The first short story to catch my eye in the remaining pages of "Maps to Anywhere" is the one titled "Live Wire". The description of a cut wire was phenomenal and very easy to envision. The primary thing that I noticed about this selection is that there was no punctuation: it was one, giant run-on sentence. I am thinking that the author wrote this in that style particularly to give the reader the impression of a rush or hurried tone. When I read the paragraph in my head, I noticed that I was reading it in a "panicked" manner. The style in which "Live Wire" was written also reminds me of one of the poems we read specifically in the past poetry packet: she was describing another stressful scenario (the sexual assault she had endured). The author had also then used lack of punctuation to express urgency or feelings of the main character through the story.
"Do you ever say 'I wish it was now? No. You wish it was an hour from now, or years ago. A fortune teller has no interest in predicting your now. A psychiatrist is not paid to delve into your now."
This is an excerpt from "Que Sera Sera", which I instantly recognized as being Spanish and it translates into (I believe) "It is what it is". This quote meant a lot to me, because as a psychology major it announces a perspective that I have never thought of in the past. There is a lot of truth behind this sentence: we are always wishing to be in a different time than the present, whether we would rather be in the past or in the future. It is very rare that we are able to be content with the present, and I wonder why that is. It is then that I realized the meaning of all of the quotes that say to take it once step at a time and to enjoy every moment as if it is your last: it is because nobody ever does. Instead, time is wasted wishing to be elsewhere at a different point and time.
great responses here!
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