On Fire

I have been thinking about burning lately. About the word, but also what it means to metaphorically burn the candle at both ends. And about my students' colloquial use of "lit," and "burn," and "flamed," and "on fire," "roasted," and "scorch," and "smoked." (That's good, good/bad, bad, good, bad, good, good if you're following along at home).

Here's the way that Google helps me understand four different forms of the word "burning."

   on fire.

"    a burning building"

synonyms:

blazing, flaming, fiery, ignited, glowing, red-hot, smoldering, igneous

• very hot or bright.

  
  

  "burning desert sands"

  
  

  synonyms:

  extremely hot, red-hot, fiery, blistering, scorching, searing, sweltering, torrid
• very keenly or deeply felt; intense.

  
  

  "he had a burning ambition to climb to the upper reaches of management"

  
  

  synonyms:

  intense, passionate, deep-seated, profound, wholehearted, strong, ardent, fervent, urgent, fierce, eager, frantic, consuming, uncontrollable "a burning desire"

• of urgent interest and importance; exciting or calling for debate.

  
  

  "democracy remains a burning issue"

  
  

  synonyms:

  important, crucial, significant, vital, essential, pivotal; More

When combined, these four definitions help me to better understand that beautiful line from Kerouac's On the Road that I've mentioned on this blog before:


“[...]the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!” 


Kerouac's people who burn, burn, burn are all these things. They feel things with urgent interest,and experience the world intensely; the essence and impact they have on those around them is often hot and bright, and they ignite others with their glowing energy....they kindle relationships and ideas and innovation. "And everybody goes 'Awww!'"

I recently finished Neil Pasricha's book The Happiness Equation. It's one of those books that makes me think about myself a great deal. There were so many things I loved about it and it spawned so many ideas deep within my core. One of the things I took from the book was Pasricha's recommendation that, when dividing our time, we dwell in places of "space" or places of "burn." Essentially, his encouragement is to either be firing on all cylinders like a burning roman candle, or soaking in the quiet of our own peace, wherever and whenever that may be. It is only by listening to the pulse of ourselves and the world around us that we can truly create and have the energy to burn brightly.

Here is the image Pasricha creates to illustrate the way we spend our time thinking and doing.

I've been inspired recently by a few people who burn...who think and do LOUDLY, and MASSIVELY, and BRILLIANTLY. Their brains inspire mine in ways both direct and subtle.



Brittany Stinson wrote a highly acclaimed college essay a few years ago about Costco which ends with the following paragraph:

My intense desire to know, to explore beyond the bounds of rational thought; this is what defines me. Costco fuels my insatiability and cultivates curiosity within me at a cellular level. Encoded to immerse myself in the unknown, I find it difficult to complacently accept the "what"; I want to hunt for the "whys" and dissect the "hows." In essence, I subsist on discovery.

I find this beautiful and inspiring. I know that were I to start a company--any company, doing anything--I would want someone with this Brittany Stinson DNA on board. She is the type of person Kerouac was seeking...I can just tell.

Another person whose imagination and drive I love is Sam Harnett. Sam went to college with me, but we never knew each other. I knew who he was and I always saw him and he just walked around looking inspired. He started a radio podcast called "The World According to Sound." It's brilliant and beautiful and just explodes the idea of sound, as well as the notion of how brief (yet deep) an audio show can be. I love it and it makes my own ideas explode. I shared a few episodes with my students to illustrate the ability to do so much with so little, and to listen to the things we might be missing that are all around us.

Now here's the crazy thing...his brother, Ben Harnett, who I found via Twitter, is also totally inspiring. Must've been something in their childhoods. Ben--a man of many inspiring talents--had this idea to create and publish a poetry chapbook and give it away to the first people who signed up on a Google Doc. He titled it Animal. Then, a while later, he did the same thing with Vegetable. My students loved it...they were baffled that it was free, but loved it even more as it occurred to them that he simply wanted people to read his poems and to set them free. When word reached them (and me) that Ben was releasing Mineral this spring, we clamored to ensure our name got on the Google Doc. A really neat way to share art with the world.

Finally, both my friends Katie Nelson and Jesse Lindsey inspire me with their respective musical innovation. Katie recently released an album entitled Lavender and Lace: An Anthology of Queens. The album is a collection of songs written from the perspective of 13 different queens from history. It inspires me to think deeply about the ways story and art and history all make up the fabric of the human story. Katie is coming to my classroom later this year and I just can't wait. My students will love that she grasps her ikigai (the reason she gets up in the morning) and her energy is beyond contagious. She, like Ben, wants to set her masterpiece free in the hearts, minds, and souls of her audience.

Jesse, on the other hand, is a longtime friend who writes songs and records them on his rock blog, http://www.mounteverestweekly.com/. Every Monday, he posts a new song and the story behind it. He's been going at it for 385 weeks, every Monday. I shared his song "A tether" with my students when we were writing our own personal mission statements in class...I wanted them to think about both dreaming and staying close to home, about departing and staying tethered to that which defines them. I wanted most of all, though, for them to love the courage Jesse had in facing his fears and (like this blog) putting himself out there to an audience, however small. One student even wondered aloud whether the title, Mount Everest, might be an allusion to the biggest hurdle one could possibly overcome on the planet.

Finally, I was so inspired by one student who couldn't contain her enthusiasm with Animal Farm this week. "Mr. McDonough!" she exclaimed in the hall, "I don't even have words....I just love how it's about power and about society, but it's about animals so it's just...it's just...ahhhhhhhh!" and off she ran. 14 and on fire. Subsisting on discovery.