When I returned, a few days ago, from a week of quiet reflection at Laity Lodge, Angus wanted me to catch up on the rubber-disc time I had missed. So I did.
I am very aware, always, of the immense privilege of having a place I can, occasionally anyway, repair to in order to compose my mind and spirit. That's why I'm dedicating my next book "To Laity Lodge, place and people." But of course I need to compose myself much more often than I can get away to the Hill Country, and the chief way I manage that is through writing in notebooks, something I discuss in this post.
There I also talk about blog posts as a kind of extension of my notebook, a journal-in-public, and I explain that this kind of writing is more important to me personally than my officially published work. Indeed, I don't think my published work would be nearly as good — maybe it wouldn't be publishable at all — if I didn't take the time to work through my thoughts in journals and blog posts.
There's another virtue of blogging as well: some of the thoughts that are most important to me personally, and have some relevance for others as well, don't fit into the standard genres of published writing. They're too free-flowing, or inconsistent in their assertions, or tentative about those assertions. But demonstrating that some issues are too difficult for me to have fixed ideas about is itself a service to my readers, I think. An illustration of the value of second and third thoughts.
Those of you who support me through BMAC are enabling me to do this kind of writing, and that's not only valuable in itself, it also, as I have suggested, strengthens my other writing. It's a great gift to me and I am immensely grateful for your contributions.
My retirement from teaching is approaching — not immediately, but soon; I'll write about that in another post — and that has me wondering whether I'll be able to sustain this kind of writing when I'm "on a fixed income," as the old folks say. So not only do I think you for your support, I'm also asking, now, that you send this message along to people you think might also find this writing useful. I'm not interested in building an empire, but I would like to keep my attention cottage in good repair for as long as possible.
Blessings to you all!
