stacks
upon stacks
Imagine never throwing away any magazine you have ever subscribed to (i’m already a fossil exposing myself here… who subscribes to print magazines anymore?).
The acid paper, meant to be tossed after reading, explodes into tiny triangles, shards wafting in the ambient flow created by the air purifier to the right. Acrid smells and ultra-curiosity saturate the space, with a tinge of fear that the pages will entirely crumble before yr very eyes, unleashing an urgency to read, but not so aggressively that you become the vector of obliteration.
one exhale away from scattering the old paper to the ends of the Earth…
~
collection, data, bars of text… eyes flowing from one line to the next, circling, gyrating, rising and setting across the page, over and over, as sure as the Sun. The Sun cannot stop, or rather, the Earth on its spin, but we can. many of us have stopped. stopped reading. (thank you, dear reader, for being here).
and reading, literacy, extends beyond the domination of the visual. haptic signals, scent, braille, and sound… how many people say they’re reading a book, but in actuality, they are listening to an audio version of said book…
~
as i sat on the southern bits of our planet two weeks ago, checking out the ecliptic, seeing the Sun to the north instead of south, my internal compass got entirely foggy.
My disorientation lasted until about now… the jet lag wasn’t temporal, it was spatial, and while lots of thoughts swirled in my mind about what to say or do, i found myself kind of mute. Being immersed in Brazilian Portuguese for a week straight also zapped my brain cells into new realities that have yet to precipitate into a solid. It’s been a time.
for this next stretch, let’s acknowledge a special skill, a kind of wild orchid in our midst, something that seems to be at a disadvantage but has a helpful edge. correctly using something for an unintended purpose.
or maybe finally figuring out what lurks behind the 6-7
~
stripes, strata, stacks
plethora, paradox
plans
~
In four days, we get to the “re- re- re-” hymn,
redo, renew, recycle, reviewwwwww….
sure.
But remember the special skill. Give credit where credit is due. What if going sideways is simply going askew, a diagonal, rather than straight through? Detours that rescue.
Get lost. Read widely with all your senses.
See you again on November 10, 2025 at 19:42
Cover Photo by me, taken in the basement of CAELi.