In a sort of oblique way, the novel deals with the idea of inspiration and goals. A recurring quotation is "what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
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| Art by Simini Blocker for GoodReads |
It makes me want to answer that question myself.
I love books like this that make me want to go out and do something, make something. Sometimes it makes me feel inferior because instead I drown my sorrows and pent-up inspiration in tumblr, twitter, and pinterest.
I'm a creative-thinking person, not a creative-doing person. (It's a never-ending cycle, a self-sustaining prophecy and I can't. help. but believe it.)
Look to this as an example. It's a ramble. It has no point. It isn't inspiring. It won't make sense if you haven't read Golden. (It may not make sense even then.)
Nothing gold can stay.
But why would I want it to?
Honestly, life would SUCK if it were to always stay the same. I'm a restless person. From late August until mid-November, I slept in the exact same bed every night. It was stifling. In the past month, I've slept in three beds (mine at the Bird House (aka home, home-home, or my parents' house), mine at school (aka the Dorm), and my cousin's bed when I went up to her house last weekend) and travelled a little more, gotten off campus a couple of times and oh lord it is
still.
not.
enough.
My mum's often talked about her belief that young people should have "little gypsy feet" (and while some days I want to rant about gypsy stereotypes, other days I take it for the metaphor it is) and this is something I've internalized. I'm never quite happy enough in one place. I get tetchy. I want to move around. See new things. A six hour car ride? Cake. A plane? Even better.
It isn't even that I want to backpack around Asia or go on some grand "world tour" to see the seven wonders of the world or anything. I don't want that.
All it is, for me anyway, is a thirst for knowledge. I want to know about your life. And his life, and hers, and theirs. About life in Canada and Michigan and Hawaii and Egypt, the Phillipines, Japan, China, Russia, South Africa. Life then, life now, what we think life will be. How we express these thoughts -- does culture play a part? does gendereducationlocation
and
then
I
just
stop.
…
…
…
It feels like my brain is stuck on a loading screen.
The countdown says "5 more seconds", but it has to be a lie.
It's said that for ten minutes now.
It's a sign from the universe to me to stop. Wait. Explore. Be in the now. Worry about the future in the future. Plan for the future when plans are needed, but not before.
Above all, enjoy
this wild and precious life
because if I don't do that,
how can I do anything with it at all?
