Trick 1

       I decided to read Dean Young's "I Said Yes but I Meant No".  This poem got my attention solely on the fact that it has numbers in it.  Which, while I haven't read many poems in my life, I don't believe numbers are common.  Also, I didn't understand the first thing about this poem on my first perfusal. But once I started breaking it down in sections, I think I started to get the basic underflow.  But of course I could be completely off from the author's meaning.  But since this is my translation of it, I can't be completely wrong now can I?


This poem, from the understandings of my head, is talking about just being yourself.  "One should like oneself between 60 and 80%" means that you shouldnt think to highly of yoruself.  This is followed up by "Over 85% means you are a self-involved bore".  Meaning that you are full of yourself and you place yourself above others.  The other side of the coid, "Under 45%, one becomes an undertaking" to me means that you think to little of yourself.  Everything is going to be harder when you don't think you can do whatever it is at hand.

The opening of the poem tells you that if you like one 85% and the other 35% that it's not so bad.  Your not swinging one way or the other to the extreme.  Your being yourself and going with what you feel is right.

Lower on down, you come across "You may feel 0% upon first waking but that is because you don't yet know you exist."  To me this means that when your young, and the world is huge and new, you don't feel that you exist or can make a mark.  You have no idea what your potential is.  Following up with this, "Then as you venture forth to boil water, you may feel a sudden surge to 90%".  This leads you to believe that when you finally get out into the world, you realize it's not nearly as big as you thought.  You are doing things with your life that mean something.  Even if its only to yourself.  Everytime we, as a people, do something great, we are proud of it.  And we realize that we do matter.  This is reinforced by the phrase "Hey, I'm GOOD at boiling water!"

The next passage talkins about not letting it all go to your head or become too extreme.  Keep it around the middle.  Realize that you did something great, but don't become arrogant over it. "Beyond that it is as great storms upon drought-stricken land."  This shows that once you might have thought you weren't important, but that once you made a mark, don't let that go to your head or you'll go to far and over the top.

The second half of this poem I believe is centered around us as a people.  It refers to a tanker splitting open and the birds turning black.  It goes on to tells us that  sometimes a good scrub is all that's needed.  We as a people sometimes go to far and that once in awhile we need to clean ourselves up.  Sometimes it's the simple things that bring us back down to earth.  The author goes on to give us some examples of this.  "A fresh shirt.  Backpacking into remote areas.  A call home."   Sometimes a call home is all we ever need.

Teaching an old dog new tricks.

  First hurdle to overcome was the title of my blog.  Given that I've learned the hard way about taking life serious, I didn't do to well the first couple tries in college.  I was young and thought it was another thing I could take advantage of.  Yeah, its taken me 10 years to figure out how wrong I was.  So here I am again, and of course it's harder than it would have been back then.  But I'm focused now and I have a better understanding of how life works in general.  I realize this is necessary and in the end I hope it helps me to become a better, more educated person.  So here goes, third times the charm!