[MD] is-ness

[MarshaV]

Arlo,

I really appreciate you sharing this word, its meaning and your 
feelings about the way it functions in this forum.  I have learned to 
care for all of you, even Ham.  -   It pleases me to think of you 
meeting friends for a Brewski. And I like the word, Brewski.  It's 
playful.  I bet you are too.

Marsha








At 04:31 PM 8/21/2008, you wrote:
>[Marsha]
>What I wrote was personal.  True.
>
>[Arlo]
>Phatic. This is what we in linguistics call expressions that serve 
>social functions, rather than strictly conveying information. And it 
>is not "fluff" or "filler" or "unimportant". Phatic expressions 
>perform the important task of social cohesion. For how many hours a 
>week we spend reading, writing and thinking about posts to the list, 
>it is little wonder to me that we also invest a part of our personal 
>selves here. I am happy to hear about walkabouts, mentions of kids, 
>family, life, work, play, bars, etc. because they are the color to 
>an otherwise empty coloring book of characters. Granted, if it were 
>all social, perhaps we'd find a more compatible forum interacting 
>with people "like us", rather than bucking heads over the elusivity 
>of "consciousness". Indeed, it is what likely all drew us into 
>Pirsig's narrative, which was not just apersonal philosophy but a 
>deeply personal narration that made his philosophy "real", grounded 
>it in the daily activity of motorcycle repair, boozing and 
>rotisserie assembly. I imagine that everyone on this list has other 
>listies they'd call "friend", people they would miss (not just 
>intellectually) if they left the forum. And this is a good thing, 
>not a bad thing. In this wonderful electronic world of ours no one 
>is forced to read everything, we can use simple but sophisticated 
>search programs to highlight posts that contain certain words or 
>phrases, or even less technological measures such as passing over 
>posts by people we've learned don't really pull us in or reading 
>every post by a particular contributor. Bottom line... there is no 
>imbalance here that I see, share what you wish to share, most 
>receive it in good spirit, others can ignore it (or learn to).
>
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Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.........
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