Caught/Loose

I have always had the goal for my life never to feel stuck. It seems simple enough, but I have come to realize how difficult this particular goal may be to achieve.

I am taking a class in women's literature, and right now we just finished reading some short stories by Carson McCullers. In her "novella", The Member of the Wedding, McCullers' character, Frankie, and friends discuss the unavoidable idea of being caught in your life.

I'm copying down a section that really stood out to me... sorry it's kind of long!


"We all of us somehow caught. We born this way or that way and we don't know why, But we caught anyhow. I born Bernice. You born Frankie. John Henry born John Henry. And maybe we wants to widen and bust free. But no matter what we do we still caught. Me is me and you is you and he is he. We each one of us somehow caught all by ourself. Is that what you is trying to say?"
"I don't know," F. Jasmine said

...

"I believe I realize what you were saying," F. Jasmine said. "Yet at the same time you almost might use the word loose instead of caught. Although they are two opposite words. I mean you walk around and you see all the people. And to me they look loose... you don't see what joins them up together. You don't know where they all came from, or where they're going to. For instance, what made anybody ever come to this town in the first place? Where did all these people come from and what are they going to do?"

...

"People loose and at the same time caught. Caught and loose. All these peopel and you don't know what joins them up. There's bound to be some sort of reason and connection. Yet somehow I can't seem to name it. I don't know."
"If you did you would be God," said Bernice. "Didn't you know that?"


Think on that.