Adam Blatner

During this October, 2010, I’ve been working on preparing and giving lectures on Lesser-Known Aspects of the Renaissance, to be posted in a few weeks (I hope) on my website—lots of pictures—this for the Senior University Georgetown Fall Program. Beginning to prepare also for the early Spring (February) program next year on the Lore of Alphabets and Writing Systems. Thinking about what this whole business of writing is about in a larger sense, and more, what does it mean to ask this question, or to ask questions about the ways we use words (semantics), how we think (psychology, neuroscience), how this questioning is involved in some philosophical writings, the powers of self-deception (and critical thinking), the nature of folly, comparative religion, mythology, anthropology, sociology, religion, anything—because more comparisons bring up elements that stretch our perspectives as to what it’s all about. That’s really what’s going on at a higher level of abstraction, though: I’m trying to if not break free of the grasp of illusion (the Sanskrit term is “Maya”), at least to loosen it a bit.

I’m preparing other lectures and writings, too, such as a chapter in a soon-to-be-released book about Sociodrama, other writings about the nature of creativity, etc. You may know I’ve been involved in psychodrama, and part of that is an excitement about the essential philosophical insight of the inventor of that method, Dr. Jacob L. Moreno (1889-1974): His take was that we tend to become fixated on the products of our creativity and forget or under-estimate the importance and value of creativity, the activity itself. The products are always partial, in need of revision, but many people rest into these products as if they’re the end-all, the ultimate, the definitive treatment. This shouldn’t happen—it betrays a combination of laziness and pusillanimity (or small-mindedness), a too-willing passivity and submission. We should instead be not only prepared, but expected by ourselves and the society in general to take whatever has been created and build on it, revise it, perhaps argue against it. This is no mere impudence—well, occasionally it is, but that’s not the purpose, theoretically—but rather part of the ongoing dialectic of creativity, the unfolding of the evolution of consciousness.

(We are only recently emerging from an era in which most people gave in to tendencies to delegate personal authority and responsibility to those perceived to be more competent, holy, expert, wise, etc.—or perhaps only beginning to begin to emerge from that worldview. The important thing is to dare to envision this as a positive thing rather than mere heresy or disrespect.)

In other areas, I’m singing in our community chorus and preparing for our annual Christmas concert. It’s a kind of one-step-removed church-like experience of community, of raising my voice in harmony with others, very sweet, and bathing in melody. I participate also in several types of dancing—square dancing, folk dancing, round dancing, and ballroom dancing—the latter two with my wife of 35 years—and the cultivation of romance is a fun thing with someone with whom one has tip-top rapport.

That’s enough for now—there are other activities, too, which you can find evidence of by checking out my website: www.blatner.com/adam/