Words or Works

 * I have a penchant for binaries. In the queer work, I still find comfort in lesbian or straight. In the biracial, multiracial world, I cleave to black and white. I am hip to the deconstruction of binaries; I understand the rejection of the bipartite in favor of nuance, complexity. Still and all, I like exclusive double categories. Call me retro. Call me simple. If you do not like it, click away from this post.

As a young woman the question of where to put one’s time and by extension one’s faith into words or works interested me. Was it better to devote time and energy (which, not incidentally, seemed limitless then) to words? To writing beautiful lines? Sublime sentences? Or was it better to do good works? To put one’s time and energy into doing the work of the world? Being of service to people and to communities? Works or words? Words or works?

At twenty, I cast my lot with works. And this early decision created a filter by which I continue to make judgments. I evaluate people on their works. Not what do they say, but what do they do. How many times have I said, “Past behavior is the best indication of future behavior?” Even poets, I evaluate them based on the words on the page in combination with their works in the world. I link the material and the aesthetic indelibly. It is part of my scholarly method.

And yet. I have moments of doubt. What if I were to change allegiances to words. What possibilities would that open? What new paths would fealty to words offer? What if I chose words?

*The image of Georgia O’Keefe seems particularly meaningful today as I am half way through Jessica Jacob’s wonderful new book Pelvis with Distance.

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