Questions of evidence

Home/Textes/Questions of evidence

Questions of evidence

Questions abound tonight after all the day’s « evidence » has run its course: some writing work done, meals cooked and eaten, correspondence completed, conversations with the cat pursued and communications about administrative issues undertaken on the phone. The euro crisis, however, has not been resolved. Although of course Lionel Messi was named footballer of the year.
And now, the clock ticking on, what’s the « evidence »?
The Christmas tree, alas, is finally gone, dismantled ornament by ornament, the lights put out and away for another year. Something dully sad reigns, or hovers, the lingering emotional trace of impermanence. And yet the space the tree filled in the corner seems empty only for a minute or so.
Which makes me wonder: With so much « information » available on so many « devices » these days, what would happen if I just turned everything off – radio, telephone, computer, cellphone…?
What would I « miss »?
Words? In the 1970s, the American writer John Hershey used an early computer to do revisions on a novel that he had written first longhand and then with a typewriter. He said it was great, very helpful, but that a true writer could not really write with a computer. Without a pencil, he said, the words would not really be the writer’s.
Are these words « mine »?
At this very moment, night offers its reply, shadows cast by the streetlamp on the sheer curtains constituting unquestionable evidence of neither mine nor not-mine.

By | 2015-10-02T15:48:34+00:00 janvier 10th, 2012|Textes|0 Comments

About the Author:

Enseignante Zen et poète, Sensei Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell est née et a grandi à Minneapolis, aux Etats-Unis. Arrivée en France en 1981 pour étudier la littérature et l’histoire, elle y est restée, s’installant à Paris, où elle élève ses deux enfants et gagne sa vie en tant que journaliste. The Zen teacher and poet Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell Sensei was born and raised in Minneapolis, but came to France in 1981 to study literature and history and has lived in Paris ever since, raising her two children and making a living as a journalist.

Leave A Comment