Swamped

I've realized a rhetorical dilemma with blogging for me: the interaction between me and you stands out as a problem, which I've solved in the past by the creation of elaborate and time-consuming narrative posts, attempting to provide enough context for any reader to enter into my experiences and thoughts. Some audience members appreciate this mode (thanks Dad!) while others have maligned it (boo unnamed!). But the baseline consideration is time. I haven't blogged lately because it was taking me two hours to craft the masterful art of each post, and I'm more interested in the possibility of keeping up communication and informing you all about our lived experiences. So I'm going to aim for brevity now, although a narrative may appear every now and again.

Yes, I realize that the paragraph above did not follow any of the "rules" therein contained. I'm starting....NOW.

Here are some pics from New Orleans--specifially, the Jean Lafitte National Preserve south of the city. There are some great narratives to go along with these pics, but...no, I must resist telling them. Brevity. (This new mode invites further conversation--I can tell you more if you call or email).


















Continuing with the exigency of brevity, I'm going to give a two-minute version of issues on my mind right now. Michel Meyer, a French philosopher of "problematology", suggests that everything we do--communication, action, thought--is a performance aimed at solving the problems that motivate us both "in the moment" and more significanctly at the core of our experiences. So, here are some of the more significant "problems" I'm trying to answer right now:

• Contending with postmodern philosophies (namely, those of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida) and their implications for rhetoric
• Conceiving of a post-postmodern direction for rhetorical study
• Tying together these academic interests with my core values of faith and spirituality
• Living out whatever I come up with in my daily life here
• Getting ready for my class today instead of blogging

And I'd also like to share with you some of the ways I'm going about finding answers

• Understanding Michel Meyer's philosophy of problematology
• Figuring out the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and its implications for the above (thanks Liam!)
• Listening to the intelligent conversations on the Veritas Forum (some challenging ideas in this one by Timothy Keller and this one by Dallas Willard) (thanks Josh!)
• Reading Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution" along with the Gospel of Luke
• Shutting down the computer and actually taking a shower and heading out the door