“A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.”
– Marshall McLuhan, quoted in Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work!, by Douglas Copeland
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“The moment a writer disengages from the present world, something vital is lost.”
– J. Michael Straczynski, Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer
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It can be tempting to think what I type here is reality.
But it’s simply a way of expressing myself that is real to me, if not part of the reality experienced by the eight billion other people on this planet.
I feel my views moving, twisting, like cogs in an ever changing and impossible to solve puzzle.
Writing is a way to engage with how I see the world.
It is, hopefully, a reflection of what I see, rather than what I want to see.
My version of reality, one day at a time.
By inviting the thoughts and views of others into this conversation do I better understand this world?
Or am I constructing my own escape pod, inviting a select group of companions for the ride away from reality?
If this daily practice is really a way of disengaging then, on reflection, it’s pretty harmless.
I put forward no serious agendas, no curriculum and no ideology.
I am simply curious about how to carry myself a little better through this one life.
Books build me up and at the same time, whisk me away.
I spend serious time with different voices, but I choose which ones I want to hear from.
Is this my own echo chamber?
If so, the messages I hear calling back from the depth are…“keep going”…“listen to your subconscious”…“read more”…and, a little fainter, the undeniable voice of reality…“where are all the women?”…“is this some sort of men’s club?”… “women write books too…”
Roger that.
Message received loud and clear.
Over and out.
Conversations With Quotations 