The Tailenders and other adventures from the Nashville Film Festival

Well, it seems like a long time has passed since this weekend, but I'll try to recount the events with as much accuracy as possible. This past weekend was the Nashville Film Festival. A friend of mine had a laminate pass, but was going to be gone all weekend. He graciously gave me his (thanks HK). It was as if someone had given me a free pass to six flags (and Lord knows I love me some amusement parks). I went to see so many movies. I would have seen more had my schedule permitted, but i still saw a glorious bounty of film. Including:

Fourteen - a film short with no dialogue about a fourteen year old's Mormon wedding day to a 58 year old man.

For the Love of Dolly -A journey into the hearts and homes of Dolly Parton's most devoted fans, held together by the shared love for their icon and a need to be close to her.... it was unbelievable.

In a Nutshell: A Portrait of Elizabeth Tashjian -A well-salted look at eccentric nut collector and former curator of the Nut Museum and the town's efforts to close it.

Danielson: A Family Movie - A music-filled look at Daniel Smith, eccentric Christian musician, as he leads his four siblings to indie-rock stardom, launching the career of Sufjan Stevens along the way.

Party for the People - short film creatively explored the links between communism and rock n' roll.

Chances: The Women of Magdalene - A truly inspirational story about a group of women who know Dickerson Pike all too well; and maverick Becca Stevens, who creates a program to help them recover. [*featuring a cameo by our own Emily DeLoach singing in the Kim Carnes all-star choir brigade!!]

Aurora Borealis - Joshua Jackson, Juliette Lewis, Donald Sutherland and Louise Fletcher star in this tender comedy-drama about bright, charming yet irresponsible Duncan (Jackson) whose need to care for his ailing grandfather (Sutherland) leads him to a brighter future-a future perhaps greatly aided by falling in love with his grandfather's nurse



Tailenders - my absolute favorite movie of the festival. A fascinating look at the 67-year history of Gospel Recordings, a company devoted to reaching out to the last few societies in the world as yet untapped by Christian missionaries. It was remarkable. I'm still thinking through it. If I had it in my possession, I would be watching it over and over again. I hope to be doing this as soon as it's in my little paws. There was so many great things about sound and the disembodied voice and how when these people in the Solomon Islands are played this voice booming through a box they've never seen before, the voice has so much more authority than any one person ever could. But, they're not just buying the story when the sign on to what the missionaries bring, they're signing on to the technology they bring as well as the wealth they see others gaining...aaah... i could go on forever. Adele Horne, the filmmaker, sat in front of me during the screening. This was a little unnerving as I ebbed and flowed in and out of being really conscious of my audible reactions to things. As all of the filmmakers who were at the festival did, Adele stuck around for Q&A after the showing. I actually asked a few questions. Afterwards, she came back up to get her stuff (which was sitting beside my seat) and we got to chat a little. Throughout the film festival I think I ran into her and what some might called "mildly stalked" her. Not really, but I did love talking to her and think she has created a phenomenal film. She said she's working on a new one about peripheral vision. I can't wait. You all must see this film. It's airing on PBS on July 25th www.pbs.org/pov/tailenders/
Read more about this film and the filmmaker here... http://www.adelehorne.net/Page02.htm

this is no place for a house.

So, I after rehearsal and a quick waffle house stop, LT and I watched "Proof". I thought it was excellent. Thumbs up. But that's a different story. So, I begin driving home at circa 2:15am, after just watching a movie involving questioning one's grip on reality. As I fly down Woodmont, I suddenly crest the hill and see a two story home spanning both lanes of the road. For a moment, I cannot decide if I'm crazy crazy or just crazy. I then see the wheels beneath and the truck behind and men with flashlights. One man is sitting on the roof, lifting the stoplights so that the roof can pass under them. After waiting a considerable amount of time, i decide to try and find my way around. This is probably the 5th time this has happened to me. Is this really that common? It's just weird and can freak the crap out of you at 2:30 in the morning. I'm just sayin.

just a quick break

It's only 10pm and i'm about to fall asleep. i'm such a wuss. We worked on Dawson's art all day today. seriously. 10am - 6pm. but, it's pretty much done and it was a really fun day. just a bit of editing and a quick proofread and it's off.

