Mr. Jones and Me, we’re gonna be big stars
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by Stan Faryna
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I have struggled to find and share beauty through this blog. And I have failed. Often and persistently. A hundred or so failures for each paltry success. On the other hand, the traffic is fine – I remember when I also bemoaned having less than 10,000 readers in a month.
This is not a tragedy.
This is a joke. [grin]
But I am not joking! My effort and lack of success is the joke. Blogging is a comedy – sooner or later.
Laugh with me.
This is a ridiculous adventure. Absurd. Don Quixote is less foolhardy and he is lesser the fool. But I can not help myself. Perhaps, you find yourself in a similar predicament – unable to stop some foolishness or other. And if, perchance, you did or do…
Smile with me.
My failure as a blogger reminds me also of my failure as a novelist.
Laugh with me. Please.
My conceits are as boundless as my ambitions. And, perhaps, yours too. If so, laughter shall be our greatest solace.
Which brings me to Milan Kundera – a handsome man in a brutal manner. His face is fit for a Federal period scultpture.
The Czech author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera, explains in his The Art of the Novel, that what defines a novel most of all is that it asks important, eternal and urgent questions.
Kundera recommends Don Quixote, a 17th (?) Century novel, written by Miguel de Cervantes. What I remember of the story, it asks, do I belong in a world in which virtues are irrelevant?
My unfinished novel passionately rejects Cervantes’ question. If we are here, then we belong here . Obviously, here is inescapable.
Even at the end of the world! Even in the midst of outrageous fortune, death, desperation, pain, fear and disappointment.
Or hell.
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If you’re in hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill said that. Right?
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If Mr. Churchill is right, how exactly do we keep going?
The enquiry does not recommend finis humanevitae. Instead, it leads me to further questions. …
They are not original questions, however. But they may resonate in the human heart. And I must admit that it’s very possible that no answer shall fully satisfy our curiosity, desperation and hope.
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Who am I?
What can I hope for?
What must I do (not knowing – with any certainty – who I am and what I can hope for)?
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Perhaps, writing them for you here – makes you want to click away. But if you ever sat or lay upon the ground with salty tears streaming down your face – don’t go yet.
Because I approach these timeless questions as they present themselves through opportunities and defeats on unwitting adventures of self discovery and our clumsy exploration of the world, others and the sacred. I search for these opportunities and defeats within the context of the human drama with all the passion, confusion, sound and fury of our experience as persons.
So, yes, there are explosions, the crack of an axe on exploding concrete, sex, love, hate, and everything else.
But I remain afraid to finish the work. I postpone yet another failure to connect, share, contribute to a community of servant hearts, and, ultimately, collaborate with others – to make this a better world and a world of we.
I remain afraid to fail yet again. As if I could pick and choose my failures!
Obviously, we do not.
I’m also reminded of some lines from a song by the Counting Crows, Mr. Jones.
Believe in me.
Help me believe in anything.
Cause I want to be someone who believes [that we can make a better world]
Yeah!
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Yeah – keep going.
Follow me on Twitter: @Faryna
The unofficial blog of Stan Faryna 
“If Mr. Churchill is right, how exactly do we keep going?”
Keep asking YOUR questions and answer them from YOUR heart. Share what you’ve learned and how you learned it.
Giving others a glimpse inside our struggles, successes and failures- our hearts, is interesting… and entertaining!
The blog is just another park bench where two people sit down and one speaks with the other listening. The hope is that a strengthening exchange ensues. But, if nothing else, for a moment they were not alone.
So keep talking. Ya never know who’s listening. 🙂
Thank you, Bets.
Beautiful friend, if I may repeat what Betsy said in different words: it seems to me it’s not our blogging, per se, that matters; it’s why we blog that matters. It’s not our writing, per se, that matters; it’s why we write that matters. Failure (at blogging, writing, whatever) is never anything less that learning in its purest form. What is important for us and those around us is the trying – the ‘why’ behind the what. Please know you ARE creating a better world – it’s the ‘why’ behind everything you do. With a little help from our Pueblo brothers and sisters, we learn that each of us can be free, maybe as free as the soaring Eagle reaching high into the heavens, but each of us has limitations, too, not unlike the ant which must be satisfied to crawl upon the earth’s rich soil. As our humility begins to bud and blossom, we soon find the courage to take our stand, maybe like the lone tree that must stand against the adversity of a prevailing wind. In so doing, we learn to forget ourselves in much the same way the last winter snow forgets itself – and its life – with the arrival of Spring’s first day. As we become still, the way is opened before us and we are invited to do what we do because it is important for another – that person sitting with us on Betsy’s Park Bench, who, for a moment, need not be alone. Even the tree that stands against adversity is never alone – Grandfather Sun and Moon Woman believe in him, so much so they take turns keeping our tall standing brother company while life all around his roots finds rest and comfort under his welcoming, indefatigable, outstretched limbs. Seems to me, my friend, there can never be any failure in trying, so keep doing what you’re doing knowing that folks like me believe in you – for where you sow seeds, we know love is sure to blossom! .
You walk in Beauty, Jack!
You have more success here than you give yourself credit for.
You’re saying so means a lot to me, Jack. Thank you.