Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Vignette of an unmade argument

Got a call from my dad:

"I have this idea that I want you to blog."
He explained the concept, but I told him it just doesn't fit with what I want to blog about. Though it might seem like I'm willing to blog about any topic (music, politics, society, philosophy), I actually have a very heavy filter. I'm not interested in blogging most of the things I'm interested in.

So I asked him:
"Why don't you blog it?"

"No, I don't blog anymore."

"But you do have a blog. So start it up again now with a post about this."

"No, I wouldn't want to even if I were still blogging."

"Well, why not?"

"This is something I'd like to see someone make a reasoned argument about. I haven't been interested in making a reasoned argument in 30 years."
That got me thinking... In the past, I've often felt that you have to wait till you're pretty old before you have all the vast experience and wisdom necessary to write anything that's really worth reading. Oh, sure, you might come up with some nice little ideas here and there in the meantime, but it's more of a prelude to the really mature thoughts you'll think in the future. But maybe it's the opposite. Maybe I need to make sure I get my thoughts out into the world before it's too late.

That reminds me of an interchange between a couple friends of mine, back when we were teenagers. We were driving around at night and thinking about going somewhere -- I don't remember where.
P____: Well, we better get going. It's now or never!

S____: Heh... We're so young -- it's usually all about: "We have our whole lives ahead of us!"

P____: I love that not only did you pick up on the subtle humor, but you're also willing to analyze it.

4 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Ha ha.

Yeah, when you're young you feel you're just winging it, and you feel you've got to solidify things and get organized. When you're old, you feel you're allowed to wing it, and you know you're never going to get organized.

But I certainly wouldn't take an assignment to organize someone else's disorganized thoughts... not unless it's my job.

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

As to my logical faculty: Ann got it in the settlement.

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

PS: Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point.

reader_iam said...

Hey, thanks for linking to my little Tumblr place in your "recent links" space. A surprise, but very nice.

Regards,

reader_iam