started writing this randomly some time in 2005, never finished. but i still like it.

asparagus

Thinking back, Christine realized that she never had been very fond of asparagus. Ordinarily this would not have been a problem, but Christine's brother's mother-in-law was inordinately fond of serving it, and Christine was far too polite to simply refuse. What she had been, up until several months ago, was very good at finding perfectly reasonable reasons for not attending the suppers where there would, inevitably, be asparagus served. This arrangement suited Christine just fine, because it meant that she only had to smile politely and cheerfully eat her apportioned asparagus on the rare occasions that both families came together for a meal.

Christine longed for those days once again, as she stared balefully down at her plate and listened to the aforementioned mother-in-law drone on -- about what, Christine couldn't say, the taste of asparagus and the sound of the woman's voice having long since left Christine incapable of processing any new information. And so, her thoughts turned inward.

Across from Christine sat the source of all this troubling togetherness, twins whose arrival had prompted Christine's sister-in-law (said brother's wife) to offer Christine their spare bedroom, free of charge, in exchange for an extra set of hands around the house. Christine had, of course, jumped on the chance. She and her brother got along reasonably well, and

okay, you know what. to keep in the habit of posting /something/ every day, i will post ... old essays, bits of poetry, things i happen to find. (like today's, which i found on my mom's computer while looking for her resume.)

Shannon Duffy
English 5-6, per. 6
September 11, 2000
In-class Essay

Ever heard the phrase, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"? I'd be willing to bet that most of you have, and probably consider it true. But why? Have you ever stopped and taken the time just to think, to ask yourself why it is so hard for you to believe? Do things happen in your life that you find yourself chalking up to . . . mere coincidence, perhaps? This the the 'out' that many people seem to take . . . and the more people that take that out, the fewer people that actually believe.

Life is not some fairy-tale book, true . . but what is there to say that it can't be? For my own part, I've always believed that there is a little of the fairy-tale element in all our lives . . . one just has to know where, and in some cases how, to look.

One way that I've found is to actually listen to small children. No one starts out a cynic -- that's an effect of society, perhaps. But no, none of us started out as cynical as we so often find ourselves being today. The reasons for this can often be found in the wide-eyed innocents, with their thirst for knowledge and zest for life. Many times, they see and understand things that we, too far gone from the innocence of childhood, cannot.

There are, however, some who retain those qualities of childhood. They are called dreamers, though more often, fools. Their heads are in the clouds, it is said, but far more often, they are more down to earth than either you or I can fully understand or appreciate. Just because one is not a model student, preferring instead to write or draw or daydream, one is branded a slacker. For being able to see the beauty in the world, for striving to recreate that beauty in a form understood by others, one is punished.

This, you see, is why so many dreams die young -- the dreamers, still young in their own right, seek approval and in that quest for approval, find themselves conforming to 'the way it should be', as laid out by those in authority, who long-ago stopped dreaming, stopped believing.

What I say to you is this -- do not try so hard to fit in that you lose that sense of self, that ability to see the world as the fairy-tale that it truly can be, if only you open your mind to the possibilities all around you. In a word --

Believe . . .

...journal going on hiatus.

camera being repaired. will not have it back for a month.

deeply unhappy over this. :(

so today, i managed to break my camera's viewscreen.

photojournalling is going to be a LOT MORE INTERESTING from here on out. it still takes pictures. i just don't know how good they are until i get them on the computer.