“Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted,
nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider”
-Sir Francis Bacon-
“One of the uses of reading is to prepare ourselves for change…
ultimately we read in order to strengthen the self, and to learn its authentic interests.”
-Harold Bloom-
“everything directly accessible to us (in reading) – except for the perceived characters (letters and symbols and space) – would be only our ideas, thoughts, or, possibly, emotional states”
-Roman Ingarden-
RUSH
I’m thinking storm-wind and flood.
The press and surge of words and images.
I’m thinking adrenalin and frenzy.
WORD:PRESS
It dawns on me today that blogging incites and anxiety to produce. A pressing to keep up and create.
There’s a radiance to that.
On the one hand, to feel it. That, even just here, at WordPress, there are hundreds of thousands of creative human beings thinking, expressing, making…exponentially increasing my already over-saturated reading list.
RUSH
And I mean it, it’s downright EXCITING to view and ingest the enormous, surprising, sincere and ever-expanding activity of humans! (There’s a thank-you in that to all of you I’ve found so far!) WHOOSH! RUSH!
On the other…frenetic. If “all human beings are the same, but everyone is human in their own way” (Adler on Franz Kafka), then you all are as limited as I by time and space and finitude…i.e. face the anguish of not being able to give the people and things in your immediate surround let alone verbal and visual artifacts from around the world what seems to be their due attention. To weigh and consider, to respond.
I spend a lot of time studying semiotics and theories of communication – how we, as humans, might “put in common,” “share” – “thoughts, information and opinions through speech, writing, images or signs” – “crafting passages between places and persons.”
Hundreds of thousands (actually many more) – passages made sensible, visible, right here with every click on WordPress, vimeo, Weebly, etc…
So long to fears re: death of reading, of art, culture, any such ‘thing.’
And there’s the ‘rub.’ Visiting “philosophy” pages today, I was significantly encouraged by so much sustained argumentation going on. Persons thinking hard and working it out with signs and gestures. Photographer’s sharing their eyes and the difficult work of seeing. Artists shaping the world through the world’s materials and all their minds and bodies process into it. Our poets, our healers, each of us shaping one another’s days/minds/experiences.
So thank you ALL for this thunderous RUSH. For the challenge to take care, to work and enjoy, to weigh and consider who we are, who I am, what I do, what I intend to create, present and offer…
Press on…read in…find value.
“What are we doing here, and why are our hearts invisible?…
I am telling you this because a conversation is a journey, and what gives it value is fear…
what is the fear inside language? No accident of the body can make it stop burning”
-Anne Carson-
“Behind, always behind the things in a hurry to be, you must search for what is”
-Edmond Jabes-
Polysemic Stupor 
to be encouraged and not discouraged is a sign of belonging…i’m glad you’ve found some sense of community here:)
Energetic and engaged!
so glad that many are – thanks everyone
“I’m thinking storm-wind and flood.
The press and surge of words and images.
I’m thinking adrenalin and frenzy…”
Love it!!!! 🙂
again, thank you. so encouraging.
Fire that sparks fire, words that spark thought, ladders across voids, catalytic converters, Brownian motions, fuel for waking up the sleeping, dreaming god.
You are a word-vintner!
I find it frustrating to not have time to daily read all the blogs I follow nor to have the time to read all the new and interesting blogs I would like to (as well as all the mail coming into my inbox!) It’s a joy, yet frustrating and it makes me appreciate all those who visit my blog daily!!