This post is part of my 2022 Word Project. You can read what that’s about here.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
11:03pm
The word of the day is: rush. As in, the thing I seem to do constantly, to my detriment, every time a bucket of popcorn kernels ends up on the floor or I bang my knee into the side of the table for the ten billionth time.
There is always something to do in a day, and it usually does not go my way. But I have been productive, to the point that I’m wondering how it could only be Tuesday and not like, next June.
There is a poem that reminds me of rushing but in a good way.
In Just- by E.E. Cummings.
I read it eons ago in high school and it has stuck with me since.
So the internet doesn’t get mad at me for plagiarism or copyright infringement or something, I’ll just put the first half with the relevant text…
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring
Anyway, look it up, it’s a great poem. The part about eddieandbill is my favorite. I can see these two kids, probably covered in mud, with scraped knees and flyaway hair, racing down a hill like a big human tumbleweed and having a grand old time.
Rushing, but not in a hurry. Racing, dashing, speeding, scrambling, excited to be alive, surging like the spring rivers full of rain.
Rivers rush. But they’re not in a hurry, either.
I’m always in a hurry. Which makes it hard to sit down and write all these words every day. Most times they rush out, but not in any form fit for human consumption. Then I have to stop rushing long enough to make sense of it all.
Today I rushed around a lot. Trying to stay on top of my daily task list. Trying to prep dinner early because my book club was having a Zoom with the author this evening.
Zooming is rushing.
Zoom is also the name of a guy who lives on the moon and comes down to earth just to sing you this tune.
Bonus points for knowing the reference, but not too many because Captain Zoom is pretty iconic.
This is what happens when you rush out a blog post. Your thoughts fall over each other more than usual.
All I know is that for someone who spends a stupid amount of time meditating and trying to be present and mindful and intentional and conscious, I spend an awful lot of time eddieandbilling my life. With fewer marbles and balloons.
And now this has become a blog post and maybe I can find a rushing picture or at least a marble or something, assuming I haven’t lost all of them yet.
Photo: things that happen when I’m in a rush.