9.14.2005

Mr. Gobley sez:

  • Leave things -- each day, in each realm of your life, and in your life as a whole -- so that they will run even better, grow even stronger, when you're gone. (This may be as close as we get to immortality.)
  • Think of your life as the world's supply of oil: who knows how much there may be? Best to assume it's already peaked, and get much more careful about its expenditure.
  • That first smell of dried leaves, crushed to powder underfoot, is invigorating.
  • It's profoundly gratifying to be befriended by a neighbor's dog.
  • Photos are overrated. Think of all the time you could have spent enjoying the moment. Now, instead, you have a memento of a moment you never really experienced.
  • An office without walls, windows or a door is a cruel, cruel thing.
  • Prescription for those who need a dose of humility: sit them at a potter's wheel and tell them to throw a pot.
  • Prescription for afternoon lassitude: chocolate.
  • Suddenly, those questions about what you would take with you in a (fill in the blank: flood, fire, terrorist attack, apocalypse) dire emergency aren't so academic.
  • Why, when you're walking behind someone who doesn't know you're there, and you try to pass them, do they so often suddenly veer into your path?
  • Best thing you can do for someone you love: don't let them drive if impaired by alcohol, drugs or old age.
  • i don't read the tabloids, but i must confess: it's somehow comforting that people of immeasurable beauty and wealth can still descend into low comedy (or ascend to high melodrama) in their personal lives.
  • i have a recurring image of being held in captivity in a crawl space beneath a building, and not being allowed to stand for a period of months, even years. What would i do? Would my spine crumble?
  • i watch the digital clocks in my home, my office, my car, blink away each second, and i think back at them: "Oh, shutup."

--Mr. Gobley

3 comments:

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

"i have a recurring image of being held in captivity in a crawl space..."

It was nine months, wasn't it, Mr. G?

Mr. Gobley said...

Well, Mr. Cohen, now that you mention it . . .

Although the agony of not being able to stand would not have occurred to me in that original confinement, it certainly could otherwise be considered captivity.

Anonymous said...

I thought of being pregnant for those nine months (x4) as being held captive, that's really funny it's also the reverse.

I kept saying: five more months, four more months, etc. only to know the birthing process was the finale; au natural, of course. LOL.

It's never easy to face our fears, but God gives us the strength to go forward. Some people have no *backup* in them. I'm thinking you're one of those people, mr. Gobley.