960: I’m Nobody! Who are you? (260)

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2023

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is I’m Nobody! Who are you? (260) by Emily Dickinson.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s popular poem encourages a kind of disappearance from life rather than a need for attention. Cosmologically speaking, there’s a virtue in acknowledging one’s insignificance, maybe, too, in instigating others to enjoy the pause of anonymity and quietness of being."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We hope you enjoy this episode of The Slowdown.
0:04.0	For more updates from us, subscribe to our newsletter at slowdownshow.org.
0:16.0	I'm Major Jackson, and this is The Slowdown.
0:30.0	Several years ago in Nashville, while unloading groceries from the rear of my car,
0:36.0	the real estate agent who had soaked me my home approached with potential buyers of the house next door.
0:44.0	They look to be a young family, and here is your soon to be neighbor.
0:49.0	Major, this is The Tall Athletic-looking Man Beside Her Interrupted.
0:54.0	I'm Zack. This is my wife and daughter, Jude and Cassie.
0:58.0	He thrusts out his hand.
1:00.0	I placed at my feet two brown paper bags I'd been awkwardly balancing, then rose up.
1:06.0	Hi, I'm Major Jackson, pleasure to meet you.
1:10.0	I was startled when, still shaking my hand, he forcefully asks,
1:16.0	why do you announce your first and last names?
1:20.0	Why do you introduce your wife and child I countered?
1:23.0	I'm sure they have voices.
1:25.0	Touché, he laughed. Touché.
1:29.0	We chatted, good humorately, for a few minutes more.
1:33.0	Jude was a chiropractor.
1:35.0	Cassie hoped to catch a sighting of Taylor Swift.
1:38.0	Zack was completing his medical residency.
1:41.0	They had arrived from Washington, D.C.
1:45.0	I thought about the encounter over the next several days.
	...

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