Excerpts

From "I Joyfully Carry My Burden of Dreams" (1998)

 

            “Lawrence’s history isn’t only a history of struggle; it’s just as much a history of love and laughter, of birth and death and madness and triumph and joy.

            “Sometimes all that history, public and private, is so thick it feels like soup, and I can almost see it and touch it and taste it as I walk down the street: ... this is the funky basement kitchen with the giant cast iron stove where we cooked a thousand vegetarian dinners ... this is where we used to go skinny-dipping on summer afternoons, this is where William Burroughs bought cat food, this is where we loaded the elevator full of bowling balls, this is where K. swept the floor of Off the Wall Hall after the Tofu Teddy show, reciting Green Eggs and Ham backwards ... this is where we used to play in the graffiti-covered concrete shell of the old Theta Chi house, this is where I’ve lived for twenty years, and this is my home.”

 

 

From “a juxtapositionist manifesto” (1987)

 

            “Life is inevitable. Matter wants to live. The stuff that makes up the universe has an inherent tendency toward spontaneous self-organization. Forces of mutual attraction are built into the basic particles of matter. The patterns in which matter arranges itself are predetermined by the structure of the elemental units. The self-organization of the universe is continually increasing. This process will continue until the whole universe is alive. As human beings we are matter that has become self-conscious. As such we have the potential to consciously assist the process of self-organization. We can effectively assist this process to the extent that we perceive

ourselves as part of the process rather than something separate from it. The revolution of juxtaposition is a revolution of evolution.”

 

 

From letter to Ed Rothrock, from Pedro Escobedo, Querétaro, Mexico, 28 January 1988

 

            “A few days ago we had a mystical taco experience. We ate tacos at a little place in Pedro Escobedo and afterwards we realized that there had been a prime number of taco eaters (Frank, Brenna, and myself),we each had a prime number of tacos (5, 7, 11), and furthermore, these consecutive prime taco numbers all added up to a prime total taco number (23).

            “These were good tacos, but not good enough. Tell Meredith we’re still searching for the perfect taco.”

 

 

From letter to Donna Eades, 20 July 1992

 

            “As you can see, I’m studying hardly for the bar. Actually, I have been studying during the day, but at night I revert to my true Self, like Dr. Jekyll (or Heckle & Jeckle, I’m not sure which). I’ve been reading Mexican history. I have read about Huitzlíhuitl, emperor of the Aztecs, who on his accession to the throne in 1391 was advised: “Do not think that you were chosen to rest, but to work.” I have tried to tell this to myself, but Dr. Jekyll just laughs, ha ha.”

 

 

From letter to Jill Innes, 22 October 1994

 

            “I bought a gallon of Desires today. $14.98 at the hardware store on Sixth Street. I had resolved to paint the porch floor a deep purple, & this afternoon I went in search of paint. I was browsing through the purples when I came upon color number F334—“Desires”—and even though it wasn’t exactly the color I had in mind I no longer had any choice. So we painted the kitchen table with desires tonight, and by the time you come visit the porch should be painted, too. I look forward to greeting you [...]on the porch of desires [...]

            “The weather was incredible again today, and Maggie suggested a picnic for supper... this got transmuted somehow into just moving the table out into the side yard. It was great—eight of us dining by candlelight under the cornflower blue sky: bright orange shepherd’s pie & a spinach salad with Jude’s ginger dressing, washed down with a bottle of tasty Chardonnay I’d received as part of a wedding fee. Maggie’s sister & Cypress entertained us with the cello, the dogs chased each other, the sky slowly grew darker, the tensions of the last week drained away. I can hear Monsieur Brillat-Savarin saying, “They are so goodnatured! They have such sparkling eyes!” Despite its madnesses, this life is surely sweet...”