when i addressed james and quoted extensively from the Good Book (not the bible)

james, you are a part of the intellegencia in plenty more ways than one. and you play a damn beautiful cello (i don't mean aesthetically, i mean musically). and from what i've read, your poetry, however often you produce it, is far from mediocre. in case you truly don't know that, it's really really really really really really really really really really really really really good. and it says some important things, which makes it even more really really really really really really good.

but, in case you're not convinced...
[james: mikey, i'm not convinced.
mikey: meh, eh...*demonstrates empty care cup*. aw just kidding, i care.]

...i have pulled up some valuable passages from the good Book of Intelligencia, written far before our time, but in English, thank the lord.


and i quote from the Book of Intelligencia:

page 823, section XXI, paragraph 2a:
"you question yourself and insecurities about your value to this world arise in the form of a poetic-prosaic whirlwind of self-doubt, comparing yourself to others around you in a self-deprecating manner. and the irony is that you dismiss your poetic/artistic/creative/[insert talent] value in a manner that merely reinforces your poetic/artistic/creative/[insert talent]. you say you are not poetic/artistic/creative/[insert talent] in a manner which IS poetic/artistic/creative/[insert talent]. oh, the irony."

paragraph 4c:
"you dismiss your talents as irrelevant (though they clearly are not) and claim you have lost the ability to perform them."

page 845, section II, paragraph 5d:
"you apologize to those you see you as equals, though your equality is a fact, not a disputable opion."

page 1003, section IV, paragraph 3e:
"in the occasional case of the true intelligencia, you state, boldly and completely, that you are at a total lack of passion, opinion, strength, and talent, when a mere glance into everything you create and pour your heart into would easily convince you otherwise."

page 2375, section VIII, paragraph 6j, on foolery:
"the only way you are a fool is by thinking you are a fool...in no other way are you a fool and not a member of the intelligencia but for thinking that the exact opposite is true."

page 4983, the epilogue:
"your care cup is full for all of those around you that you love and that love you."

and, of course, you can't forget the inscription on the cover of the book:
"we are who we are without realizing who we are:
we think, therefore we are:
we are nothing without anything:
we are art, beauty, life, and death."

c'est tout.

swarthmore is lucky to have you, jamesy. very, very lucky. it's not just some slight of chance that you got in and that you felt at home there. you're going there because you belong there, amongst a plethora of other talented people, all of them filled, like you, with the Life Poetic.