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Something you can practice…
Analogies are like…
That’s it, end of quip.
I thought of it as i was considering what writing is like, and what this year has been like.
Writing is gazing back and forward at the same time.
The raw material of experience and imagination forms an idea…
In shaping that idea for an audience, i’m looking ahead toward how the past-birthed notion might connect with the reader.
Even if i am its only reader, my future self usually takes something fresh from rereadings of past private expressions.
Personal essay writers and bloggers perpetually distinguish between the “I” and the “we” to decide which of our thoughts to impart.
Two kinds of intimate writing i bristle at…
Starting too many sentences with the phrase (or attitude), “We all…”
Or starting too many sentences with “I” — if they end without drawing me in.
The question is, What makes any one person’s thoughts of interest to another?
Continue readingBooks and shelves…
“You see a [wo]man with too many books, I see a [wo]man with not enough shelves.”
(John Overholt)
Half-deserted streets…
“A tedious argument of insidious intent…”
I recently saw this phrase used as a social media tagline — and it wasn’t a T.S. Eliot account. It struck me as a pleasing expression; i didn’t immediately recognize its origins.
I should have. I studied Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in college, though that was admittedly more than a few years ago.
Looking up phrases online, mine and others, is something i make a habit of in order to properly attribute them or to make sure one i’m about to use is original.
Rather than assume its social media user had concocted this one herself, the online search for this snippet rewarded me with a reminder of Eliot’s stunning craft.
Continue readingWhat’s your blog about?
It’s about how the end justifies the memes.
Ok, that’s not a serious answer — although it’s true that this blog does include the occasional meme.
Over the years, i’ve given a fair amount of thought to answering the query concisely — starting with concocting the tagline about reflections.
When i began blogging, i’d had little exposure to the blogosphere in general. I simply set out to write about what interests me, hoping to make it interesting to others.
Continue readingGiving all…
“Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.”
(Albert Camus)
Lane change ahead…
Don’t you hate it when you miss your turn-off?
Yes, i know, many of us use GPS now. But i still like to study a map at home before heading to the airport.
I tend to become anxious about catching the information in time to get to the lane i need, so it calms me to have an aerial view in mind as i’m trying to follow the signs and instructions.
The idea of planning for changing lanes came to mind when i noticed the date first thing this morning. Today marks seven years since the name change which precipitated the title of this blog.
I like it when dates sneak up on me like that. This anniversary wasn’t one i’d been looking ahead toward, as i’m prone to do, hand at forehead shading my squinting eyes.
Continue readingNothing is fixed…
“For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”
(James Baldwin)
Foggy roads and grieving hearts…
Foggy roads and grieving hearts make it hard to grasp where you are.
Fans of the brilliant songwriter John Prine will recognize an echo there with a line of his. I borrowed its framing as a tribute.
(“Broken hearts and dirty windows make life difficult to see,” from Souvenirs.)
When we look back on this time at some far future point, we will each recall hallmarks large and small that most remind us of it. Events that moved us from an abstract sense of its singular seriousness to reality hitting home.
The manner in which we lost this songwriter is one such marker for me, given what he succumbed to after surviving so much else.
It says something significant about the times we’re in that readers across the globe will instantly grasp what i mean by “the times we’re in.”
A huge thing…
“To love a person is to know what a huge thing a person is, right? There’s such a universe contained in each person, and to love a person is to have such an appreciation of that universe.”
(Rebecca Newberger Goldstein)
A Hansen Chronicle 