Can I just say how much I love noiseland? It's really rare that you find a cd manufacturing company that you love. I think I've found one. Now that I've convinced Dawson to use them, this will be 3 records I've worked with them on and I still love them. It just baffles the mind. If any of you are in the market for such a service, check them out. they're a delight. www.noiseland.com


So, Rachel and I are working on starting a print company. One that will design and print tshirts and posters.... really bitchin ones. "wires and fires" Next week we decide on a logo. Fun times. Know anyone who needs the aforementioned products? holla.

I have a lot of work ahead of me tonight. I'm heading home for Easter on Friday. It makes this week a bit more stressful, but it will be good to see the fam and sit on the deck. sigh. i'm already excited. I just love to be outside. If I can spend as much time outside as possible, that would be greeeat. I wish I could see the display on my computer better in my backyard. maybe i should get those big shield things. hmmm.

danny masterson is an attractive, attractive man. i'm not one for the celebrity crush, but he's playing on celebrity poker right now and.... i'm just sayin. we should date.

alright. i've seriously got to get back to work. until next time, loves...

way over yonder in a minor key

Gosh, I don't want to work today. I've been so busy lately, I start to feel like I should just get in the car and take a vacation... or at least have a movie marathon with friends who have equally unstructured jobs. I'll take either at this point. A vacation does sound totally sweet, though. I also feel like i have no room to complain. I love my job(s). I do. very much. sooo, maybe i should just suck it up and remember that. done and done.

I always wonder what people listen to on their ipods. there's a myriad of ages and people types at the Y all donning earphones. What gets them through that 30min stairclimb? who knows. Questions for heaven. I've thought about an invention that shows what you're listening to in a thought bubble sort of thing like the thing over the SIMS heads. You could turn it off and on, of course. Until I get a prototype running, we'll just have to wonder.

I realized lately that I have very specific things I listen to in specific situations. By this I mean, if I'm going to clean or mow the lawn, I have a playlist that usually does right by me. This playlist always includes Bonnie Raitt's "Nick of Time".
When my dad would let me mow the lawn, I would take my walkman cassette player and headphones and listen to that record over and over. When I finally got the CD, I would always hear a break where the tape should be flipped. It so fun to know a record so well that you know the keys of all the songs based on the end of the song before it. fun/really nerdy.

For cooking, it has to be old soul stuff, motown, or blues. Ray Charles. mmmm.
Outside on a warm night with friends... it's crazy old jazz records.
Working out.... i mix this one up. radiohead's "ideoteque" is great. but, sometimes i really dig running to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. There's something about it when "Radio Cure" comes on. Everything around you is moving so quickly, but it makes things feel like a movie somehow... like you're not there. You know that scene in Garden State in the very beginning when he's on the plane in slow motion and everyone's freaking out and he's just staring? Yeah. Like that.

I've been playing guitar lately for this kid... www.myspace.com/dawsonwells I dig his stuff. It's so so fun. It makes me remember how much I love playing...especially in a band with friends. It's made me really long to do it more. sigh.
"it'll all work out"

If you wanna go somewhere... if you wanna be somebody...

I think i need a night in. I've been running around like crazy all day. but at 8pm, you have to wonder if a nap is really in the cards. "Sister Act II : Back in the Habit" just came on. What a blessing. How is it that I've seen both "Sister Act" and it's equally stunning sequal so many times? seriously. how did that happen? But then again, how could you hate on Lauryn Hill? You can't.

alright

if you'd like to participate....

http://kevan.org/johari?name=jordanbrookehamlin

there is no sunken treasure.

sweet fancy moses the wilco show was good. seems too much to re-tell. but here's the setlist and a few pics (not of my taking). just close your eyes and envision awesome. ... it was better than that.

