Saturday, November 15, 2014

Lights Out

I love it when the lights go off in a place I have only ever known illuminated. Seeing the place -- a cafe, an office, a library -- for the first time with the natural light falling dim and slantwise, shadows zig-zagging over suddenly unfamiliar shapes: the places become old, haunted maybe, or hallowed. My life right now feels like such a place: the lights of my relentless conception have gone out, and my life is all foreign, oddly-shaped, and shrouded. A little pathetic, like some famous, admired person glimpsed in his tattered old bathrobe, unshaven and sticky-eyed. This: I wish I could stay in my life like this. I know the lights will come on again, but I wish they could stay off. A little longer.

This morning, in the bath, I thought I would stay there till April. Write me care of The Most Noble and Steaming Tub, 86th Avenue (waterproof ink only, please!) "Oh," wrote Tolkien, "water hot is a noble thing!"
Water cold we may pour at need
Down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed:
But better is beer, if drink we lack
And water hot poured down the back.
 Now a brilliant sun and cold November air. Grateful for all gifts, large and small. Take care, dear.

3 comments:

Sabine said...

I cannot imagine a life without old tattered bathrobes and I don't want to either. At times, it's what makes life almost perfect.

Kristen Burkholder said...

One of the great "gifts" of being human is that - if we pay attention - we get to watch ourselves become things, dissolve, become another thing, fall apart, try again and finally transmogrify into Light. It's painful. It requires hot water to endure. But it's the only game in town. Thanks for reminding me of this Dale and for being real.

am said...

There's some synchronicity here. Although I've had the unabridged reading of "The Fellowship of the Rings" for many years, it is only in the past week that I have begun listening it while I am eating my meals. Just listened to the reader singing about "water hot."

Once the lights went off when I was in the middle of a Fred Meyer store. Because there are very few windows in those stores, it was very very dark for those few seconds before the backup generators came on.

Yes. Grateful for all gifts.