I do it for one person

You ask how in the midst of all this chaos, I have the wherewithal or the sheer mulishness to go with this blog and to update it every day when you know, I have let so much else of my life and my resolutions slip away, unheeded. Wherefore the novel? I lost interest in the lead character. I killed off the only one I found interesting (he had to die) but with his death, I was no longer interested in writing...the tapestry has fared a little better. I force myself to add to it, at least a few stitches a day. And I watch it grow and become beautiful and exquisite.

What else? Well, the books I want to read, day by day - I'm getting through them. Have already made my way through three books of poetry and one book of Zen lectures. Yes, that is as it should be.

Ille introduced me to Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game. And now I sort of see why she is so intent on getting people to talk across disciplines. To come up with a common language so we will all understand each other. I also see why she keeps coming back to this book over and over again. What it is she seeks to find there. It is deep. So deep. It bears re-reading.

I will be excerpting part of the book here, so stay tuned.

I have decided to buy a bunch of copies of this book...because, well, I think it is one that everybody should read. But I am not sure it is one that everyone will enjoy. The popularity lies with his earlier, easier novels. Siddharta. Narcissus and Goldmund. Suchlike.

This one, which encapsulates his view of life as he neared death, scarred by the events of that horrific century, is harder to take in. Sort of like eating an elephant. You digest it little by little. And it takes a long long time. And you've got to be willing to take a long long time.

Are you?

We live in a skimming culture. In one that multitasks, moving from stimuli to stimuli. Nothing quite holding our attention for long.

You can see something of this craziness here. How many books do you reckon I'm reading all at the same time?

I don't know.

So, scattered as I am, unfocussed as I am, flighty as I am, why do I continue to update this blog.

For one person.

And that person is you.