"Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset."
— The Outsiders
Sarah Wilson conducted a series of Q & A's on her blog last year, dedicated to showcasing her interviewees' "one thing". The "one thing" that drives them, warms their heart and makes them spring out of bed each morning.
Similarly, Ryan Gosling gave a beautiful description of his character, Noah, in The Notebook:
The character is somebody who really just, like, a one guy. He has one friend, and one girl, and one parent now... and there is something beautiful about that.
I have always wondered... What would be my "one thing"? I like so many things, have so many ideas and hopes for my life, that it would be hard to whittle it all down to one.
After a lot of thought, I distilled my "thing" to people and their stories, which extends to love, connectivity, universality and truth. It's why I love to read; it's why I am drawn to writing. I am in love with - and driven by - the idea that people are all made of the same stuff. Whether they live completely different lives, across the world from each other, hundreds of years apart... they are the same, deep down. That's why reading can be so powerful - it intimately connects our shared thoughts and emotions, our universal longings, over time and space. It makes us feel less alone. And I desire, in my own small way, to make those connections, weaving words and stories to tap into that universality that binds us all together.
As always, Haruki Murakami says it with poetic imagery:
As always, Haruki Murakami says it with poetic imagery:
She waited for the train to pass. Then she said, "I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while."
It turns out that I am more of a "one" girl than I thought. I have one man, one dog, (thankfully, more than one friend and parent) and now, one thing. And although nothing has changed, I feel less daunted.
3 comments:
I always love reading your blog :)
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald
“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.”
-Carl Sagan
This post is so sweet, I have no idea what my 'one thing' is but I'm glad that you found yours :)
Beautifully put. Love that last little image in particular!
Also love the quote from Sagan above.
Not sure what my one thing is...I used to think writing, but now I think yoga. Yoga has been the constant thread that ties all aspects of my life together.
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