Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Quote on Relativity

The satiated man and the hungry one do not see the same thing when they look upon a loaf of bread.
-Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273)

Friday, January 20, 2006

Quote, Exclamation Point

People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind. -William Butler Yeats, writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1939)

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

True.....1/2 True.......False

Where do we imagine the line exists between fiction and nonfiction? Not quite where we used to believe we did, it appears.

And then there's the question about what we *claim* about what we write. Some of us seem to use a bit more poetic license than others....

On the other hand, how much of our personal memories "are" true, half-true or false? How much of what we *know* turns out false when examined more closely?

For much of my life, I had a vivid memory of playing "circus" with my siblings, especially one moment where they put me in a "cage" of chicken wire and I pretended to be a lion. One day years later, I came across a photo from that day, depicting this vivid memory exactly as I remembered it. Did I "really" remember it or had I only seen the photo at some point and converted THAT experience into a personal memory? How many other of my vivid personal memories qualify as borrowed, triggered or implanted?

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Year Without Journalism?

Citizen journalism--sounds like an idea straight out of the sixties. "We know what we want to hear about--just let us do the driving!" The children of the children of the sixties have come close to making many of their parents' dreams come true and citizen journalism seems on the brink of success as well.

But, as this article from the Chicago Reader (via the Tucson Weekly) says so eloquently, where does the stuff of citizen journalism come from? Do we, the citizens, go to the places where our stories take place? Do we, the citizens, meet the deep-throated informants and make the connections between the laundry and the money? Or do we mostly read the work of "non-citizen" journalists and then gather the pieces into our own personal mosaic of news?

Don't get me wrong--I strongly believe in one must participate in one's own education and edification. I just don't want to lose sight of the fact that we all stand on the shoulders of those around us (oh there's an image for you).

No citizen is an island.