1. Sunken Treasure
2. Remember The Mountain Bed
3. Airline To Heaven
4. At My Window Sad And Lonely
5. Forget The Flowers
6. When The Roses Bloom Again
7. California Stars
8. Muzzle Of Bees
9. Hell Is Chrome
10. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
11. Jesus, Etc.
12. Walken
13. Handshake Drugs
14. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
15. A Shot In The Arm
16. At Least That's What You Said
17. The Late Greats

Encore 1:
18. Hummingbird
19. new song (Maybe The Sun Will Shine Today)
20. Theologians
21. I'm The Man Who Loves You
22. Kingpin

Encore 2:
23. Passenger Side
24. War On War


Encore 3:
25. Acuff-Rose (Jeff solo acoustic unplugged)


So, for the last encore, Tweedy came out and said something like, "I hate to say goodbye, so I'll leave you with this song. I'm going to play it the way it was supposed to be played in this room". He then unplugs his guitar and walks away from the mic to the front of the stage. The crowd who was moments ago dancing and jumping (unlike I've ever seen in that room) was now completely silent and straining to see/hear what was happening. you could hear a pin drop, but instead you heard jeff f-ing tweedy sing and play and...melt my heart of stone. It was good night. Fun abounded.

excuse me, but your Johari window is open.

Today’s one of those days where I just think, “gosh. I love my job(s).” I had two shoots back to back at the studio, both of which were for people I had never met but who were really really great through the whole process. I had quite a bit of down time between things where I read some more on Jayber Crowe, listened to good music and played with two of my favorite puppies. It’s fun to have friends assist me. On work like I did today, I must admit, it’s mainly for the company (and to prevent as much awkwardness as possible with new people.)

Despite popular belief, I’m crazy shy around new people. I think in formidable years, I was in structured environments like the academy and at the camp I worked at, where you forced to suck it up. If you’re on staff or a counselor, especially, there’s not really an option to be shy around 15 new kids every week. You basically had an afternoon to make everyone feel comfortable and a week to love them. It was a real challenge for me, though I can’t remember every talking to anyone about it then. But, I’m really thankful for those years. I still feel that tension, though. (Introvert trying to be an extrovert enough where eventually you’re both) that was confusing enough.

I’ve always been fascinated by Johari windows. Or similar concepts/tools. - The idea that there are things about a person that fall into the following four “quadrants”:


a) There are characteristics or behaviors that are known only to the self, but that people may never see or understand,
b) There are things about the person that both the self and others know.
c) There are characteristics that the person possesses that they are unaware of, but are known to others
d) There are behaviors or motives, which were not recognized by anyone participating. This may be because they do not apply, or because there is collective ignorance of the existence of that trait.

It’s just fascinating to think about. My friend Jason created one. It’s hard to do an online version, and you have to trust that those participating will be honest. Who knows, maybe I’ll get brave and post the link to mine. A good day to all.

heads or....

tails are weird. have you ever felt one? they're really weird feeling. i can't say that i want one... or will want one.. ever. I've always wanted paws, though. not just any paws, but lion paws. that would be sweet.

C.C. Bloom and spring. These are a few of my favorite things.

I feel bombarded with things lately that i'm supposed to use to make people think i'm cool. In a way, i suppose, this has a lot to do with the intimacy/technology relationship (see the blog about blogging). Things like LastFM which tracks your plays in itunes (if you choose this platform) and builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste, showing their favorite artists and songs on a customizable profile webpage. It shows your most played artists, most played songs by week and overall. I can't say that mine gets many hits as there are two people who know about it, but i get this feeling every time I go to someone else's... or my own. I get the sinking feeling that the user's awareness or self-consciousness of this public display often outweighs that of others' interest. I mean, it's cool. it's really cool. i like going to people's. i like going to mine. but, i know multiple friends who manipulate their listenings so they'll... well, so they'll look cooler. The same principle applies for me with profile songs on myspace. i just can't do it. b/c i know i would be thinking about who thinks the song is lame... or something to that effect. And now away (and "available" if you have a mac) messages on instant messenger hold the same power. "Working at Rolling Stone with Joey Lawrence" "recording yanni at Peter Gabriel's 'Real World' studio". I'm just sayin. there's a lot to live up to there. But, don't start getting all paranoid about your away messages, friends. Please.

We are inherently masters at this craft of 'cool' (or at least we long to be). In saying all of the above, know that the "understood you" of the thought is that we (myself especially) can do this with anything. Houses, colloquialisms, sunglasses, DVD collections... Everything. I feel confident that there are many many people who can be good stewards of this technology, I'm just probably not one of them.

In other news, AMC has been a channel after my own heart today. Two of my favorite movies are "Beaches" and "Big". (A funny addition after that last little bit about being cool.) apparently this is 80s week at AMC and they're showing Beaches today and Big on Sunday. right on, amc. right on. you know, i've never thought about it until just now, but it's kinda weird that they call it "Beaches". I mean, it starts on a beach and ends on a beach, but i'm just sayin. There's a lot of in between time where a lot of things were said that might inspire a title. i don't know. i'm not sayin. i'm just sayin.



