how to become a wall?

There is a homeless woman living in my block. I often see her in the evening when I walk home. Every now and then I try to smile at her, greet her, make contact. I think she is afraid of me; well, maybe not me in particular, but all the mes in the world and the world in general. When I walked home today I only noticed her when I was really close. I smiled at her but she didn’t react. She was hard to distinguish from the wall she was standing in front of. In fact, she had become the wall.

in the meantime

It is said that time heals all wounds. However, only time will tell.

further explanations

I’ve chosen the title “an attempt” for the blog in line with something one of the presenters said at this MIT conference: in the very basic meaning of the word, an “essay” is an attempt. And that is what most of the contents here will probably be: short essays, i. e. attempts.

There is also a reason for the url of the page, my “name.” Stephen Colbert termed the name ‘truthiness’ “to describe things that a person claims to know intuitively, instinctively, or “from the gut” without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts” (cf “Truthiness” Wikipedia). I guess you are going to find many of those here. Hence the name.

explanations

Some things have good reasons. Others don’t. But all things are triggered somehow.

The reason for starting this blog (now and here) is a conversation I had at the MIT5 conference, which I have attended over the past three days.  The conference was about media in transition and blogging was among the most important topics. I gathered it was totally “un” not to have a blog.

What kept me from blogging so far was probably this slight distinction between having something to say and having to say something. I had feared I was stuck with the second one before I realized that it is probably not even up to me to decide that; there is a community “out there” that will tell one from the other.