post-it notes i wish i'd left myself on the bathroom mirror, pt. 2

go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. build your wings on the way down.

--ray bradbury

"i wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. it's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. you rarely win, but sometimes you do." -- atticus finch, to kill a mockingbird

--nelle harper lee

you can ask the people around me. i don't give up. i don't give up... and it's not out of frustration and desperation that i say i don't give up. i don't give up because i don't give up. i don't believe in it

--johnny cash

none of us will get out of this alive.  i know that much is true.  and whatever is left over inside of us, at the end of this life, i really don't think we get to take to the other side.  we won't need it, anyway.  there aren't supposed to be leftovers.  the bones should be stripped bare, the table cloths should be spotted with all sorts of colors and flavours, and G-d knows the smell of smoke is never going to come out of those drapes, but...killer party, kids.  hats off, kudos.  

your parents are going to kill you when they see the debris.  or they won't.  they might just call stanley steemer and merry maids, take the cost out of your allowance, and tell you that this is your get-out-of-jail-free card.  because it's spring time, and the sky and flowers and wind are all conspiring to pull you up and out and over with them, and they know what that's like, know the pull, know that if you don't allow yourself to be swept away, ever so slightly, you'll wake up when you're 60, with nothing to savour but the sting of pride on the back of your tongue.  tsk.  such a waste.  

so ruin your shoes.  chew it until it looses the flavour, and stick it in your hair.  sing it until you can't stop, and then, sing it some more.  sleep when you're dead.  believe that it won't matter if you fall, because there is no bottom.  remember what ts eliot says: "we shall not cease from exploration...", so don't.  and change your socks.  if you play it safe, you're not worth killing.  

mil besos,

rmg