The weather has been so amazing lately. It completely changes my outlook. As a result, I cleaned the house, bought a ton of fresh produce and went on a long walk with friends and pups.... aaaand the moon was crazy awesome. Crazy Horse. Harvest Moon. gosh i love neil young.

scout.

i have a dog. scout. she's a national treasure.

the blog about blogging

so, i never really know what to think about the concept of blogging. thanks to the inquisitive mind of some friends, it's on my mind again lately. I've sat down to decide where i think things fall on the topic for me a number of times now and still, I don't have much to show. I love letters. This alone makes me a prime canidate to hate blogging. I love sending and receiving letters and I love reading collections of letters with my heart. (Emily Dickinson "Selected Letters" is a fav) I don't want this tradition to be lost and in advance I refuse to ever read a book of emails. ever. I almost never send a package without sending a letter with it, but other than that, i'm not doing much to keep this alive. i need to get on that. For me, blogging is an interesting phenomenon too because i don't edit them and i almost never re-read them before i post. this is dangerous, but i find if i do, i start thinking too much about it. Most writing that is presented in an accessible, public way seeks a specific purpose and as a result is endlessly edited. Not that this is a bad thing, just a fact. Even in the most benign scenario, this process subtly distorts journalism, poetry, or whatever the medium is. You find yourself almost unconsciously writing to please a handful of people. It would be naive to say that I could write completely unaffected and unconcerned by and for whoever may happen to read this. But my intention is to try my best to avoid such.

It's really interesting to read friends' blogs. They are always thoroughly imbued with the temper of their writer. Some blogs read just as the author speaks. Some blogs are considerably more serious or somber than the author ever seems in person, and some are endlessly positive despite the author's general disposition in person. Some blogs fill in details of stories you have heard only the frame-work for. There's something to blogging that offers you a skape-goat. It says, "if you get bored out of your mind, you can just stop reading" where conversation frowns on leaving mid-sentence. This can be dangerous and threatens to work against real friendship and deep community.

Now if you know me well, or even at all, you probably know I love technology. You probably also know I love being outside ... saaay... in the woods. I love both, but need to be more aware and honest about the role of technology in my life and culture. I do think technology leads to an excessive need to be constantly stimulated. This is something I've thought about in raising children. I grew up in a rural area where i didn't have any friends who lived nearby. This rarely bothered me not because I had anything figured out, but b/c i didn't know anything else, thus when I saw my friends it was always a sweet time. We have DVD players on in the headrests during the 10 min drive home from school. It boggles the mind. Now, Don't think I don't think this is simultaneously really super cool, b/c i do... it just necessitates a wisdom in using these things wisely. I'm scared of a generation who with just a moment of silence says they're bored. Humo Kais said "They aren't bored enough yet. If they get bored enough, they'll imagine something to do." buuuut seriously folks.

Marva Dawn champions, "If you have technology, and it keeps escalating, you will have a corresponding decrease in intimacy." You want intimacy, but you know technology, so you reverse the poles and you technologize your intimacy and intimize your technology. So, that's why we have to advertise cars with a cozy scene of a family going on a picnic, phone commercials that show family and friends talking with warm backgrounds trying to convince us that it's just like being there. But we know it is not. Oh how we know.

I'm still thinking this through, so we're going sans-concluding paragraph on this day. sorry, kids.

Forgive us for our attempts to restore balance in our lives.
Fill us with an eagerness to pour out ourselves b/c you have poured out yourself first.

Don't go chasin' waterfalls

i know it's been a few days since this happened, but i went to fall creek falls over the weekend and meant to post about it. i did not. i'm sorry. however, his mercies are new in the morning.

