit that I am beyond fucking terrified of this homeless/jobless limbo I'm in and that the thought of falling into a routine again or having responsibilities (particularly being responsible for other people and their feelings) makes me want to vomit bile while gauging my eyes out with the blunt end of a knife. All in all, that's pretty normal. This shit (growing up) is pretty fucking exciting, and I wouldn't change anything about it.
I like how this entry just turned into me giving myself a pep talk. GET IT, GIRL!
