Category: Learning
Do we find truth in stories? In nostalgia? (A contemplation)
‘Beneath the exhausted rubble of our hearts, this miraculous potion awakened something strangely precious’ — Heinrich Böll. Snow falls lightly on the street vendors. He smells cheap tobacco, hears the squeak of chalk on a blackboard, sees a woman scrubbing a front step.
What does drive the boat? On truth
Miscellaneous reflections on truth, flowing through me. I like to think my own versions are truthful. And why not other versions too? That to which others testify is likely to bear truth.
Avoid amplifying lies, using the ‘fact-warn-explain-fact’ pattern
Dream and achieve. Not ‘dreams and lasagna’! Dream and achieve. The sign says sueña y logra: “dream and achieve”. Not “dreams and lasagna”. Speak the truth, then explain the misunderstanding. It’ll stick better.
On a journey toward truth
New art, ancient thought. Truth and the meaning thereof isn’t in a dictionary. It’s something you go on a journey to find. Philosophy by Guillermo Hurtado.
We wait for the writer to finish the story
Patiently waiting for that person to return. We find ourselves talking too much. Sick of the sound of our own voice. Self-consciousness restricts creativity. Better to write nothing at all?
Fragments of Briceño Guerrero’s surreal philosophy
‘Little architect of the universe’. Anything can shrivel up, disappear, cease to exist. You may be bigger and stronger than everyone else, but the abyss could swallow you tomorrow.
Early 1990s document formatting: Excellent margins, please
Did your school have this procedure for your homework? A digital file wasn’t the ‘real thing.’ The text became real when it was on paper.
I use my real name on the internet
I always have. But even if I didn’t, the U.S. government could find me. Traits I believe are ethical are what authoritarians target. Being ethical is not safe. In times of political upheaval, it never is.
‘Gyre’: A novel about how we’re called into being
‘The deduction came in a rush: I had been alive before’. ‘I could just as easily have held my tongue, or saved my comment for another time. This realization came, as always, too late,’ Abby says in ‘Gyre’.
What Rude Magic Is This (A Poem)
With the background of how I wrote it. I didn’t know what to do with three poems I lost and half-forgot. Now I hear Jacob’s epiphany as a kind of rude magic. The poems come back to me.
95 books I plan to read in 2025
Here’s my New Year’s reading resolution. I scanned the 3,000 titles on my ‘to be read’ list and selected the ones I’ll prioritize in 2025.
New year’s resolution: I’ll pare down my reading list — to just 50 books!
Transforming my ‘to be read’ list into an achievable goal. I’ve put effort into identifying those books, so I’d prefer that my list be useful. The point is to consult the list. If it’s enormous, it isn’t practical.