Monday, May 28, 2007

Why, or why not Why haven't I been blogging much lately? I've asked myself. . . and the answer seems to be that there's so much to read, absorb, cogitate on, link to, review, observe, evaluate. . . so much going on, so many opportunities, that I just can't get started. It's a scene right out of Barry Schwartz's The Paradox of Choice: having too many choices causes paralysis. Yet, as I was thinking that very thought, another came to mind. Some years back, while I was considering going into writing as a career (instead of a hobby), I read Anne Lamott's wonderful Bird by Bird, which is simultaneously a small book about writing and about living. One of Lamott's lovely little insights is, when you are overwhelmed by a subject and don't know where to start, find some detail about which you can write and start there. She talks in terms of looking at a subject through a tiny one-inch-square frame, describing that little detail and expanding into a subject from the detail into the whole. And I recall that, after reading that little bit of Bird by Bird, I found myself in the local art and framing store (Wild Rose, highly recommended), buying a small square frame (elegant walnut with gold bead highlights) and explaining to the staff that I wanted to make a one-inch-square frame of my own. The three of them all knew Lamott's work, and jumped at the chance to cut a matte for me with a neatly-beveled one-inch-square hole to place inside the little square frame. So, I just pulled the frame from my shelf, dusted it off, and here it sits beside me, ready for service. 12:47:01 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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