I loooooooved page 130. Gilbert is talking about the New Years' Eve meditation and it was just so... so descriptive that someone even as dreadfully inexperienced in religion as I am could almost feel the power that these people had. I love when she says "They pass the sacred words to me, I carry the words for a while, then pass the words pack, and this is how we are able to sing for miles and miles of time without tiring." How amazing is that? Just reading it, I can feel the rhythm that the have, the passing back and forth, moving on and on and on. I also love the "miles and miles of time." That description makes so much sense to me. Then she starts talking about her "little blue string of song" and about how as the beat speeds up they are "collectively pulling the year 2004 toward" them and "hauling it across the sky like it's a massive fishing net." With the "fishing net" description, you can just imagine the New Year collecting everything that will go into it as it is dragged closer, just like fish being caught in the huge net (Kim, I am now realizing you probably didn't like that part as much as I did). When she talks about everything that will be going into that year too... It's pretty cool to think about her, almost seven years ago, thinking about all of the amazing things that would happen in 2004, because all of those things actually did happen and we all lived through all of them.
All in all, that was just a big collection of my immense love for page 130. I didn't cite pages for the quotes because they all came, as I'm hoping you picked up on at some point, from page 130. I just wanted to write something about it because I think that entire page was really well-done in the way of making the reader understand the feelings and emotions that Gilbert (can we call her Elizabeth? or maybe Liz? I'm feeling like we spend enough time together now to be on a first-name basis, so I'm going to call her Liz) that Liz was going through on this night just a day or two after she arrives in India. Thoughts? Feelings? Agree? Disagree?
I'm glad you brought that up. When I read that page the first time I didn't notice it as much as you did. But after reading your post, I reread it and WOW you're right. That section is really powerful. I especially liked, "The seconds drop down to midnight and we sing with our biggest effort yet and in this last brave exertion we finally pull the net of the New Year over us, covering both the sky and ourselves with it" (130). I like how the author feels that we have an active part in time changing. It makes me feel powerful.
ReplyDeleteCall her by her first name or by whatever you'd like. It's a blog; it's casual.
ReplyDeleteHey, wow. I didn't know you actually read these :) I like the casual thing. We should do projects like this more often!
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