An Interruption about Things you should read...

No, really, you should!

Okay, this isn’t the post some of you were expecting to see today. It isn’t the post I was expecting to write today. I was—and I am—finishing up the next video. But I got an email about a post Teez dropped today and I stopped, I read and it hit me that I had to write this. It’s not exactly about what she posted—it is, of course, and that’s a big important part of it—but there’s more.

That more couldn’t wait. So the video had too. (It’s almost done and coming next.) But for right now, I have to share this…

If you’ve been around here at all, you’ll have noticed it’s kinda “all over the show” (as one of my best friends likes to say). Sometimes, I’m serious—mostly I’m not. I totally use totally too much; I’m super-fond of super; I use exclamation points like the internet uses electrons.

That’s the way I am and that’s the way I like it! I totally love super-naughty, supremely sexy, seriously silly fun! It makes the world go round! Or come around! Or just cum! 😉 All uber-awesome things!!!!! 😊

But there are times that being serious is necessary. This is one of those times.

I firmly believe that there are things in Life we need to read—when we’re ready for them. And if we aren’t ready for them now, we need to be making ourselves ready for them later. To me, this is a crucial part of the great work of living; of fully living the adventure of our lives (not sitting on our ass poking that thing that’s welded to our hand).

Literature is our lifeline and great literature is our best teacher, our map, our guide and our light.

So once upon a time, they made people read “great literature” as the fundamental basis of their education. And it probably was “great,” at least some of it (Homer, Shakespeare, Sappho—though I don’t think she got the emphasis she deserved), and some of it was Crime and Punishment, which I’m totally willing to believe is “great literature” and am totally unwilling to ever read.

I think those days went the way of the dodo (which is not a good thing). But the importance of literature has not and I still think people should pay attention to those works, ancient (especially) and not-so-ancient, that “back when” stuffy college profs “inflicted” on their students. (Or maybe they weren’t stuffy and I should be nicer. I don’t know. These things are beyond my ken.)

But these aren’t the things I believe you should read. The things I think you should read are a lot more fun! First, of course, there’s Riley! And while I don’t believe in playing favorites, I really, really have a thing for The Adventures of Elena and Ned. It’s the most awesome super-fun, seriously-sexy, totally adorable book you’ll get your hands on and a must-read dose of uber-happiness!

And you ought to know about Pamela O too! Her writing reaches heights the ancient poets did and the modern poets should shoot for!

But then, there’s Teez.

As you’ve probably gathered, this post is for her. There’s that “great” literature I mentioned at the beginning, there’s really good literature too and even really, really good literature and really awesome literature and it all deserves your time and attention.

But then there’s literature I don’t have a name for. Literature that goes to another place: “somewhere I have never traveled; far beyond any experience…” (to quote my favorite modern poem by ee cummings). Literature that does what translator and poet Jane Hirshfield said about Ono no Komachi: that her genius “was to demonstrate in her work that to investigate any feeling sufficiently deeply is to reach down to the very bedrock of our lives.”

This is what Teez does in her writing, whether it’s her posts about dealing with Real Life, or her stories, which are super-hot! She digs into Life; she explores; she goes deep, she reaches down to the very bedrock of our lives.

To do this with stories that are so absolutely fun, hot, sexy (I have it on good authority Crime and Punishment is none of these) is… yeah, “far beyond any experience”—but shouldn’t be.

So she’s someone you, me, I, we need to read. Because we have this thing we do. We draw lines; we put ourselves on one side of a line and other people on the other side. We chalk-line our experience; you’re that outline, I’m this one. And then we take what we see and we decide where it applies; this side of a line or that one; inside this outline or that one.

And then Life comes along, wipes out the lines, obliterates the outlines, smashes the little tidy boxes we built and leaves us with a megaton of

What the Fuck…

And if we’re going to meet that, to survive that (whatever “survive” means), we damn well gotta be prepared. And being prepared means knowing the bedrock that’s beneath all the froth and crap we stir up and surround ourselves with; that we [often] think is “real” and that we [too often] use to measure ourselves against others and/or our ideas what “success” is.

Knowing our bedrock means putting anchors into it. Anchors we can hold fast to when the shit hits the fan really fucking hard.

Which it will.

Teez can show you how to do that. She’s been there. She knows that ground. She’ll share what she knows and do so beautifully.

So read. And enjoy. You’ll have so much more fun than slogging through that antediluvian (isn’t that such a cool word? 😊) “required reading list.”

And Teez, if you read this, I totally wish Dostoevsky could’ve known you. Maybe he wouldn’t have written all those books he did—maybe he would’ve written something else?—but I think he would’ve been happier.

And had more fun.

I know I am! 😊