My Factory of Extravagant Marvels

Jon : So, we both saw the same 4 talks [on Monday], and we each came away with an impression about the opening anecdotes of a speaker. For me, it was the speech by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier: he opened his speech speaking about Rwanda's efforts at rebuilding and reconciliation, their efforts to "reconstitute" themselves, and also mentioned that Germany has been faced with the same task twice in recent history. I'm not entirely sure which two he was referring to; it may have been the rebuilding efforts after the two world wars, or was it rebuilding after WWII and re-unification? Let's just round it up to three for now. Steinmeier went on to speak about ways of promoting reason, peace, and stability in foreign countries, especially using cultural outreach. But the examples he chose in his introduction struck me because they are in fact perfect examples of two times Germany has been on the wrong side of history. In Rwanda, ...

Part of my relationship with writing is that it is intrinsic to my process of thinking . By writing, I have a chance to catch the thought and look at it. It is almost as if by writing, I could step out of my system of thinking, and enter another, second order system, that of the written text. This allows me to have a chance to shape the thought, to tender it, to water it like a plant, and observe it grow. I like this metaphor, probably because plants are such a bliss to me. They remind me of home, a home that exists only in the saudades that I feel of it, but for which there is no "real" referent... it is the beautiful idea of belonging; something that I prefer to live more a process than as a state. My thoughts are like my plants; there is much joy for me in observing them grow, in letting their cells divide and spread, more leaves, more stems, more roots. My thoughts are like a forest in formation, and I am the forest itself, the forces that bring rain, wind, cold and wa...