Subjective Appreciation
Topic: Subj. Appreciation
The written word is so subjective. What I write and what I mean may not be the same as what you read and what you interpret or understand. The written word, in one sense, allows for a greater depth to be given to our thoughts. We can use language and illustration to make ourselves understood. We can use the proper jargon or syntax to aid our case. We can reduce our explanations into laymans terms if need be. Even then, it doesn't always work. There must be a meeting of the minds in order for communication to take place.

This reminds me of a television commercial involving a car salesman who makes his pitch. The parents hear exactly what the salesman is saying. The child hears garbage...until, the DVD player is mentioned. In this case, I was call the phenomena selective listening. Our previous example may be more of a deductive matter although I somehow fail to see where logic enters the picture.

There is also the distinct possibility that some people are just plain idiots.

I digress. We can't allow one misinterpretation to divert our attention from the goal. In this case, we haven't actually defined our goal, but masterpiece was part of it.

Another Day
Topic: General
Writing requires some standard or uniformity. We write because we can and because it is easily transferable and portable. It is a way of capturing our thoughts for longer than the breath it takes to utter them. If we can't say something well and if we can't say something meaningful, should we bother to say it at all? Once we decide there is something to be said, we are left to answer even more questions.

What form will our daily novel take today? Shall we use prose or poetry to express ourselves? Will a quick note do the trick or is a sonnet more in keeping with the mood of the message? Is formal language needed or would slang be acceptable? Who needs to hear my message and exactly what is that message?

I think therein lies some of the problems with writing and writers. There are too many decisions to be made and too little time in which to make them. There are too many subjects to cover and too little paper to capture them.

At some point, the well runs dry. What do we write about today? There are only a vast number of topics to be written about. Technically, this is a finite number of topics and many of them have already been well exhausted. What can I say that is so different from those before me?

Well, there seems to be one topic that is always popular. We can always write about writing! There's a neverending subject in that one. There's why we don't write, why we can't write, why we shouldn't write, why we do write, how we could write, and a whole host of others.

Obviously, though, I'm babbling. I expect when I finish, though, I will be able to piece together some extraordinary masterpiece.

Feeling Better
Topic: Art vs Science
I came up with something the other day and now I need to decide what to do with it.

Anything we do in poetry requires moderation. Poetry is both an Art and a Science. It is an Art in that we need vision to see what we want to say. It is a Science in knowing how to say it.

It rather goes well with the following:

"It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary." -David Bailey

and my comments to that:

The same thing goes for writing. What really hasn't already been said? It takes a lot of imagination to find new and improved ways of saying the same old thing. Think about it!

I need to examine the relationship between art and imagination. The way this has been outlined above, there seems to be a direct correlation.

One definition of art from Dictionary.com:

a. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
b. The study of these activities.
c. The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.

"The conscious production or arrangement" of words fits right in there with poetry. The production would follow art, however the arrangement may be more of a science.

To go just one step further, Dictionary.com gives the following definition of science:

Knowledge, especially that gained through experience.

So, the more we do, the more we know? The more we read, the more we experience.

And Why Do I Need a Blog?
Topic: Blog?
I really have no use for a blog, but everyone seems to have them. I guess I can get on board. Of course, when you're sick it is not the time to strike out into new creations, but what the hey.

I must admit that I am more concerned about others than myself these days, that's probably why I got sick. Allergy-induced asthma is no fun, let me tell you.