The Beauty of Knowing

I was planning to write something all day and now that I've set down to do it I have forgotten what I was going to write. I remember looking forward to it very much and it had something to do with how I wanted to write, and I am going to sit here typing until I remember it or I have around 500 words of some strange stream of conscious. People online always ask how to get rid of writer's block and I always suggest that they tell a story about an item on their desk, but how does that work when you had a plan and it all fell apart. This morning I knew what I wanted to write, but I didn't have the time to write it, and the thoughts were so clear and vivid in my mind that I never even considered for a second taking notes on the matter.

It had something to do with the title. I remember thinking about situations and how some people are so convinced they know things, and this comes across in their writing. My belief is that language should be direct but never absolute. We live an absurd world full of strangeness and things that cannot be explained. I watched this video the other day:

I watched it and it got to the end where it said science has no answer for the phenomenon, and yet you meet people ever day that say phrases like, "It's science," meaning that they believe in definite answers, but there are plenty of things science can't explain and many more that they're wrong about. Science has been wrong before and it will be again, but as long as scientist and others keep questioning the world around them and looking for answers we will end up with more. Some of the unexplained things will be explained and some of the things we're wrong about will be corrected, but to act like all the answers or known or can be known is foolish.

Watch the video again. It is about our own mind playing tricks on us and scientist can't explain why it does it. Our own minds can't fully be explained by scientist. This takes me back to an old saying a wrestling coach once told me, "If you can't control your own body how do you expect to control someone else's." He then demonstrated his control of his body by walking across the room on his hands and doing 50 handstand push-ups and then a few more on his fingertips. I could never control my own body in this manner, but I ended up not being that good at controlling other's either. Then point of that is if we can't understand our own minds how can we expect science to know everything about the world. The answer is that it doesn't and any good scientist would tell you this. It is important to know your limitations.

When reading some people's writings I am struck by how definite they are with their language. Expressing that something is what it is or other ridiculous phrases. So much about the world is unknown, and to imagine oneself to have anywhere close to all the answers is naive. The world is an absurd place behind so many of our understands and to even understand 10% of it would make us a genius (no idea if this is true but it sounded good). That last sentence was me committing the very sin I am preaching against. I really have no idea, but so often we say things that sound right because they sound right. It is important to know, and if we don't currently know then the answer should be sought to the best of our abilities.

My theory on writing has been the same for quite sometime. I want what I write to be approachable. I want it to be balanced and able to be understood by anyone who reads it. I look at the short stories of Flannery O'Connor as an example of this. There is a strong and good plot there. A story that is easy to understand on the surface, but there is always much beneath the surface, and it doesn't get caught up in theme. Read a story or poem that gets caught up in theme. Try it and what you find is it is for the most part not enjoyable, but there are many people that will tell you it is the best sort of writing, because it is vague and deep or some other bullshit term. Some people act as if the existence of an easy to understand plot cheapens something to not art marking it only as entertainment. To me there is no separation. There is a spectrum and nowhere along it is pure art or pure entertainment. There is always a balance.

It seems like I am off track now, but as I don't remember what I wanted to write I don't know if I ever was on track. A moment ago I had another thought and it was a good one, but I forgot it again. The tip of my mind's tongue is a dangerous cliff. It had something to do with that balance. People that know me personally will know that balance is what I admire most. I admire it in my beer, my food, and most of all in my writing. I want to be reading along, enjoying a story, and then be struck by the underlying current, have to rush back to read it all again to really get it. That is what I want. Language should be direct, but not absolute. The world doesn't exist in absolutes and the only the definite about it is it is indefinite.