Logic and Sermons Never Convince

All truths wait in all things,
They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it,
They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon,
The insignificant is as big to me as any,
(What is less or more than a touch?)

Logic and sermons never convince,
The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.

(Only what proves itself to every man and woman is so,
Only what nobody denies is so.)   

                                       Whitman  “Song of  Myself”

Got to love it: the swirl of confusion generated not

only by talking  about stuff (tokens galore, content

galore) but also by talking about how-we’re-talking,

exposing underlying controlling metaphors and

hidden assumptions, cultural knee-jerk connotations,

questioning definitions, uncovering ambiguities and

indeterminacy carried in  the terms we use/abuse—

One moment we’re galloping along, trot trot to Boston

trot trot to Spain, covering ground, getting somewhere

until someone, anyone, pulls the plug on our velocity

and demands: well, what do you  mean by

“logic,”

“good,”

“convince,”

“exist.”

 “is”

“hierarchy,”

“hegemony”

“meaning”

and splash—we realize we’ve been walking on water all

along, now sinking in a wonder-mire of definition and  

clarification and quibble and argument  and down & down

we go, round and round we go loving that old black magic

we weave so well.    Or hating it.

My mind-set (affect web-of-belief & bias, prejudice and

conviction) is inviolable, impenetrable, sealed-in tomb

womb protecting my DNA (directional navigational algorithms)

and  will not be CHANGED  lightly. I don’t know how

it gets changed.

I can’t change it my own self—no dials to twist and turn like

some homeostat or I would: twist and tweak I every day

to suit my fancy and the condition my condition is in. ..

Sure I can change my mind daily in realtime, deciding this

and that, voting for this or that: now for Chevy,. now for

Ford, paper or plastic,  taste or calories; but my frame of

mind, mind-set, overall attitude—my environmentality

say—is unchanged and unchanging. It’s beyond me

and my immediate needs, terms of desire, and

control. .

Neither logic nor  sermons convince. 

Now imagine a collective mind-set, the environ-mentality

of a relationship, a family, a classroom, a community,

a culture…the protective bubble and sealed-in

homeland security systems that protect

and prevent erosion, corruption,

demoralization. Call it

sustainability: that

which maintains

its status

quo.

Can’t touch it.  Inviolable? But it will defend itself
homeland security-wise: protecting the family jewls.
.IT, I said.