Re: Authentic communication?
Posted by Douglas on May 04, 2002 at 05:44:58:

In Reply to: Authentic communication? posted by Student John on May 03, 2002 at 15:38:43:

Dear John: (Lord, that phrase has a lot of baggage attached to it.)

Hmmm . . . .

I may be entirely deaf, dumb, and blind here, to use a politically incorrect phrase, but this post seems to reflect more on your state
of mind than mine, and the word that best seems to sum up that state is “inadequacy”.

Sorry.

The post “Ways and Means” was meant as a brief, telegraphic, introduction to Zen Poetry — the laws of form so to speak — and
nothing more. That the style was cold, formal, and academic seemed appropriate to the subject, besides, to make an excuse, I spent
so many a year in academia, writing in that vein, and being rewarded for it, that I can hardly avoid it. “Academic” may not be the
most appropriate description, for upon re-reading the piece, the Freudian phrase “anally retentive” comes readily to mind and I
don’t know if I can avoid that obsession either.

“Ways and Means” was meant to be placed in juxtaposition with the poetry — a matter of theory and practice as the phrase goes,
practice here being defined as the distillation of experience in words.

To be forthright, I would rather that you focused on the verse, for it is far more telling of my self than my intellectual
meandering.

To be mischievous and to rile Coach once more, let me leave you with the Greeting that I included in Sally’s Birthday Card:

Another candle,
Another year blown out — still,
a glimmer more light.

With sincere respect,

Douglas

Follow Ups:

Continue with Spring - Summer 2002 Classroom Talk or
Post a new discussion in the current Classroom Talk

Archived 08/26/2002