we together make a limb

so i study rhetoric - that's what my graduate work is currently in. maybe i've already mentioned this, but it's what is on my mind right now. rhetoric is. . . i have to explain it to so many friends, use its assumptions/methods in so many papers, remind myself so often why i'm doing what i'm doing. it should come easy. but it doesn't. i came to rhetoric because i could study the environmental humanities in an interdisciplinary way. i could try to understand why people care about things - how they relate to, connect with, and function in the world.

william kittredge understands why i'm studying rhetoric, why i think it's important, why it matters in terms of the things i care about. he says:

"We live in stories. What we are is stories. We do things because of what is called character, and our character is formed by the stories we learn to live in. Late in the night we listen to our own breathing in the dark and rework our stories. We do it again the next morning, and all day long, before the looking glass of ourselves, reinventing reasons for our lives. Other than such storytelling there is no reason to things."

http://www.wildlands.org/wildside/issue4/kitt.html

and he thinks that we need better stories that help us understand life better. i think we need to just look a little harder for them. i find them all over. i listen and watch for them. i create them in my head. they may not be perfect, but they help.

and there are other things that aren't stories - most importantly there are experiences. there are everyday, normal experiences and experiences that are outside our norm. there is home, and there are adventures. without experiences, we don't have any use or even possibility of stories. but without stories, we don't have any understanding of experiences. it's hard to value and care for stuff without a story.

here is a story - it helps me understand some parts of my life. i like the song very much. there are other stories that i attach to the song, give it value independent of its meaning to the writer/singer. and i think that it illustrates why studying rhetoric isn't such a bad thing - i may not have much more to contribute than anyone else who hears this song, but i recognize the importance of it - why i should be attentive to it. why i should appreciate it. why i should love it.

red right ankle by the decemberists

This is the story of your red right ankle
And how it came to meet your leg
And how the muscle, bone, and sinews tangled
And how the skin was softly shed

And how it whispered “Oh, adhere to me
For we are bound by symmetry
And whatever differences our lives have been
We together make a limb.”
This is the story of your red right ankle.

This is the story of your gypsy uncle
You never knew ‘cause he was dead
And how his face was carved and rift with wrinkles
In the picture in your head.

And remember how you found the key
To his hideout in the Pyrenees
But you wanted to keep his secret safe
So you threw the key away.
This is the story of your gypsy uncle.

This is the story of the boys who loved you
Who love you now and loved you then
And some were sweet, some were cold and snuffed you
And some just laid around in bed.

Some had crumbled you straight to your knees
Did it cruel, did it tenderly
Some had crawled their way into your heart
To rend your ventricles apart
This is the story of the boys who loved you
This is the story of your red right ankle.