Goodreads Bookshelf
Ooooh, glossy!
I'm glad that some of you read some of Naomi Shihab Nye's poetry. I just wanted to say a few words about some of that poetry.
Walk around feeling like a leaf.
Know you could tumble any second.
Then decide what to do with your time.
--Naomi Shihab Nye, from "The Art of Disappearing"
Life is short, we may not do everything we would like to before it's over and we don't know how much time we have. With that in mind, how do you want to spend your time? What's important to do and what is a waste of our precious time?
The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
--Naomi Shihab Nye, from "Famous"
Recently, on the blog of fantasy writer Steven Brust a reader told the following story that I related to my class in relation to these lines:
One of the little startups I used to work for did a lot of cryptography work. The CTO and his brother, the CEO, were ponytailed crypto rockstars of a sort; one of them co-wrote the paper on breaking WEP encryption, for instance. They're very well-known in their field.
One of them was coming back from the financial cryptography conference in Anguilla. He was flying first class, and sitting next to a fairly cute blonde, so he tried to make small talk.
"Hi, my name is N____, what's yours?"
She stared at him like he had just fallen out of the clear blue sky and into his seat. "It's Jennifer".
"Oh, that's a pretty name, what do you do?"
She was starting to get irritated now. "I'm Jennifer Aniston. I'm an actress."
Keep in mind that this is all happening in 1999. "Friends" is HUGE, but this guy doesn't watch TV.
"Oh, really? Have you ever been in anything I might have seen?"
She's getting REALLY irritated now. "I'm JENNIFER ANISTON. I'M ONE OF THE STARS OF 'FRIENDS'."
His turn for the blank stare. "What's 'Friends'?"
She didn't speak to him for the rest of the flight.
True story.
The Jennifer Anniston story proves what a first impression can leave. What
a snob! I love the idea of being a leaf! I would spend my time hanging out
in the sunshine with my dogs! Oh and the husband could come along too!
Degrees of fame. Being known in particular circles. Their worlds are
small and limited. Interesting.
"Then decide what to do with your time" - exactly.
Very often we take our time for so granted as if we will always have it. I
think if we realize how limited time we have on this earth we would be more
conscious of how we spend our time. Each second we pass is gone forever.
I wonder if we realized just how little time we had if we would do more
harm to others to please ourselves, while instead, knowing nothing, we
continue along in our zone of comfort afraid of our own feelings.