Am I supposed to write this comment or just think about what you wrote?
Ooooooh. Ha.
Perhaps you might write ten follow-ups to this post, Cliff? It is truly profound, and a great deal more could be said.
What was the world like before we had Substack? Before we had the Web? Before we had computers? It wasn't better, for sure. I do remember the utter boredom and lack of information -- frustrating ignorance -- in my youth. Now we seem to be in a place of terrible overload, which is why your driving to the library is kind of a sane throwback to another time.
If everyone could fly fish in a knowledgeable way for just one hour on the AuSable, it would instantly be a better world.
As a writer, I have to say I object to that fellow choosing a last word that was not the last word.
Please like, comment and share! LoL. That said, I do like paper-and-glue books and brick-and-mortar libraries. At the same time, I sure don't want to go backwards.
This resonates almost completely with what I’ve been giving attention to lately. The dictionary / public meaning of words is not exactly what’s meant when they are used. Words gather meanings as they are used by us. What we want a word to mean when we use it has everything to do with context. And often we argue with people because we don’t understand what they want the words they are using to actually mean. When i learned to ask “what do you want …. to mean?” I found how often others used a word differently from how I would use it.
“What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know.”
I hear Hemingway saying that we have to go beyond what we know to know “the more” about something. As you say, there’s always more.
Thank you, Milagros! Yes, context is a huge and often unexamined factor in any communication. When I started out teaching, as an activity in my Lit class I had a big stack of magazines and my high-school-completion students would cut out pictures and then superimpose or juxtapose one photo with another in ways they found meaningful. Glue sticks and construction paper. Then they'd describe their creations in short written pieces and share with the class. It sounds so basic but they came up with some evocative images. And once they did it themselves they could more easily see what the authors were doing in the stories we read together as a class, like Conrad Aiken's "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" and "The Harness" by John Steinbeck.
I've been thinking a lot lately about... Reality, beliefs, truth, facts, faith, perceptions. illusion & personal experience. Birth is birth & Death is death**Fact**. Is everything else in between just good stories that we make up about it? Is Truth & Reality whatever I choose to Perceive it as? I'm so confused anymore....
Am I supposed to write this comment or just think about what you wrote?
Ooooooh. Ha.
Perhaps you might write ten follow-ups to this post, Cliff? It is truly profound, and a great deal more could be said.
What was the world like before we had Substack? Before we had the Web? Before we had computers? It wasn't better, for sure. I do remember the utter boredom and lack of information -- frustrating ignorance -- in my youth. Now we seem to be in a place of terrible overload, which is why your driving to the library is kind of a sane throwback to another time.
If everyone could fly fish in a knowledgeable way for just one hour on the AuSable, it would instantly be a better world.
As a writer, I have to say I object to that fellow choosing a last word that was not the last word.
I am pretty sure he is not a fly fisherman.
Please like, comment and share! LoL. That said, I do like paper-and-glue books and brick-and-mortar libraries. At the same time, I sure don't want to go backwards.
This resonates almost completely with what I’ve been giving attention to lately. The dictionary / public meaning of words is not exactly what’s meant when they are used. Words gather meanings as they are used by us. What we want a word to mean when we use it has everything to do with context. And often we argue with people because we don’t understand what they want the words they are using to actually mean. When i learned to ask “what do you want …. to mean?” I found how often others used a word differently from how I would use it.
“What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know.”
I hear Hemingway saying that we have to go beyond what we know to know “the more” about something. As you say, there’s always more.
We think more than we can say.
We feel more than we can think.
We live more than we can feel
And there is so much more.
Eugene Gendlin
Thank you, Milagros! Yes, context is a huge and often unexamined factor in any communication. When I started out teaching, as an activity in my Lit class I had a big stack of magazines and my high-school-completion students would cut out pictures and then superimpose or juxtapose one photo with another in ways they found meaningful. Glue sticks and construction paper. Then they'd describe their creations in short written pieces and share with the class. It sounds so basic but they came up with some evocative images. And once they did it themselves they could more easily see what the authors were doing in the stories we read together as a class, like Conrad Aiken's "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" and "The Harness" by John Steinbeck.
I've been thinking a lot lately about... Reality, beliefs, truth, facts, faith, perceptions. illusion & personal experience. Birth is birth & Death is death**Fact**. Is everything else in between just good stories that we make up about it? Is Truth & Reality whatever I choose to Perceive it as? I'm so confused anymore....
Please let me know if you arrive at any conclusions, Ike, even provisional and temporary ones. Like lily pads for landing frogs.
Thanks, Clifford
As usual, beautifully articulated to invite us into ever deeper/ more expansive dimensions...