the dharma blog

my previous two posts were narcissistic. certainly nothing new in blogville, but something i want to stay away from here. blogs are inherently self-centered, but i’d rather not blog about my blog. i will try to write something worth reading.

i tried to write something worth reading last night. i really want to record my honeymoon, and mostly i want to record meeting gary snyder. i thought it would just be a matter of sitting down and writing.

i didn’t take long to come up with my first sentence and paragraph: “on monday, october 25, i met gary snyder.”

but then i did this annoying thing where my next paragraph began, “we arrived in san francisco the previous evening about 7:00…” and i went on to recount all the events that transpired. i didn’t want to just leap into the few minutes i spent in the original dharma bum’s presence without laying the proper context. maybe it would be as simple as getting rid of that first sentence and just telling the story of our first 24 hours in san francisco, culminating with meeting gary.

it was a great day in san francisco, marked by comfort being with my new wife, the excitement of being far from home, the happiness of being in san francisco, the peace of just being.

i wanted to just tell about the day. i didn’t intend to write six or so paragraphs, all beginning with “we…” there’s something to be said for sticking to the facts, showing not telling, etc, but i was far from a hemingway opening:

so, the evening ended up frustrating. i ran out of energy, i ran out of time. i knew i didn’t like the way i was putting things together, but as always i try to not edit myself as i write. something natalie goldberg drilled into my head seven or eight years ago with her book wild mind. i’ve long since learned to shut up the “monkey mind.”

so what did i get out of last night? well, i didn’t even make it to city lights for the reading, that’s how waylaid i got recounting all the details of the day. i got a few decent pieces of languages, a few clear images, some memories i didn’t even know i still had, and a desire to write about the event much, much better before i post it here.