End. Begin. All the Same. Big Change. Sometimes Good. Sometimes Bad.

~ Aughra via The Dark Crystal (1982)

It is sixteen degrees Fahrenheit with an extended forecast of shitty — and there’s no better time to settle down with a book and a cup of coffee. I wasn’t going to risk the trip to campus — at one point, the church in my back yard was invisible. This is the weather of Oswego. So I made the best of it.

I was thinking all day about what constitutes “Words That Stay.” It is the title of this blog, and so of course, it has to mean something. The original quote from which my blog title stems is from the 1982 cult classic, “The Dark Crystal” written by David Odell. One of my favorites, ever since I was little kid. (If you haven’t seen it, check here & for a creepier version, check here.)

“Kira: What’s writing?

Jen: Words that stay. My master taught me.” ~ The Dark Crystal (1982)

I want to use this blog to share the words that have stayed best with me. Quotes from old movies, for instance:

 “Jen: I’m looking for Aughra.

Aughra: Who sent you?

Jen: My master, wisest of the Mystics.

Aughra: Where is he? Around here?

Jen: He’s dead.

Aughra: Could be anywhere, then.” ~ The Dark Crystal (1982)

I can remember the first time I saw this movie — and I probably shouldn’t have, because I was really young. My family had gone to visit their friends Tammy and Rodney, and brought me along. Probably my baby sister too, but I was so transfixed when they put this movie on that I can’t really recall her crying. (Most of my earliest memories are of me trying to get her to stop said crying. I once gave her a cookie before she even had teeth.) I can remember they had a much bigger TV than my parents had, and it was loud. I probably was sitting too close. But I think I asked to watch that one because the cover was pretty, in all honesty. What can I say? I can remember how badly the dying Skeksis Emperor scared the crap out of me every. single. time. And I knew it wouldn’t change, but I would hold my breath and cringe anyway. (I still do.) Well, regardless — I loved the movie. To the point where each consecutive time that we visited them, so my parents’ story goes, that was the movie I chose to watch. The copy we had at our house was recorded off of the television, and the volume was so low for most of the movie that we had to put the TV up on full volume. I think my mom ended up recording it off of HBO simply to appease me, because we never owned a copy like Tammy and Rodney did at their house. I still remember, when I watch the DVD today, where there would’ve been a really annoying blip in that VHS tape. I’m in my first apartment, and one of the first movies on my shelf is indeed The Dark Crystal. Surprising, how some things stick with you and you don’t even notice until you’re trying to come up with a title for a blog, right?

On one of the pages above, you’ll see I kind of collect quotes. Sometimes words really do stick with me — they stay. So I keep them. I sort of end up feeling as though I’d lose them, and end up forgetting how I felt when I first read or heard those words. I’m thinking that’s really what’s most important — how the words that stay with you make you feel.

Maybe that’s just the poet in me. Maybe I’m sentimental. Or hell, maybe there are just a lot of really good people who write really meaningful things just often enough. I want this blog to encourage people to find words that stay — figure out why they stay, and keep them someplace where you know you’ll never lose them.