Page Two: Shape-shifting
A pause and perhaps a change in direction
By Louis Black, Fri., March 30, 2012
One of the weirdest aspects of this column is that I've been writing it for more than 25 years. It is very much a diary tracking my life. If not always a collection of intimate details, though it has been that, it is at very least an indication of my interests and a rough catalog of my reading list as well as my viewing and listening habits. Lately, I've neglected it. The column usually writes itself. A gush of words rushes out and forms into some semblance of order; an attempt at coherent meaning is made. Lately, where there was always the noise of words, there has been silence.
Added to the equation is that I type with one finger. Only one finger. I shift with an additional finger, but all the basic typing is done with one. That one has been swollen of late, making writing not painful, exactly, but inconvenient.
Before all of these occurrences, I had already decided to shrink the column by at least half and publish longer pieces online. Lately, because of my lingering health issues, I haven't been writing it at all.
This week's column is a placeholder, a way of reminding readers that there has long been a column in this space. It will probably return; right now, I'm seeing how I breathe and how I write. Almost certainly it will be shorter, and much more of it will be published as a blog.
Ironically, this silence occurred around the time of South by Southwest. In recent years, I often felt compelled to defend the event from online attacks. Last year and this year, I shut up. I listened. SXSW speaks for itself. It roars, in fact. If you can't hear its vitality, its integrity, and its creativity, then you are not listening. If you are not listening, there is nothing I can say that will make a difference.
Weighing in again feels natural but different. This adventure – my life, my writing, the Chronicle – has always gone its own way. I've never led; I've followed. Well, I'm not out of traction yet, but I'm somewhat back in action. Another chapter has begun. Seeing where it goes will be as interesting as all the preceding chapters have been. At least that is what I hope.
