Copley Square, 1Q84

 It is 12:36 AM, and now April 21st. This means that I've been in Massachusetts for 18 days. My plan was to leave shortly after the NEC Wind Ensemble played Donald Miller Piece on the 16th, but when the two bombs went off in Copley Square on Marathon Monday, I felt the urge to suspend any travel plans, and spend more time with my family. I am currently in my hometown, in the house we moved into when I was ten years old. I don't intend to stay here very long before going back to my Nana & Granddad's house, and I can't shake the need to be writing about this stuff right now. Shortly before I left Boston, I went around the perimeter of the barricade surrounding Copley, and it's really strange. I hope the area can return to some sort of normal state soon. I usually spend a decent amount of time there (it's close to NEC, but just far enough away to be away).

Boylston Street at the Barricade on April 17th (photo by Matt Gilbert) 

All of this weeks events (the Marathon bombings, as well as my premiers) coincide with my getting deeper into the pages of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, and I can't help but note the kind of insight that this book has given me. It's a strange thing, and as I had told my best friend this past week, "Words fail me sometimes, as you know." Since I began reading 1Q84, I have been noting certain passages that stuck out for one reason or another. Like in Donald Miller Piece, it seems like at any given point this month, there have been six or seven things happening simultaniously, and various fragments from Murakami's book have spoke to several of them. That's the best I can do with my words, and below are some of his:

"What did it mean for a person to be free? ...Even if you managed 

to escape one cage, you were just in another, larger one."

"This marks a borderline... From now on, I will no longer be the person I was"

"It's nothing I could talk about to anyone. No, I can't go to a doctor. I have to solve this on my own."

"Do not get abandoned in the Cat Town."

"What happens from here on out is unknown territory for anybody. There's no map. We don't find out what's waiting for us around the next corner until we turn it. I have no idea." 

- Haruki Murakami (1Q84)

I don't know now when I'll be leaving MA, but I do know that I need a few more days to decompress. The bombing aside, this month has retained a fast pace, and I'm glad I have some time to chill out, reading about the Town of Cats.