online: 22 october 2004
modified: 22 october 2004

21 october 2004 what moves and what is still


9:41 I was up early this morning to be ready for builders who are repairing a wall. Windows wide open. Enjoying the sun and wind and the sight of my room cleared of clutter - of desk, computer, bookshelves wrapped in plastic sheeting - my little world is refreshed! How trivial now seems my habitual circumstance: desk here, books there, each object in its place where it's been waiting perhaps for years to be used, or read, or selected by chance process. Such shake-ups are good, though resisted... I feel as if my mind is refreshed... as indeed it is, for one's possessions and one's thoughts are a continuum. No wonder we resist change in either - but changing one can enliven both!

Afternoon. Resting now after the wall is mended and my desk is put back and the computer is reconnected. I slept for over an hour. I'm even regretting the return of things to their places - I felt freer while they were piled up elsewhere and the room and my thoughts seemed released from habitual activity.

But writing this, on the handheld, is free of such fixity. It's not tied to a room or to the presence of the furniture of living-space or of memory... This portable and easily-used gadget is less of an external obstacle and more of an extension of oneself.

But now to transfer this writing to the desktop computer and then, after thought, to edit and modify these words and put them on line.

On line? The phrase doesn't quite imply the dynamics, the opening of the thoughts of one person to the thoughts of others. To achieve that requires both change and stability, new thought and known language, their connection in the actions of writing and reading within circumstance shared...

Yes, the life's in the combining of what moves with what is still. And how that is done is to some extent a mystery.


(these pages are designed to be read with the window set to two-thirds of the screen width)

what's new

homepage

digital diary archive

daffodil email newsletter

© 2002, 2003, 2004 john chris jones

You may transmit this text to anyone for any non-commercial purpose if you include the copyright line and this notice and if you respect the copyright of quotations.

If you wish to reproduce any of this text commercially please send a copyright permission request to jcj at publicwriting.net