Do not go gentle into that good night
I was thinking today about how I loathe the thought of having to downgrade to “gentle yoga” after several years of a Bikram and power yoga practice. I’m not exactly known for the likelihood of my “go[ing] gentle” into anything. I want to do what’s best for my body, but it’s not always easy to accept its limitations. So on that note, I present a (rather famous) villanelle* by Dylan Thomas.
Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
You can listen to Thomas read the poem over at the Academy of American Poets.
*The villanelle is, in my opinion, one of the hardest forms to do well in English because of its reliance on both repetition and rhyme. The form uses only two rhyme sounds (a & b) and has two refrain lines that use the first rhyme sound (a). See Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” for another beautiful example.
Life Lessons
Image by Trevir666 on flickr.com
I’ve been putting off buying a new air conditioner for a month now. Last summer, in early August, my old bedroom window unit (and when I say old, I mean like purchased-during-the-Carter-administration old) died a noisy death, and my landlord gave me a hand-me-down unit because you’ve got to be kidding if you think you can just waltz into the Home Depot in Georgia in August and expect to pick up a 5000 btu a/c unit.
So I used the hand-me-down a/c for a month or so. I thought it was kind of noisy, but it had a nifty electronic display, and a timer (not that I ever used these features– It was either set to 75 or 80 degrees, or it was off).
Fast forward to the beginning of the hot season in the South (aka “May”). For the last month and a half, I had a suspicion that my a/c unit was getting noisier and noisier (like rattle-the-panes-out-of-the-window noisy). I deliberated for quite a while, and lusted after the “library quiet” portable a/c units that cost $300+, tried to talk myself out of it, and then finally this week I bought a new unit at Home Depot and installed it. The unit itself is decidedly utilitarian– an LG with a high and low setting and an old-school dial thermostat. But it’s light, tiny, and oh so beautifully quiet. And it was only $100. That $100 is the best investment in my sleep (and sanity!) that I’ve made in a long time. Two nights of uninterrupted sleep (no rattling, no wheezing and whining from the compressor!) has been like a free vacation.
I could kick myself for not taking care of this sooner. So the next time I put something off, or resist spending money on myself, I need to take a closer look and ask “Would buying (or doing) X significantly increase my quality of life?” If the answer is yes, and I can afford it, then I need to tell the voices in my head that say “you should just learn to live with what you have” to shut it. Yes, there are some things that cannot be “fixed” (central air isn’t going to magically appear in my apartment) or other “solutions” that are really just an excuse to buy shiny things (sure, I’d love a new-new Volkswagen 2012 Beetle when they come out in the fall, but my car is running fine, even though it’s older and has some cosmetic flaws). However! when it comes to something that adds convenience and/or comfort, I have to remember that I’m investing in my health and quality of life, which goes a long way toward being content, even–or especially–without all the shiny stuff.
But if anyone wants to, umm, “donate” one of these to me, I’ll happily accept it:
