Undertaking

I seem to have come up with four metaphors in the first two words of blogging. That should be enough for the first post.

Blogging means the space to explain oneself, so here are the four. The other ways I seem to need to explain myself can wait. Ultimately I hope this blog will be about other people -- but that brings me immediately to my own issue 1.

1) The metaphor of writing as a way of making more kindness: in oneself, maybe somehow in other people as well. Short version -- pronounce the blog address en-kind-ler, with a long i. If cruelty is the worst thing we do (Richard Rorty), then I should be allowed to define kindness as all the best things we do. One question is whether that can ever include polemic, of the sort that on the surface at least is UNkind. Which brings me to

2) Enkindling -- sparking fires. Making people angry. Making myself angry, by thinking about other people. Burning up, and thinking about things that burn up, the underbrush in my brain. Sweeping away ashes.

3) Getting rid of the deadwood in my brain, and the dead 'woulda coulda shouldas' I apply to myself and others. Burying the past, with dignity, with the blood still in its veins but also with just the right amount of embalming. Hence, 'undertaking,' like undertakers do.

4) Also, undertaking to be proactive with my writing, rather than just responding to the text that comes my way. The only way to begin is to begin. Planting a seed while burying a body. (And yeah, I know where some bodies are buried, but that will not be the topic of this blog.)

Twice a day, then: I undertake all these things at once. Should be plenty, without the bitterness.


Tant' e amara che poco e piu morte:
Ma per trattar del ben che vi trovai,
Diro de l'altre cose c'hi v'ho scorte.

IN ORDER TO SPEAK OF kindness, then, I might be acerbic. But I hope the acid test will always be whether kindness is being advanced.



Welcome, friends. I miss you all and hope to bemuse you and be rigorous.