storytelling

"It gives me strength, almost unbelievable strength, to know that you are there. I covet your eyes, your ears, the collapsible space between us. How blessed are we to have each other? I am alive and you are alive so we must fill the air with our words. I will fill today, tomorrow, every day until I am taken back to God. I will tell stories to people who will listen and to people who don't want to listen... All the while I will know that you are there. How can I pretend that you do not exist? It would be almost as impossible as you pretending that I do not exist."
-dave eggers, what is the what (2006), p. 535

i've been at my parents' house in north carolina for a month now. it's my first break from school since i started in april '08. and it's weird not being around people all the time. somehow, instant messaging/text messaging/phone calls/twitter/facebook makes me even lonelier. there are certain desperate times when, if i don't get a reply to a text message within a half hour, i start worrying that this person either (a) is in mortal peril or (b) hates my guts.

so that passage from what is the what has been both inspiring and comforting to me. as long as i'm putting words out there, someone is hearing them. someone is there.