commonality

why though? the what behind the why for writing here ... or writing at all. it took a while to find a reason compelling enough to actually get me started on this blog 'project.' seemed a little, i don't know, egocentric ... self important. motivation didn't reside in thinking that i might have something different or unique to offer. rather, i found some resolve in my commonness - what i have to give and share is something we all have: language. not everyone has a love affair with language. i do. i live most ... or much ... of my life on paper. what language does for me, or the powerful role it plays in my life - waking and dreaming ... it revolves around images. the style i use to communicate here ... pondering (big fish in a small ponder, i am) is a bit atypical. not really symbolic of how language moves through me. i 'think,' largely, in verses, and again, images. flash pictures. when the world touches me, it is how i respond. i verse. when i read other people's thoughts, in the form of poetry or prose, often, i'm compelled to write. their words trigger my own; creating internal sea gates that always lead me out and back ... to myself. that's just what language does, right? words create words. images create associations that lead us to conjure new images. a poem is not, to me, a self contained bit of writing. it's an instigator (of the gentlest sort) ... a springboard or catalyst that leads deeper into humanness, in general - but also a personal experience that ultimately has little to do with the original author or artist except they helped set the ball rolling. there is something - perhaps much - to be said for appreciating a work for its own merit. but i don't really think there's a way to do this from a purely objective stance. reading is a collaborative experience. life is. we do it together ... alone. to evoke: to summon a spirit or create through imagination - to call forth images. that's the dictionary's take (loosely) on the word. writing isn't ... or rather, writing IS about the author and their feelings ... well. so. if it is that, the more important piece, or the piece that interests me here, is what the writing evokes in and of the heart of the reader - what happens to it once it reaches another's - yours and mine - inner world. it can be healing or affirming or cause streams of thought that diverge greatly from their source. it can piss one off, even if it's just a reaction to bad writing and an internal rebuttal for how it might have been expressed 'better.' whatever occurs, it's a good thing. an important thing, i think, as far as deepening and strengthening my own relationship with myself. in this, i found a common ground. and i found my 'why' - a reason sufficient to spur me to 'start a blog.' poetic language (i make a distinction here between poetry and 'rhymes' or say, hallmark greeting cards) can point beyond itself toward something intangible, yet still so full and exacting as an immediate experience - an 'ah hah!' or 'yes!' or wave of emotion that leaves one speechless. when language transcends itself, it's at its best. there. for there resides the human heart ... and a silence - an occupied silence where to be alone is not such a jagged, stark experience. with the substitution of an a, evocation becomes avocation (what fun. words). i checked. avocation. the dictionary watered this down to 'hobby'. but i looked at the word more carefully and it also said, - vocare - voice - to call ... that's its root. often, by necessity it would seem, people's callings get relegated to hobby status (if you're lucky enough to find time for 'hobbies'). i don't think tragic is too strong a word here. there's something of essence - essential spirit - in our callings. to find a way to make vocation and avocation converge so that our passions pay our bills ... yah. none too easy. a nice ideal. i asked a teacher (of sorts) once what they thought about basing life decisions on a sense of calling. i half expected him to shoot that position down ... but ... he told me that he felt to honor one's calling is not only important, it's an obligation. strong word. he went on to say though, that the root for obligation is obligio (something like that ... latin ...) and it means 'gratitude.' so to heed a calling is a way of showing thanks. a spiritual endeavor ... whatever form that takes for you within your beliefs. so there you go: an avocation taken up in obligation toward evocation. i guess that's what i'm doing here. if i had a business card (can't see that happening) it might have my title, officially, as 'an evocator.' but we all are. we do this to each other all the time: evoke response and emotion and thought. i'm not unique ... and therein, lies my platform.