I went to Powell’s tonight and heard two essayists read and then talk for a bit about essays. Elena Passarello read from Animals Strike Curious Poses and Jesse Donaldson read from On Homesickness: A Plea. MAN DO I MISS TALKING ABOUT ESSAYS!
Some people do that on FB, and I tried to participate in that conversation, and still sometimes try to, but it is nothing like just rapping about it, or even just listening to two people rap about it. There’s no time to backspace and be more clear, or let some link do the talking… you have to work through your ideas together in real time. And that is exciting.
In other words, I have 6 days left of this teaching month and I am not sure how to sum up my thoughts on what it’s been like to think about it each evening before bed, and to consciously plan each day on performing “regular” actions (like posting on a discussion thread) with an over-arching intention. Like, how often do you sit down to write an email and think, this email will be better than any email I wrote last year, even if just in one tiny little way. That’s how this is different, more than anything, the intention.