Thursday, September 17, 2020
summer 2020
Things are evolving. I thought I’d have more of my current project to upload by now, but I’m a victim of themic mitosis, which is when a topic divides itself into longer subtopics than earlier anticipated. Five became eight first-level topics, and several of those have divided themselves (they do it without my initiative—phenomenally speaking) into several second-level topics each.
I believe I’ve recovered from the mitosis, so progress should be good before next check-in.
Sept. 5 | “being an American (with conceptual issues)” is a prospective venture in light of the four leading lights of the 2020 Democratic National Convention. It results in a sense of political virtue; and is the first part of an 8-part project that I hope to finish—I expect to finish—before the election of Biden opens a new era of American and global politics.
Aug. 31 | Never let a little pandemic stop the party: “I caused his death? Sorry, dude. My brain did it.” It’s about students feeling immunity by impunity.
Aug. 25 | days go by.
Aug. 22 | I have the scaffolding I’ve sought for many months—the specific background syllabus for further online work that I wanted to clarify. The first item for that is “a caring profession.”
August 8 | Project-ively speaking, I thought two weeks ago that I was hiking to a distant hill, merely a hill, which would then be a mere downhill on the other side—and easy account of the trek. But when I got to the top of that “hill,” I met a surprising vista spanning a valley leading to much higher ground than I thought I’d face soon, and now I don’t know what to say.
Having fun, lost to free play.
Wish you the best.
July 27 | One of the greatest book titles of all time is David Overybye’s Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, subtitled “The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe.” That rubric could be apt for my comment at Overbye’s article today at the NYTimes: a profile of planetary scientist Sarah Johnson.
July 18 | I’m immersed in an ambitious prospection that has no readily accessible name. Call it prospecting a comprehensive conceptuality of comparative literary studies as interdomainal modeling.
You see: “nonsense.”
But I’m enjoying myself immensely—happy immensity of immersion I am…
A practical dimension of my work gravitates toward notions of cultivating humanity, in both the value-conceptual sense (entailing ethical ideals) and the demographic sense of improving general quality of life.
So, when an article came along celebrating opportunities for college-age students outside of campus, I jumped into comment, rather stridently but exuberantly.
Then, I return to my offline excursions.
Meanwhile, I’m nearly overwhelmed by reports of tragedy—be it stunning confessions about surviving life in Iraq (e.g., 1:16:45 through 1:23:30) or stunningly sudden losses of life in the current pandemic.
Real tragedy is counterpointed daily by pathetic theatrics at the White House, which I don’t want to waste time discussing.
But I commenton articles sometimes (see also my 2 replies to Marla, bottom of the page). Then I go back to my immersions.
Last night, I impulsively did a long posting on disgusting Trump, “the emperor’s clothes.” But I want to avoid such episodes.
July 4 | “Spring Points” has 25 sections, some relatively long, many short, altogether about 30,000 words. It’s an ordered set of topics—a project within The Project—not a list of sundry interests.
June 20 | I’m creative exuberance, immersed in the “Point” project. It didn’t get finished as early as I anticipated because creative process is integral: I got to a confluence of themes (halfway through the project) that became a viscous highland—which is actually a joy: finding “too much” tangled brush to sort out on schedule.
