A Work In Purpose

(Photo by John Nail) 

Cozened

Raised in the American syndrome of middle-class suburbia my family dynamic was indifference. Inadvertently grown as sheep, my parents had no sense of purpose; thus, responsibility. Everything important was left to the authorities of church and state.

Here I began to create the pattern of forgiveness.

I never considered myself illiterate. This fog began to burn off as I tore through the recovery stages from the disease of job/homelessness. Here rage was the fuel that drove me to re-educate my Self.

Imagine the hope I felt as I explored the world of words. They haven’t failed me yet as I’ve tried to string them together to make sense of my experience. Here I’ve written myself out of the past into the presence of awareness.

I repurposed all the tools collected throughout my careers into figuring out how I got into this mess. Somehow, I knew this was the first step to getting myself out. It hadn’t occurred to me then that the way out… was through.

I approached my writing as I do most things: a little bit of this combined with a little bit of that to create something new. Everything I touched needed to change—it wasn’t quite right—I could see what was wrong. As I look back on the manners of my upbringing, I’m grateful for the one thing that earned attention from my parents, what I had just done was wrong.

(Photo by David Bartus)

Transition

As a result, my human innate sense of wrong, was inadvertently pushed into an obsession to take those wrongs and figure out how to make them right. This is the crux of my academic process. So, as I research what’s been written about philosophy, physics and everything else, when the ‘wrong!’ buzzer goes off, I readily set about to clarify those thoughts through my experience. Moreover, as possible solutions sprang to mind, I check the information available to me in a non-academic setting before positing alternative approaches.

My favourite books are those of reference: Dictionary, Encyclopaedia, Thesaurus [25] and Style Guides [26-8]. I study words and their usage in multiples of these for cross-referencing and accuracy. I use Wikipedia to synthesise complex academic concepts. I double check the quoted or paraphrased passages referenced with the Internet Archive for authenticity.

Each photo is chosen to punctuate its pages’ context. The captions usually arrive in time with the photo placement and are double checked with my figure spreadsheet to make sure each word is unique. If, it’s been used, I ask my trustworthy friend ‘Roget' to supply another. As needed, I review my dictionary sources to ensure the nuance I’m looking for matches the word. Lately, Wiktionary has proved a valuable resource in unearthing word origins, usage and modifications in meaning throughout its history.

(Photo by Mark Neal)

Course

I developed my own writing style. Recently, I named it, 'active writing style'. Basically, each sentence starts with verbs that highlight the movement of feeling, in each phrase. This way, I don’t get stuck in stasis; thus, better able to keep up with each moment of life—a universal constant.

Here I discovered my purpose.

I still write and rewrite sentences and paragraphs as I correct my ‘backward’ learning dynamic. Most improved, is my stream of consciousness writing, as it reflects the amount of time I spend each day in conscious thought.

[25] Roget, P. M., M.D, F.R.S., Roget’s Thesaurus Of Synonyms And Antonyms, eds., J. L. Roget, M.A., S. R. Roget, M.A., (Baltimore, MD: Ottenheimer Publishers, Inc., 1972).
[26] Academic Publishing Guides, Style Guide 40434, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, cambridge.org/authorhub, 2023).
[27] Grossman, J., et al, eds., The Chicago Manual Of Style, 14th ed, (Chicago, IL and London, UK: The University Of Chicago Press, 1993).
[28] Christian, D, Jacobsen, S., Minthorn, D., eds., Associated Press Stylebook And Briefing On Media Law, (New York City, NY: Basic Books, 2013).