responses – Page 5 – E367: Writing and Diversity

Lambeth and Egg

One object that holds a lot of beauty if an egg. This egg has been painted on with flowers and other things and it came from my Nanny’s (grandma’s) house. That was the last thing I took of my Nanny’s to remember her by when she passed. I had always seen it in the house, and it was going to be left on the entertainment center when we were moving all of her things out of the house. While the egg might not be painted perfectly and it might have a chip or two, I feel the strongest connection to it. It didn’t have to be perfect because it is merely a token that I keep to remember her by.

I feel that my egg can relate to Lambeth’s story because just as her story involves beauty in asymmetry and imperfection, mine does too. The one line that struck me from the text was the line “there is beauty in this change, the grace and balance found in asymmetry” (Lambeth, Three-Legged Dog). The egg I had might not have been in perfect condition, I still find the beauty in what it represents.

Memory of Asymmetry/Success

A memory that holds beauty for me would be a memory of losing my dreams right at the tips of my fingers. I trace back to Junior year of highschool when the young immature version of me didn’t care much about school and only cared about hanging out. My younger self here lost my scholarship to play lacrosse at Ohio State University because of my inability to focus on the things that would get me emitted into the University. This holds a strong place in my heart because of the toughness it brought to my life, although it was a tough time I was able to learn a lot about myself, my real friends, and my family. In the end I was able to bounce back and that is how I am here today playing lacrosse UD.

I can relate my thoughts to Lambeths because of her connection to her dog. Although on my hand my connection was my passion for lacrosse and when I was able to be reunited with my scholarship to play here at UD I found a similar feelings as she states, “Now she’ll be whole again, reunited with her other leg,”. Although I was reunited with my passion/dream of playing lacrosse in college. The connection of reaching my goal was real and furthermore an ultimate accomplishment of mine.

Friendly Reality Check: We’re All Human

Something that I picked up fairly recently in my life is writing in a notebook, something that contains my late night venting sessions, my college to do lists, and my anxious thoughts that play on a constant loop in my head. Everyone who has a notebook or journal understands that they are in no way, shape, or form, perfect. My notebook has scribbles where I’ve misspelled words, I’ve got arrows all over the pages where I’ve tried to connect my thoughts, I have random lists in between heartfelt journal entries, and sometimes I’m writing so fast that my handwriting changes completely. It’s messy and sometimes unorganized but I find beauty in the way that I let my thoughts take over the pages. If anything, I think it shows how human I truly am.

Reading Lambeth’s piece was really eye opening in the sense that it made me realize certain things about society as a whole and even myself. When Lambeth states that, “all creatures that persist are whole”, it actually kind of took me by surprise and made me smile. It’s easy for people to feel broken and messy and incomplete for the flaws that they have or the way that they are. Realizing and coming to terms with the fact that we are human and imperfect is surprisingly really reassuring and calming. If you keep going and don’t look back, you’re on the right track. We’re all whole – no matter the disability, mental illness, trauma, or backstories that might have shaped us into who we are today. Society likes to make us feel as though we need to be searching for more and as though we should feel broken for what has happened to us, but Lambeth reassures us that not a single one of us is “incomplete”.

Response to Lambeth

When I think about the cracks on my phone, I never think about which pieces are missing or question its remaining durability. Instead, I wonder why it still does so much for me. Of course this glass screen feels no pain and lacks sympathy — but through this glass screen I see my life, my interactions, my thoughts, my hobbies, my accomplishments, my struggles, and most importantly myself. Even without a camera I could see my reflection, I wouldnt even have to press a button. My phone and our phones share our experience in this day and age, an automated autobiography. Just like this phone I too am imperfect, somehow these cracks and slits and missing pieces of glass describe me. If I were to pay to fix them I would have a hard time recognizing my phone because I remember when I dropped it, I remember how quickly I picked it up and dusted it off, blew on the screen and checked if it worked. Just as I do myself.

In Response to Asymmetry and the Power of Threes

I have always noticed the pattern of threes in my life and how it’s perfectly concise and perfectly contained. When listing something off, two seems too little and four seems to far, but three is just right. When I was younger, I saw odd numbers as a group of couples and one lonely number, but now I see them as something not as wasteful. Not everything has to be whole and even, or you can create your own sense of wholeness— As Lambeth says, “A kind of wholeness through asymmetry and time, the tension between impermanence and ongoingness.”

Since the beginning of high school, I have had a friend group composed of three core members that have never shifted or wavered or left since that year. However, we have had more joined a by one other friend—they have always shifted. They seem to leave every few years—changing or leaving. But, we three never leave. We are balanced and ongoing–no matter who decides to join us and who decides to leave us.

Imperfect Perfection

One of my favorite things to do is surfing. Since I was a little kid, I have surfed the beaches of Long Beach, New York. As I have grown up, I have purchased, sold, and broken countless surfboards, but there is one in particular I will never let go. This board is my asymmetrical surfboard from Varial Surf and it is my favorite surfboard in my quiver. Asymmetry is uncommon for surfboards, which are usually symmetrical. Even though it is asymmetrical, it has created some of the best rides and experiences of my life. The feel of the board is different, it rides down the line differently, and the turns are unusual.

When reading Lambeth’s article, I truly felt the connection that she and her dog had together. In addition, the article was a beautiful story of how two beings can connect and be foundations for each other, which I realized was in a way similar to me and my surfboard. During reading Lambeth’s article, there were many moments where my thoughts related to her writing. Specifically, when she is talking about her and her dog’s reflections in the mirror, and she says, “I soon came to simply trust and love what I saw in the glass: persistence, trust, grace.” This quote was exactly the mindset Ms. Lambeth should have had the entire time because that is what truly described the relationship between her and her dog.

My Stuffed Animal

An object of mine that always makes me think of beauty in imperfection is my stuffed animal rabbit that I’ve had since my childhood. My rabbit would follow me everywhere I traveled: on long vacations, trips to the grocery store, and every night when I would go to sleep. With every journey my rabbit has been on, it has started to look less and less like an actual rabbit. It has become ripped, lost almost all of its stuffing, and rather than being short and round, it is now long and skinny. I’ve tucked my rabbit away in my closet for years now, but every now and then I stumble upon it when I clean and can’t help but feel all the memories of my childhood flood back. I think of all the family vacations, how each rip and tear got there, and of how this stuffed animal embodies my entire childhood in just one tangled object.

A particular quote that stood out to me while reading Lambeth’s piece was that of which discussed wabi sabi and its meaning. “Wabi sabi, the Japanese aesthetic philosophy closely tied to Zen Buddhism, insists upon asymmetry and imperfection, aware that these are signs of life’s impermanence and decay. In wabi sabi, fallen leaves may carry more meaning than those still on the tree…” (Lambeth, Three-Legged Dog). This quote makes me think of the impermanence of childhood I can see when looking at this stuffed animal, as well as the meaning that lies within it. I find that there is much more meaning in this torn stuffed animal than there could be in a perfectly stitched rabbit.