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STORY PROBLEMS Charles Jensen
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Voyager 2's only task is to observe. It has traveled to places humans could once only imagine, then could only see through powerful telescopes. Voyager 2 carries within it—I'll just say it—a great deal of humankind's hope. The Mozart, the messages. The greatest achievements in human history like music and optimism. It's a beautiful thing the way we cast it away from Earth and into oblivion. What a brave soldier it is. The only testament we have from both science and faith. Quiz on this section:
__ 27. THE PROGNOSIS WAS NEVER GOOD I never envied my mother more than when I saw her liberated from her own expectations, when she was terminal. I remember as a child thinking she was perfect, then thinking she was flawed when I'd grown out of it. I sprained my ankle when I was three—how is not important. But for weeks after she had to carry me everywhere, plopped on her hip. I was a miserable kid. I think that's why we loved each other. Quiz on this section:
__ It's already too late when you discover you have done things that cannot be undone. The past is real to us but exists behind a scrim through which our bodies cannot pass. Because we cannot change the past, we can only change ourselves. We are not a sum total of our lived (and imagined) experiences, are we? (Someone check on that.) What's in the past can stay buried there, but like all zombies it won't stay buried for long. Some people think the past wants to consume our brains, and I'd agree with that. I'd like to add the past is also very deaf. Quiz on this section:
__ At midlife I drowned in myself. Imagine I am a sea of experiences, memories, hopes, desires. You cannot stop the whale that lives inside. So I went like Jonah into the whale, or like Pinocchio—yes, just a boy, really—a victim, I lit a fire there, it was so dark inside. And the whale I knew was made of muscle and bone I generated by every choice I ever made. I could not get out of the whale. I could not get out of myself. If this is what you call a "crisis." Quiz on this section:
__ No one really knows what lies beyond the solar system, so that's why the twin voyagers were launched. It took nearly 40 years to reach the farthest reaches of the known universe and now they are moving into uncharted territory. In 2025, they will no longer have the energy to power a single instrument, the way a sick, old body might shut down, system by system, leaving the brain and heart for last. The body is programmed to persevere. Even though it knows it's sailing toward oblivion. Quiz on this section:
__ This long poem is designed to help the reader understand if s/he is having, has had, or will have a midlife crisis, and what types of thoughts, experiences, and examinations can be associated with that experience. I was inspired by something I read online about the condition: "There is no treatment for a midlife crisis just as there is no treatment for adolescence." The form of a high school exam felt like the right technique for this exploration. |