Recently I stayed over at a friend's house, and was pleasantly surprised by her evening routine. I was hugging the nearest pillow and drifting off to sleep when Maggie pulled me off the couch and pointed to her Anthology of Modern American Poetry. I was a bit confused -- perhaps I was already dreaming?
"How can we go to sleep without becoming better people?"
"I beg your pardon?"
What did that even mean?
"We have to read the poem of the day, and the story of the day, and then moisturize."
It was midnight. I seriously contemplated waiving my good-person privileges for the day. Luckily, Maggie didn't give me a choice. We read Frank O'Hara. Recounting how a pigeon had attacked me earlier took care of the short story portion of the evening, and I happened to have Pearberry hand lotion with me, so I didn't even mind moisturizing. Maggie approved of the proceedings and wished me a good night.
Crazy as this may seem, I felt really touched. Why had I never thought about doing something like this? My friends and I started out as overachievers -- I want to learn French, I want to bake a quiche from scratch, I want rock-hard abs in under 6 minutes a day. Somehow, we never actually got to these things, though it only takes a poem a day. So I got a copy of the anthology, and began reading. It's refreshing, it's fast, and it makes me feel like I'm doing something new everyday.
I recently read this article in the Times about looking at life as a matter of self-mastery rather than self-discovery. I guess I would tweak that to say that it's helpful to look at life as a matter of self-improvement. So what do you do to become a better person, or feel like you're pursuing more of the things that once challenged/interested you? Is self-improvement/trying new things a good way to go about your life?
Comments (2)
This is really cool. I think I want to do this. But how do you share a short story if you're not with a friend?
We actually cheated a little -- what Maggie usually does is read a short story from her anthology of short stories (all of the following are great selections: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=anthology+of+short+stories). Since we were together, I just told her a personal story. Feel free to change this to your liking -- perhaps you can e-mail a friend you haven't talked to in a while, share a story with friends, etc., etc.