Friday, December 21, 2012

May I Explain Myself?

So, today I've conceived of a new way to use the blog. I no longer will use it primarily as a means of promoting pieces, but as a means of comprehensively exposing what I hope will ultimately be my audience and the readers of the book(s) to the author himself and the processes by which I generate my work.
This could be a scattershot approach, but as life is reinforcing for me through lesson after lesson, I must not begin the journey toward my ultimate goal from somewhere I am not, but instead, it must proceed from the place where I am- which is as undisciplined and scattershot as could possibly be the case. I am drawn by passion from one pole to its polar opposite during the time of one sun's journey across the sky. I feel this rending my spirit- a statement I have only of late been able to make without obscuring a consistent sense of how I identify, since I have learned that there is no need to dispose of what is substantive because of all the insubstantial things with which we might find that substance associated. Don't miss the forest because you're focusing on all the trees. I have labeled myself a believer in a wholly physical universe, whatever you'll take that to mean. To me, it means that despite the emergent and intangible property of consciousness in us, I believe all properties inhere in something physical, much as the brain has been defined as the locus of all mental activity, though we know the mind is not necessarily a physical construct and certainly must have non-physical, immaterial properties, since the things that go on in a mind are not comprised of the stuff that is physically there. I'll also ask your forgiveness in advance for one indulgence: My ego does not allow me easily to alter what I've committed to the page, for all of these thoughts are novel and once gone may often not return in their original form. At least if you will not indulge my ego, you must take a moment and empathize, for the flip-side of this is a sensation that we all want to avoid: loss. Think of how you feel when you want badly to make a point and forget what it was you wanted to say mid-sentence or in the middle of voicing your argument. You will think of that until either you remember what it was you wanted to say or until you accept the defeat of being unable to return to that place. This is at the core of why I refuse to re-read and instead will trudge onward toward the end. Once I have satisfied my point, I will often re-read, but will likely find myself unable to alter any of what I've written on pain of losing a sense of my original direction, notwithstanding changes that must be made to correct grammar and spelling mistakes. So there you have it. This is what I'm going to do from this point forward, All willing. Visit and re-visit. Tell someone about what I'm doing here. Contribute, but be humble in your contribution, for iron sharpens iron and all of us can stand a critique or two toward our betterment. Thank you and that is all for today.

Best,
Booker

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