It snowed quite a bit (for TN) and I even took off on, what turned out to be, a 6 mile hike to the falls. I went by myself and it was so great. I took off kind of late but kept saying to myself "well, i've come this far..." so, i ended up walking the last 1 1/2 miles in the dark on an ice/snow covered path. it was so quiet the whole way. for some reason, the last stretch i decided to pull out the ole ipod and listen to death cab's "transatlaticism". it turned out to be a good decision. those last tracks are just killer. i'm working on a little collage of the falls, but here's a normal one. :)



In other really sweet news, Charissa got engaged the friday we arrived at the falls. sooooooo awesome. :) congrats, kids.

ah the dream machine makes it hard to see.

i feel like i could post a great deal about what i saw and heard last night, but tonight i just don't think i can do it. i saw daniel lanois play at the belcourt last night and it was amazing. best asserted, i believe, by sandra when she described it as "lessons on "how to play live music"". i posted some pictures on my flickr site of danny and the boys and of course "emmy" (who i still maintain should be called "lou"). www.flickr.com/photos/jordanbrooke/sets

happy valentine's day.

if you can't be with the one you hug, honey, hug the one your with.

i really don't know life at all.

praise Him for party shuffle. the party shuffle on my itunes today has brought joni mitchell back into my ears. (though she never left my heart. :) ) if you don't have blue, go and get it. it's crazy that i remember a time when i heard joni mitchell and thought she sounded weird and just didn't get it. now i do. forgive me, joni. i didn't know anything at all. it's really amazing to listen to the record "Both Sides Now" after hearing records like "Blue". It gives the song 'both sides now' a whole new hue. It always makes me realize what side of that song i'm on, and think of the day when i will be old and it will come on and i will remember this time.

sometimes it feels like you're watching things in slow motion. relationships changing, the people around you (and you yourself) becoming different people. for this moment, i recommend the latter of the "both sides now" versions.

"now old friends are acting strange. they shake their head, they say i've changed.
well, something's lost, but something's gained in living every day."

these things that circle round today

Thoughts on this day....

Working out at the Y today, I was wondering a thought I frequent.... with all of these people working out on stair machines and rowing thingys and treadmills, can't we power the rest of the building? can't we run the lights of this building using the energy we're creating here? I don't know if it's possible, but it seems logical.

I've always thought a lot about working on records or art or.... anything, really... that you don't think is good, or you don't believe in. (pay no attention to the punctuation or syntax in the previous sentence) I thought for years that if I thought a record sucked, i shouldn't work on it and perpetuate bad art. You give your name to something and say it's worth all that goes with that, right? There are more than a few things in life that when the "rubber met the road" so to speak, I found myself unsure of what I once was sure of. This is one. I'm currently in the muck of this. Am I giving in? Am I using my empty bank account as an unjustified excuse? Do I not trust I'll be provided for? I can answer that last one, but it still needs to be asked.

just know you're doomed from the start if you audition to be in a band for a girl described as a "one woman band".
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5187870

i deleted 1,386 emails this weekend. i love plane rides.

may i never forget, (or more realistically be constantly reminded each time i forget) of my context and purpose in this world. i live in a town where i pay to go to building and run in place. there are people who have to walk miles to get unclean water to keep them alive.

there are people like Fred Phelps http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5192571
i hope i can realize that and be moved to act, not merely moved to despair.
there are people like Coretta Scott King and Judy Whitten.
i hope i can realize that and be moved to increase the good, not merely moved to despair that i am not .

oh condi, condi

who knew that the label on the meds about not mixing with booze was fo serious? i thought that was a hoax like in 2000 when everyone bought all that water and batteries and stuff.

buddytown party.
jason and rufus' bday party.

i may be getting sick, but that can't hold me back on this night.

i like wine.

hip hip

It's snowing!

It's a hell of a life, but it's somebody's life.

