weston.canncentral.org

I'm breaking web-silence for the first time in a long time, and one of the things I want to write about at some point is why I haven't written. Too little time, of course, but even more of it has to do with something I'd mentioned before: the problem with making meaning out of experience. It gets more tiring in some circumstances, and near impossible to face in others, and without getting specific, I've been in some of those over the last year.

One thing that's brought me is a conviction that to some extent, the "Live or Tell" dichotomy is misleading. There's wisdom in knowing that true living and seeing is the best foundation (if not the only foundation) for the best stories, and far more important than stories in the first place. But it's also true that the act of telling has an important place in the guidance of well-living, as does listening to the well and truly told.

Finally, as I have mitigated the place of the storytelling voice somewhat in my head, I've found one or two others emerging. A commentators voice, an apologists voice, or the voice of a person who simply wants to share something interesting he saw. All of these things have been something of a part of this site-that-I-do-not-call-a-weblog from the beginning, but its focus has been on personal narrative: personal for my friends and family, narrative as something of an artistic project. These other voices I'm describing would (and will, if I follow through) move me much closer to the now traditional weblog, links and commentary. I don't plan to completely abandon the old philosophy of trying to make this site something that is like a visit from me to my old friends, and something that strangers might read and walk away with something of the feeling of having met a new one, but it may become more newsy and prosaic, and less ponderous. I am putting things together in different arrangements, rearranging puzzle pieces, although, as they say, the worn piece is the last to fit.