My Sydney Connection partner’s take on oxymoron terms was quite amusing and stimulating (“The power of one,” March 6, 2011 edition), and in the last issue, on the power of imagination (“The power to imagine,” May 8, 2011 edition). The common thread running in both, it seems to me, is that there are undercurrents of themes, subject matter, or perspectives that long to be brought out into the light. The different aspects that Romy does bring out in his own writing style serve to camouflage – but at the same time also point to said undercurrents. (I can almost see and hear him now say to me: “You’re just imagining things! Now stop pulling my leg!”)
Levity aside, however, those who are given the privilege of writing expositions on most anything under the sun in newspaper columns are constantly challenged to affirm the validity and cogency of their writings. Understandably, those who are less well-known (not yet “made”) or perhaps still unsure usually tend to be circumspect in approach. On the other hand, a few may actually be passionate and outspoken off the bat. My own take on the matter is that Romy and I are of the former variety of writers – indirect and cautious. Holding on to the belief that certain readers out there are able to get what’s between the lines. There are those that can’t, or simply refuse to ascribe any other meanings apart from what’s apparently presented. But for most audiences the value or benefits from reading the column grow or recede depending upon the interest factor and relevance of the topic that the columnist delves into at the moment.
As Romy concludes in his last Connection: “…to be of this world, and not to conform to the world” made me recall something of those ‘air[wave]bending’ days of ours together. His activist background initially set him out to reject the status quo; his broadcasting days transmuted such stridency into a capability to impartially and impassively report and comment on the world around; and now as a columnist he seeks to transcend the limitations of the senses and conventional wisdom and offer insights to contribute to a greater communal understanding of human events and its various contexts. Which, of course, maintains the singularity of his views and where he’s sitting from; but as he himself admits, it’s an uphill struggle to continually improve on the craft and be able to consistently present something of interest, relevance and value.
Well, you’re not alone there, my friend. Sometimes it seems absurd, about it all – just like in The The Myth of Sisyphus
And yet, in our role as writers we are sometimes obliged to explore and exploit those dimensions of human existence – the past and future – in order to shed more light on the semi-chaos of the present, to find a method to all this madness. Of tools there are a-plenty: technology; knowledge and experience (multiplied exponentially by our global interconnectedness); ‘maturity’ (“wisdom”?); shared beliefs (credenda) and/or contentious advocacies (agenda). By being aware of what Jacques Ellul said, however, that the history of technology and the history of propaganda have evolved together, we can perhaps be even more careful in what we say/write.
But the whole point to this dialogue/interaction is these questions that you can wrap your head around: How do you deal with the ‘passions of the mind that afflict us all’ (in the Buddhist sense)? Do you also subscribe to what Carl G. Jung often quoted from St. Augustine: “I thank God that I am not responsible for my dreams”? Carlos Castañeda’s journey into sorcery and becoming a ‘warrior’ is something we can only marvel at, but sadly, we can’t really affirm or deny as truth based just on our own senses and sensibilities. On the other hand, if I’m off-tangent in all these then I stand corrected, my friend.
And by the way, you also mentioned that I never knew that you hailed me as “the new kid in town sweeping the beautiful girls off their feet in the SU campus or anywhere else in the city” – maybe I did (sweep them off their feet); but you know what? They (most of them, anyway) had this amazing ability to return their dainty little feet back on terra firma. As we now know, those younger days were given more to “muddling through” than anything else. It’s just as well that we can’t turn back the hands of time!