Last night by a REALLY random series of events, I got to go to the Ryman show. Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris and Paula Cole. oh and Mindy Smith was there too. jokes. kinda. Anyway, it was a good time. Highlights: Patty sang a lot of amazing new stuff. I'm really looking forward to the next record. I hear they're working on one as I type. Emmylou was great and took great advantage to using all the voices she had on the stage with her and sang a lot of really great songs. Imagine that. They did a sort of "in the round (though it never is actually round)" setup. Paula was really sweet and did a great job. There were a few moments when she wasn't really singing out that fumbled, but you felt like you were rooting for her to come on through.... and she did. One of my favorite moments of the evening was what I fear will become a "you had to be there" moment. Which is sad, but who knows... Paula played "Feelin' Love" and introduced it by saying, "so, had just gotten married and was very much in love and wrote this...um... well, nasty little sex song. For those of you who who saw "City of Angels", it's the song playing as he's watching her take a bath (before his "fall"). I've always dug the song and was really excited to hear it live. She gave such a great performance with much "hootin' and hollerin'" (as they say) from the crowd... myself included. After the song ended, there was a long pause and Patty (who was next in the round) finally said, "well, paula, i'm not really sure where to go after that.... I mean, I know where I wanna go... but I don't guess i can right now." (insert copious amounts of laughter) Patty: "Anyway, back to the dogs.... well, i guess that was kinda about some doggy things...." (roaring laughter).... "no no. ok. back to the dogs and the cats... well, i guess it was about cats too." I mean, Patty Griffin. unreal. I was laughing with maybe a tear or two emmerging and look over and the guy next to me has not cracked a smile the entire time. awkward! Hm. other highlights...

-The amusing introduction of everyone's "wing men". Emmylou introduced "two of her dearest friends" singing/playing (an unamed acoustic guitar running through a horrendously 80s chorus pedal...what?). Then Mindy introduced her "best friend in the world who I've known and played with for x years" Lex Price. Next, Paula introduced her REALLY REALLY "best friend and musical soulmate who i met at Berklee" to play drums (his name escapes me, but was really great). Then Patty "brought out" Doug Lancio, who had already snuck on stage and was seated behind her. It was a really funny round of "No. MY best friend in the world is playing with me and we've known each other longer."

The writing of this blog has been interrupted now 4 times. So, i'm taking my cue. peace. love. and moses.

the end of things

A friend of mine is dying and there’s nothing I can do. It’s not as if there’s a disaster or an organized cause that I could get behind. You know, like in those shows where they pull support from hundreds of volunteers and a few novelty celebrities and take someone’s dreadful house or wardrobe or... (I guess now…face) and transform them. I see the need. I think “ok. Here’s the problem. Let’s all get behind this and knock it out.” But, as much as something in all of us longs to be a part of God’s making right of all things, my friend will die. I will watch her and talk to her and listen to her every word. Then the words will stop and I will know her in a different way. Learning to love differently is hard.

My friend has always had this wise peace about her. She has known me all of my life (she was there the day I was born) and I remember her as the person I always wanted to be. There’s a specific demeanor… or outlook… or whatever you want to call it, that certain people possess that lead me to believe they understand something I don’t. It’s as if they know everything we cherish will pass out of our lives, and that we, too, shall pass away. And when they come to know this truth as a lived experience, it’s as if they also know a deep love and kindness for everyone else who must take the same road. This seems to be prevalent in friends and family I’ve had with terminal illnesses or a terribly hard road for whatever reason. It’s funny that what joins us to the human race is often our pain and suffering. When we no longer shield ourselves from the vulnerability of our condition, when we feel the basic fragility of our existence, then we feel our essential identity with all living things. Then compassion (literally, “to suffer with”) arises naturally for ourselves and for all others. It seems if this is true, we could figure out some formula to remedy the lack of desire to “suffer with” each other in the world. But, as for this, I fear the worst. But still, there’s something about the “diving in” to that deluge so that you might surface - more closely resembling who you were meant to be. This is the downward, rather than the upward, I suppose, of spiritual paths. You go down into a sorrow or suffering. Not indulgently, not milking your pain to consolidate yet another identity, but with a gesture of moment-by-moment openness to the reality of your condition – the condition of all of us. The “tender gravity of kindness” that emerges in this descent gives rise to a love that cannot die. For such a love is given freely and can never be taken away. No power of hell. No scheme of man. There will come a time when we do not need to commit conscious acts of loving kindness because we will recognize that everything we do is cut from that cloth.

But as for now, I remember (or more accurately, am reminded) and forget. I remember then forget. Then I remember. then forget. My friend is going home. Hallelujah. Someday I’ll say that and mean it more than I ever could on this side of things. But for now, with all that I can muster…hallelujah.

KINDNESS
By Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
What you counted and carefully saved,
All this must go so you know
How desolate the landscape can be
Between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
Thinking the bus will never stop,
The passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window for forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness…

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
Catches the thread of all sorrows
And you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes any sense anymore,
Only kindness that ties your shoes
And sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
Only kindness that raises its head
From the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
And then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.