Johann Andreas Benjamin Nothnagel:
Hermit Writing (18th century)

I Seem To Flourish Anyway.
It has almost always been the case that the greater my feeling of inadequacy when publishing or posting something, the greater the readers' appreciation. This does not translate into any meaningful or particularly useful metric, for I can't seem to leverage my sense of inadequacy into validation. I quite naturally quake when feeling that all-too-familiar sensation that I've fallen short again. It must be a particularly ironic blessing that these very items that spark my greatest concern tend to return the greatest appreciations. I cringe and publish anyway, understanding enough about the process to appreciate that whatever comes out represents the best I'm likely to produce that day. I receive remarkably few invitations to submit do-overs. Given the paradoxical feedback my audience feeds me, it's a wonder that I continue. I seem to flourish anyway.

Weekly Writing Summary

I began my writing week reveling in a mid-summer's VelveteenEvening. "Every Velveteen Morning eventually turns into a rush of windows closing as the sun creeps where it doesn't belong. The following afternoon will start seeming overlong before another VelveteenEvening follows. Once they're here, they're gone."

Hashimoto Okiie: Quiet Evening (1958)

"Once they're here, they're gone."
—
I next embarked on an unplanned excursion—let's call it a vacation—which resulted in a little series within this Honing Series, one considering SocialMorality. "It amounts to social immorality to insist that anybody abide by a religion not of their choosing."

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki:
The Improvement of Morals (1786)

"We were founded with a broader vision …"
—
I next considered the deeper purpose of school and of education in SocialMorality2. "Our autonomy too convincingly encourages us to isolate, discriminate, and individuate when we are inescapably plurals, “beings," not merely "being.""

Mervin Jules: The Art Lover (1937)

" … seeking to act upon our interdependent moral duties …"
—
I next considered the new's influence, how our inventions help us forget our morals in SocialMorality3. "We seem to abuse ourselves with our new inventions before rediscovering our abandoned souls and reattaching them."

Edmund J. Sullivan:
Ah, love! could thou and I with faith conspire (1913)

"We remain in moral peril …"
—
I next reflected upon the phenomena of the human dogpile, where some typically trivial issue sparks unwarranted controversy in SocialMorality4. "The righteous hold greater responsibility than anybody."

Govaert Flinck: Blessing of Jacob (1638)
" … the riskiest of all propositions …"
—
I finished my series within this series insisting that we simply must remain truthful in SocialMorality5. "The universe, though, remains a patient teacher. Every time we forget our lessons, she quietly reminds us."

Claude Monet: House of the Customs Officer, Varengeville (1882)

"Would be potentates might finally receive a subpoena."
—
I ended my writing week juggling canning jars and preserving time for later use in Harvust. "I had to learn almost everything the hard way, and I am still learning that way. Perhaps there never was any other way to preserve anything but through sweat and tears."

Paul Sérusier: The Harvest of Buckwheat (1899)

"We will not need to make time then …"
—

Each writing week produces a unique yet familiar portrait of the writer and his surroundings. Late mid-Summer screams from this week's pieces. I crouched inside to avoid the hundred-degree-plus temperatures. I remember when I was five, my mom would spread blankets on the living room floor and invite me and my four siblings to camp out mid-summer early afternoons. Full of lunch, we'd soon fall asleep in the breeze of a fan, waking after the worst of the afternoon had passed to play outside in a sprinkler while shadows lengthened. I found myself aching for a living room campout and a drowsy nap before a fan until another VelveteenEvening watched the sunset. Most of this week, let's call it the dream sequence, I dedicated to considering SocialMorality, a concept to which I feel increasingly attracted. I ended this writing week engaged in the other most frequently engaged activity this season, dealing with Harvust and canning time for later consumption. Thank you for following along!

©2023 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Honing, #PureSchmaltz