A Chase

To be completely honest, at first I was drawn to the Hanging by George Orwell. The dark nature and cynicism behind Orwell's The Hanging is more to my liking than The Chase, as dark themes that deal with the harsh realities of our human world appeals to me more than the drive that brings us to happiness. But today, just as George Orwell faced a certain revelation when he saw a single human action, I too was changed in my decision of what to write of by a single human action, though I won't detail what that was, I will give my thoughts on The Chase.

The Chase can be summed up quite easily, it's a narrative on the life of Annie Dillard and a moment in her life that she summed up to be the happiest moment of her life. And that moment was a chase, a chase where a single adult man persisted and stopped at nothing to capture her and her companion, simply because they had thrown a snowball at his car. In logical deductive terms, it's a rather simple situation, child does something mischievous and adult reciprocates. But there is a much deeper meaning.

There are times in our lives, times we do not always suspect, but they come. They come like a flash-flood or a suddenly developed storm, and they overtake us completely. Sometimes these moments are negative, sometimes they are positive. This moment in the author's life was important, it was a moment where reality became distorted, where the ennui of daily living was ignored for the moment, the Chase through out the neighborhood she frequented, things she had seen before, the streets she had walked through time and time again. But it was different, this man, became the catalyst for change. He turned the dull into the exciting, he turned the mundane into the extraordinary. For a few brief moments in time, the world which she had only known to be a drab and dull place, turned vivid, colorful, and envigorating. Why...?

As human beings, we are doomed to a life of routine. Children are more easily able to bypass this, they are more capable of changing routine into momentary impulse. But ultimately, both children and adults are doomed to conform to a life of routine. However, this man, this man broke it all, with his action and his persuit, he divulged them both. They were both aware of the all-or-nothingness of Football and life itself, but they weren't fully cognicant of it, it was only now, when they were thrown into a situation where they were chased through out the whole of the neighborhood, that it became fully appreciated and understood. The strides they made, every gasp, every breath, every drop of sweat served to enlighten them and reassure them of the liveliness of life, the liveliness of that chase. Routine, reality, society, science, culture, everything faded away as the very street they played on blurred as they ran away from this solitary man. Moments where adrenaline took over, where wrong and good became vague, and the only thing left was a victor and the defeated; All or nothing.

Why was she happiest at that moment, more than any other in her life?

There are moments in our lives that define us more than any others, there are moments that push every faculty we have been endowed with by God and man to the test, these moments, these very few and brief moments impact us more than any other. We never know when they are coming, but when they do, we can be sure that we will not remain the same at the end of them. All or nothing, that is precisely what life is. Almost and close only count with horse-shoes and hand-grenades. Whether you lose or win, you lay it all on the line, that moment, that slight instant between loss and victory, is the moment when we are our happiest, or most miserable. The author knew this, she knew as a child, perhaps not able to put it into words, but she knew, that that moment, that chase, was where she was most alive. The common day routine, the ennui of daily living dulls us... But change, personal evolution, brings us life.

The Chase, is the account of a person who realized that in a single day, in a single hour, one can feel more alive, than they have in their entire life. We all have them, those moments.

But the question is, do we give it our all-or-nothing?

Do we dare lay it all on the line?

Animated Version of 'The Chase.'" ™

i= i= I===

Borges and I

Borges and I is first-person dour account of a man who is losing himself, to himself. The writer is torn up within himself, he placidly observes how he changes from himself, into Borges, the man which people see face-to-face. As people, we carry around masks, these masks are our adaptations to society, however, these masks are double-edged swords, as they suppress and suffocate whom we are, and the person inside becomes locked away, never to see the light of day. This was happening to the writer, he observed as his true nature slowly began to erode. Eroding under the pressure of being locked away, and the pressure of his mask, Borges, taking over.

The entire piece remains melancholy, with a powerful sense of nostalgia as the writer silently screams away his desire to persist, but accepting the finality of his situation. Through out the whole piece, writer admits to knowing that his end is at hand, he silently admits that he is fading away, every day bringing him closer to becoming the mask he wore, rather than living his life as the man he was. In truth, while he wrote, "I am giving over everything to him" This wouldn't be correct in my humble opinion. The most likely truth, was that everything he was, was being taken from him, assimilated by Borges.

As one reaches the end of this self-reflective piece, one notes the change of demeanor, from acceptance, to reminiscing the last struggles he had against Borges. "Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything, and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him." The writer recognizes that ultimately, either he fades away into nothingness, utter forgetfulness, or what remains of him must exist only in Borges. Howeverr, the greatest and most powerful piece in this entire reflection lays in a simple statement.

"I do not know which of us has written this page."

This is a powerful conclusion, with a complex and elaborate meaning. The writer recognizes in his entirety, that he is Borges, and Borges, is him. While he dejects Borges, he cannot deny that he is a part of Borges, and Borges, a part of him. He knows that his personality is changing, changing into the adaptation, the mask which is Borges. Borges which was created only for society, had encroached beyond the realm set for him to exist in, and now Borges and the writer had become one. They were always one, but they were one in their own territory. Now finally, they had become one, both inside, and outside. The last remnant of the writer, wrote this page in expressing his regret toward this union, his last feeble attempt to consolidate and create material that could protect and preserve at least a minor instance of himself.

By the end of this page, the writer fully recognized he no longer knew if he was even still himself.

By the end of the page, the writer essentially died. And Borges assimilated the last of him.

Acceptance is the final step before change overtakes you completely. Be that change one of personality, one of situation, or one of the end of mortality. Acceptance is the key to letting that in completely. The writer accepted, and then it was only a matter of time.

At the beginning was a defiant man. At the middle a man accepting. And at the end, the writer disappeared and another took his place.

Borges.