Part of the purpose is the working through, the conscious consideration (my notes on the video for myself, my Google Doc over the Belonging game, annotations on my own Belonging results). Another part is the ‘curation’ of the Wakelet materials, relating it to Brown. Harold Jarche calls this “seek, sense, share”. The bare Wakelet is the seeking. The curation is the sense making. And reporting out on what I am doing with the info is the sharing. The rewilding actually fights depression, it helps me find my own and others’ blind spots, and gets me to consider walking other paths, other desire lines. Here is where I typically cite Antonio Machado’s poem about paths:
Wanderer, your footsteps are
the road, and nothing more;
wanderer, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.
[This is the part that gets quoted, but Machado’s other poetic shoe drops and is more significant for our purposes.]
By walking one makes the road,
and upon glancing behind
one sees the path. . .
The wake from the ship, the smoke from the fire, that is part of the purpose of rewilding–to glance behind and see the path others have trod and that I am rewalking and have it make sense down the path I have taken.
Of course, I often don’t have any clear purpose when I head down a path. I am sometimes pursuing an idea or a story I liked or a quesiton that created an itch that needed scratching. Sometimes it is just an odd hunch that there is gold in there somewhere. I have faith that the purpose will find me, but I also know that my method has a low signal-to-noise ratio so I hail failing.
Much of what I make by rewilding resurfaces in my poems in unexpected ways–a line here or a choice of words there or a title or a topic or a theme in the poem. Sometimes I feel the rewilding has a pump priming effect. For example, I know that this blog (which I just added to our Rewilding Wakelet ) fits with how I might analyze the next bit Brown’s work we are having a go at. Much of what I do is not “ready-aim-fire”. It is “ready-fire-aim”. My outcome or purpose is to hit a target I am not even sure exists. If I hit it, well…I keep on. If I don’t, then I likely move on.
I hope this helps,
Not sure it does,
but if it hurts
I beg pardon for what was.
OK, Charlene, the shuttlecock is in your court. I can almost hear the swoosh of your racket.
Here was my response:
OK, Charlene, the shuttlecock is in your court. I can almost hear the swoosh of your racket.