Commentary

Originally posted at Teacher’s Lounge

One of the reasons I put such a high value on commentary is that there are times when a comment or two can snap things back into focus…or at least remind us of another time and another focus that perhaps needs to be revisited.

At the end of this semester, besides being 60 years old, I will have been a teacher for 32 years.  I have taken it as an article of faith that what I have been doing is trying to find more and better ways of expound upon Truth.  I have told the same stories over and over again in a myriad different ways, looking for the light bulbs and trying to measure their luminosity.

Outside the classroom the world becomes my classroom and Truth is no longer restricted to learning mathematics or computer languages, but rather about life in general.  In particular I have focused on what goes on in the human brain.  The only one I happen to be able to experiment upon is my own, so there is bound to be bias in my sample.  But I have concentrated on the possible, not on the probable, so I’ve not considered that too much of a flaw.

To teach Truth, one needs a curriculum and a method of delivery.  I’ve been concentrating, perhaps, more forcefully upon the curriculum, on what is said rather than on how it is said.  That hasn’t always been so.

Wayback in the wayback…I wrote a bit about what I was calling “blog structures” (examples here and here) but I have to confess I had forgotten about it.  In a vague way, I was trying to imagine how blogging could become something newer than it was, something beyond an email forum with a searchable database attached.  

For a time I attempted to consciously build such a structure.  But one of the really cool things about learning is that eventually what must be consciously done came be performed below the level of consciousness.  What was a focus can become a chord in harmony with the whole.  Mental integration.

This past week I struggled to free my mind enough to let some thoughts flow out.  I published the result of that effort last evening in Perfecting my own brand of insanity.  I published it here and at Daily Kos and received valuable input I want to highlight…because it means a lot to me:

Brahman Colorado wrote:

Your work has evolved to multi-dimensional masterpieces

of words, ideas, emotions, poetry, music, color and light.

I have followed this transformation for awhile and it’s core base is very creative, intelligent and intellectual.

From Pluto, there was:

You have taken art and self-awareness — and enhanced the whole thing with a feedback loop of collective consciousness. Nobody does it better…

And there was this from Nightprowlkitty:

Really … this just excellent original philosophy — and mixed with memoirs and poetry, a whole new medium, I think.

To learn that one has succeeded, even on a small scale, has great meaning.  I will treasure that.  Thank you.

And thanks to all of you who have provided the commentary that has kept me going over this past year and the ones before that.  There were times when it would have been very easy to walk away.

An early Happy New Year too you all!