Fighting Senility

Writing is one of my ways of fighting senility. The Oxford Companion to Anerican Literature tells about Ralph Waldo Emerson at a point in his life when he had "gradually slipped into a serene senility in which his mind finally became a calm blank."  Apparently, Emerson happened to pick up a volume of his own essays one day, and after reading through them commented that although he couldn't place the man who wrote them, all in all he thought they showed promise. Although I may one day look back on what I've written with what Buechner called "serene senility," writing in the present always demands at least a measure of hand & mind coordination. In keeping with one of my five New Year's resolutions, I intend to add at least five entries in my blog each week--call it an effort at thwarting senility. Hopefully, something I compose and record will be worthy of someone's contemplation. No doubt I will miss that literary mark much of the time, but on occasion I may succeed: Not as if I will produce anything to keep one awake at night, but perhaps at times something "that will help me see something as familiar as my own face in a new way, with a new sense of its depth and preciousness and mystery" (Buechner).

(Photo from aacc.edu)