Scroll of Jawns / Ep. 10

jawn /jôn/ noun - (chiefly in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area) used to refer to a thing, place, person, or event that one need not or cannot give a specific name to. Jawn is a neutral, all-purpose noun used to reference any person, place, situation, or object. In casual conversation, it takes the place of the word ‘thing’.

Example: "Have you seen the TV controller jawn?"

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jawn one.

We went on a hike last Sunday, me and Arle. We hadn’t done many hikes lately. There are endless reasons and excuses I can come up with for that, but they’re mostly ridiculous. I even tried to turn this hike into a Sunday morning lingering in bed instead, but it didn’t work out. Arle was taking me on my word that I’d given her a day or two before. So there we were/ slow-rolling up the mountain side/ me heaving like a coal train/ wheezing/ creeping/ dying to release the track and drift backwards into sweet lazy oblivion. But I was ecstatic a half hour in. The cool cobalt sky, the leafless trees, a trail new to us and only a few minutes from our home/ it all reminded me of being alive while I’m still being alive. Nature’s presence is personal if you want it. Her abilities are supreme and healing. And she could, if she wanted, kill you with snakes or falling limbs or lightning or an epic flood come roaring up over the ridge from an underground ocean we all somehow missed. In the tiny babbling spring-fed trickles, I gather all the intel I need to wander down off the wild slope, mosey back into this valley circus.

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jawn two.

In the recent Bob Dylan flick, A Complete Unknown, there’s a scene where a young Bob and his date, Sylvie, are out for Chinese food and discussing a film they’d just seen. Sylvie, an obvious intellectual, talks passionately about how she feels that the film’s ending revealed how the main character wants to find a better life for herself. To which Dylan points out (and I paraphrase), “Not better… different.” It’s a seductive couple of words that I’ve been carrying around with me these past few days since Henry and Arle and I watched the movie together this past Saturday night. Better is almost always somehow different. But different isn’t always seen as better. And anyhow, which is more valuable in the long run of all this living? Most of us would choose better if given the option, but maybe different is where it’s at. Could be Dylan was on to something, huh? I mean, he is Bob Dylan after all. So, could it be that this young poet far from home was saying that better doesn’t actually exist. And that only something different can make all the difference in your world.

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