Journal, Diary, & Blogging / Lover's Leap and the Guy Who Accidently Lost His Shoe (Analysis)
Where I live there is a location called Lover’s Leap because, as old waconian legend states, an Indian and his lover were not allowed to marry so they jumped off of a cliff together. Lover’s Leap is a large cliff over looking the gorgeous blue Brazos river and the small suburban houses of Waco. The legend makes the cliff embrace the tragic romantic feel most writers can never successfully emulate, while at the same time keeping the cliff’s serene beauty.
I picture the two Indians on Lovers’ Leap with their arms wrapped around each other in the darkness of night. The taboo relationship hidden from their parents as the sounds of the wind is louder than their gentle whispers of loving commitment to each other. Their hearts connected with tears when they learn they can not be together. The brave Indian asks her if she really loves him. A last living kiss of two misguided lovers. Hand in intertwined hand,
They Jump.
Of course, I imagine the romantic stories of the Indian lovers until I read the paper. Everyone in Waco knows more people have tragically died on Lover’s Leap by leaning too far over the cliff’s edge while watching the boat races on the Brazos. Therefore, a wire fence has been placed around the cliff’s edge to prevent people from accidently falling to their deaths. In the paper, a man said he lost his shoe, climbed over the wire fence, and accidently fell off of Lover’s Leap hurting his back. My favorite part of this story is by the witnesses who claimed he was actually peeing off of Lover’s Leap when he accidently fell to his death.
My pictures, of the Indians on Lover’s Leap, is replaced with snickers from onlookers as they watch some jack-ass pissing off of the cliff. I picture his smug face as he chuckles to himself thinking how he’ll tell his grandkids about the day he pissed off of Lover’s Leap. Suddenly a misstep makes him plummet to the ground, and the onlookers (like myself) are in between shock and trying not to laugh.
I learned from the paper the feelings embraced in reality and legends are completely different. Legend is the graceful stories invented by romantic unrealistic dreamers where every silence is filled with quiet music. Reality is the awkward moments where you listen to pee falling onto rocks from a cliff. Legend is smooth and beautiful, and reality is shaky and odd. So many people spend so much time trying to get their lives to measure up to the ideal of legend type grace. In actuality, life will always be raw and awkward. Sometimes, I think we, dreamers, need to recognize our lives will never be filled with legend type grace .
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Wonderful story and I liked the way you put this into the journal blogging entry. It is a perfect fit and a wonderful insight into the workings of a human. I myself have had this realization time and again. As a teen I had all these grand ideas about how I was going to change the whole world with my ideas, but in reality I work two jobs and hope and pray for one of my books to get published. Que Sera. There was nothing I saw that I would change. For a journal entry, you really took your time to clean it up and I love that. Good.
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I thought this was really good. I liked the contrast of the serious imagery in the first part. It conjures up a Romeo an Juliet style tragedy of Lovers Leap. Then the contrast of humour with the man climbing over the fence.
I don’t really know how to rate, critique or comment on a journal/diary/blog entry other than to speak to the fact that I liked it. There are a few punctuation problems involving commas on page 1, “tragic romantic feel ” needs a comma after tragic. That sort of thing. I liked the piece overall--been around Waco and Lake Whitney, beautiful place--so I had a good visual response to your work. I loved the part about the “awkward moments” where one “listens to pee falling onto rocks from a cliff.” Well done.
I thoroughly enjoyed this work. Beautiful language and great images as well as several moments of hilarity make this a fantastic piece. The conclusion really struck me as I am a romantic unrealistic dreamer myself.
A well written and presented text, which builds up a nice tension between the
dramatic legend of old days and the prosaic “jack-ass”-reality of today.
Towards the end the text shifts even to philosophical reflections on the ark
of tension between legend and “raw and awkward” life. The final statement is,
that we are “dreamers” within the realm of imagination, attracted to romantic
lore, but as we are captured within the ordinary, “legend type grace” eludes us.
The story would gain, if the arc of tension would even be higher and the images
used more intense. The text could start with the hopeless lovers of old lore
already in free fall, their bodies smashing between the hard rocks. Next the
story of their love would be told with a slow shift to the present reality.
A guy of the “jack-ass”-type recklessly “pissing” down on the very rocks, were
a great, romantic love ended, would add an equally fitting end to whole narrative.
The picture could depicte the urine dripping from those rocks, calling the
reader back to the “raw and awkward” vicissitudes, our lifes are filled with.
A final statement is not really needed, the text explains itself, if the arc
of tension is heighted and the images used stay vivid enough.
I am not sure you are completely right with your finaly assumption, but on certain days (when I am gloomy), I would probably agree.
I feel your last paragrpah is definitely the most interesting and well-written. Before that this all reads a bit like a book report or a speech someone would have to give in class without really being interested in the topic.
I get how Lover’s Leap would spark your imagination, but I think you could make more of it by either describing the nature of it a bit more or by expanding the story of the Indian lovers.
Either way, writing blogs like this is a good way to not let random thoughts go to waste, so keep writing more!
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