Andrew Kooman's Blog, page 3
August 12, 2019
The baby room that was my office
Well, I did it folks. It wasn't easy, and I procastinated. But it's done.
My home office, where my words were once smithed is now a nursery.
I did not find the perfect bookshelf. It turns out that stackable plastic tote boxes with bright yellow lids were sufficient, and years of writing , along with office accessories, fit within them nicely. It's a good, if not temporary, solution.
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In my move out of this space into new experiences, as my family enters a new season, I am filled with thankfu...
July 19, 2019
Go up into the gaps (5)
Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3 | Post 4 | Post 5 | Bibliography
5. Go up into the gaps
Nichol helps us understand the contradiction of Winthrop’s inspired vision for the New World and the on-the-ground reality the Puritans experienced when they landed there:
the contradiction is
to spend your life on land
trance fixed in
the sea
contra the diction is
the land wage
(when the water comes
~ sea pun ~ you pay a
price)
pays
flood
flawed
flowed
(how you move from
imperfection to imperfection in
th...
July 18, 2019
How deep and how far will you go? (4)
Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3 | Post 4 | Bibliography
4. How deep and how far will you go?
Delight in nature and in language is not permanent. The reason and faith Emerson experiences in the wood, the transcendent oneness he describes as a scene which yesterday “breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today” (11).
This observation echoes with Nichol’s description of the language’s forcefulness and power to drive us out of the familiar meanings...
July 17, 2019
Entering the ever flowing stream (3)
Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3 | Bibliography
3. Entering the ever flowing stream
John Dewey emphasizes that:
Statement sets forth the conditions under which experience of an object or situation may be had. It is a good, that is, effective, statement in the degree in which these conditions are stated in such a way that they can be used as directions by which one may arrive at the experience (88).
If we take this assertion together with Dewey’s observation that a poem, picture or work of...
July 16, 2019
Any where is a here with a double you (2)
Post 1 | Post 2 | Bibliography
2. Any where is a here with a double you
Emerson steps into the currents of the Universal Being and Dillard’s eye is open to the landscape of the universe. Here we must pay attention to our process of paying attention—our “way of thinking about thinking” (Richardson 5)—to account to the presence of presence.
“Our psychological duty is to cling as closely as possible to the actual constitution of the thought we are studying,” notes James. “The mass of our thi...
July 15, 2019
The poet saw, the wood-cutter chopped, the tree (1)
1. The poet saw, the wood-cutter chopped, the tree
“There is a property in the horizon,” Ralph Waldo Emerson notes, “which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet” (9). This ability to see what the wood-cutter cannot see, that is, the stick of timber in the forest that is a tree, requires the poet to carefully concentrate on details.
The details of language—words, how they are syntactically arranged, and how those words are read and s...
July 4, 2019
In search of the perfect filing cabinet
I'm sorry, but these just don't do it for me. Yes, I actually typed in "World's perfect filing cabinet" into my browser's Google search bar.
Here's the results, or the most click-y article that promised to help me sort my office move dilemma and justify my break (after approximately 4.5 minutes) from dealing with the piles of paper, drafts of stories, and collected writings accumulated over time.
I need a combination of:
Ikea's organization, Marie Kondo's tidiness, House & Home's elegance,...Adventures in moving a home office - Failed attempt 1
My wife and I are expecting our second child (mazel tov!). We live in a three bedroom home, which means my home office will soon be a nursery.
That is, if I can find a place to move all my files. A lifetime of writing (or at least 20+ years).
That is, if I can find a way to get through all the paper, the boxes, the journals. A system by which I can sort through and organize. Move the files from one place to another in a way that will seem harmonious and sparse (my wife is a master organizer...
June 27, 2019
New Advent Series - Come to the Manger
I'm happy to share that my new Advent series for 2019 is now available. Come to the Manger is a 5-part reading series designed to help you reflect on the Hope, Joy, Love, Peace and the Wonder of Christmas.
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Do you ever feel rushed during Christmas Season? I often do. Sometimes it's hard to find a moment to simply pause and consider everything that the season means.
This Advent Bundle (of 5 scripts) is designed for people who want to carve out time to prepare their hearts for Christmas.
I'...
June 20, 2019
Concluding Thoughts - Hacking Abolition (8)
It is important to understand More’s poetry through her published poetics, with a return to her writing about her own writing.
More attributes her success with readers in large part to “a disposition in the public mind to encourage, in these days of alarm, attack, and agitation, any productions of which the tendency is favourable to good order and Christian morals” (Complete Works 17). More’s “poetry was essentially a medium of teaching and information rather than exploration” (“More’s Publ...
