BoldUlysses.com

The past 48 hours have seen a burst of activity like I’ve rarely had. I was very glad to take a warm shower a few minutes ago and wash off all the dross and residue from Friday and the weekend so far. My eyes are still burning with tiredness but to sleep in my clean soft sheets… Ideal.

Went skiing today with four other folks from the Bible study group at church. We went to Winterplace, about two and a half hour’s drive into West Virginia. It’s a short trip, relatively speaking, but making matters interesting was the constant snowfall that lasted literally all day. In spite of the low general visibility and self-made blizzard of large flakes as we skied down the mountain, the resort was packed and it wasn’t until the beginning of the evening that the lines to the chairlifts thinned out and our runs achieved a comfortable frequency. Elizabeth hadn’t skied before, so Julia and I spent the morning with the pleasant (no sarcasm) task of teaching her the basics. She made good progress and by the end of the morning was head and shoulders above the level where she began. But she opted to spend the afternoon in the car and around the lodge, so Julia, Derek, Joe and I set out on our own. A good side effect of the fresh snow falling was the presence of soft powder on most of the slopes, and it made for excellent skiing, a situation buoyed even more by the fact that all four of us were close to the same skill level. There was thus little waiting, and on the chair lift back up a dissection of a particular slope’s virtues and vices from the point of view of equals, skill-wise. I had a splendid time.

Friday night was my introduction to the burgeoning social scene in Winston-Salem. Meredith and Heather invited me to 6th and Vine, a wine bar/club downtown. I arrived about 10:30, had a pair of Shiner Bocks over great conversation with the two of them before the band started up. They played swing tunes and some Chicago blues with a good deal of gusto. Meredith and I danced for a bit; the place was packed in but tables were cleared out for an impromptu dance floor. I enjoyed it very much, especially the dancing, when I wasn’t overthinking things.

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This book; it’s affecting me. I read a good portion of it on the way home earlier tonight. I’ve almost finished it. It’s completely engrossing, to the point where it impinges on my waking life away from its pages. I experienced the shock of the familiar in reading what could be the crucial passage of the book:

“It took me a long time to realize that I did, but believe me, I did. Do. And it came down to this: In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.”

The point of view expressed is of course aligned with the theme running through the book (one that I don’t necessarily ascribe to in all its implications), but the wielding of that sense of the concept of “understanding,” something very close to my thoughts lately, gave me pause.

And not only that, the depth with which the characters are drawn, Card’s necessary adeptness at communicating thought and conversation intermingled–It’s made me take a step back in my own conversations with friends, teachers and family, and try to pick up on the nonverbal cues that surround their speech, to get out of my own head and wild stabs at approval and be more empathetic:

“So he believed. Believed, but the seed of doubt was there, and it stayed, and every now and then sent out a little root. It changed everything, to have that seed growing. It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instead of what they said. It made him wise.”

* * * * * *

After it all, I feel like I’m trapped in a plume of surreality. There are more things I could say or expound upon but I’ve run them through my head and they’re nothing. It will take a while for everything to sink in.