Disturbing The Universe

This blog gets its name from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: "Do I dare/disturb the universe?" 

 

I believe this poem is revolutionary.  I read it for the first time while working as a runner for an insurance company in West Texas.  I was sitting in a cubicle; it was too cold.  I’d taken my shoes off because I’d worn heels and then spent the day loading cases of soda from Costco into the bed of my small, red pick-up truck.  My feet were tangled in the printer wires. 

 

And I opened my book to the The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.  And I read it.  And I started crying, right there in my cubicle with my feet tangled in wires. 

 

I was crying because I was afraid to disturb the universe, and I’d been living like that, thinking that there would be time to do it later.  And this poem has come to my mind in every beautiful moment that I’ve earned since.  After a difficult hike at 15,000 feet, as I looked out over a glacial lake, I thought of this poem.  I wrote this poem on a table in Malaysia, on a bathroom wall in Scotland, in a closet in Peru. 

 

This poem is revolutionary because it made me want to disturb the universe, even made me feel it is my responsibility.