[MD] poetry

[MarshaV]

At 11:19 AM 10/30/2007, you wrote:

>Marsha asked:
>In your mind is 'being' a noun or a verb?
>
>dmb says:
>The silliy joke was just my way of saying "welcome back to North 
>America" to Rebbeca, but your question strikes me as fun.
>
>Recently, I've encountered some of Dewey's ideas about aesthetic 
>experience. He points out that words like "building" and "art" are 
>revealing because of the way they can be both verbs and nouns, can 
>refer to the process and the product. And these two forms are 
>connected or rather continuous with each other. Cooking is a good 
>example. The cook is guided through the process with the final dish 
>in mind, on some level she is thinking about the pleasure of those 
>who will eat the meal at each point in the process. And it works in 
>the other direction too. During the actual enjoyment (hopefully) the 
>dinner guests will be able to detect the process that took place. 
>Maybe they'll ask about the spices, herbs, techniques used and the 
>like while making some pretty darn good guesses about what went on, 
>especially if they've spent time in the kitchen themselves. Same 
>with a painting. There's some end in mind that guides the process 
>and that process can be seen in the final product by the vi
>  ewer. As you probably noticed, aesthetic experience is not limited 
> to the arts but rather refers to any transformative activity from 
> scrambling eggs to constructing a brick shithouse. For Dewey, the 
> thing that separates aesthetic from non-aesthetic experience is the 
> quality of that experience. And the continuity between process and 
> product described here is central to that quality. Its about a 
> certain level of engagement, one that needs the space or room for 
> the circuit to be complete, so that the whole deal from start to 
> finish can sort of unfold according to the needs of that particular 
> goal or aim. He also points out that America's fast-paced, 
> multi-tasking lifestyle doesn't lend itself to this experience. And 
> things are much, much worse now in that respect than they were in 
> Dewey's day. It seems you're set up for such experience, but you're 
> a very unusual cat that way.
>
>So anyway, to answer the question, "is 'being' a noun or a verb?" 
>I'd say yes, definately. And so is Rebecca.

Hi David,

Purrrrrrrrr.   I made the right decision.  It was the gumption I 
received from two wonderful books I read.  All I had to give up was 
more-more-more.  Purrrrrrrrr.

And to think, all I knew about Dewey was the Dewey Decimal System.  I 
think I'd like to read his biography.

Marsha