"We Need Not Fear These Silences"

"I am here, and there is nothing to say." ~John Cage, Lecture on Nothing (1949)

The other day, I heard someone say that having a blog scares the heck out of him, because of having to always come up with new content. I told him that it's perfectly all right to have nothing to say. John Cage said it so well: "I have nothing to say, and I'm saying it.... We need not fear these silences."

I learned this at one point in graduate school. It was a couple of years into my coursework, and I had an essay due in a history seminar. I discovered something more fundamental than writer's block: I simply had nothing to say.

When I went to class empty handed, I told my professor that, and she laughed. She'd been there many, many times. "Don't worry," she told me. "Give it some time. Something will come to you."

And indeed, it did. The following week, an idea came to me, and I wrote and wrote. That essay become the core idea on which I would base my whole dissertation. I doubt it would have come were it forced.

Sometimes we simply have to make space for things. Let the silences be.

The Mind Has To Poop Once In a While

"The mind has to poop a little once in a while too, you know." ~M. Blauvelt

Have you ever noticed when someone asks, "What do you think?" or "What do you believe?" sometimes you don't truly know your answer until you try to say it? You might have thought you knew, but as you express it, you might discover a few surprises. Articulating a thing is actually a necessary step in the process of knowing it. The mind really does have to poop every once in a while.

We have thoughts, ideas, and opinions on all kinds of things. Sometimes we're content with them staying inside our heads, but realize this: They're often thoughts only half thunk. They have to be articulated to be fully processed. So whether you express them digitally, or on paper, or in chats with family or friends, don't hold them all inside. Use anything from journals, sketchbooks, and notepads, to forums, meetups, and blogs. Articulacy ‒ the ability to express yourself ‒ is as important as being literate. We all need good mental regularity! What goes into our heads is important, but also, what comes out.

Thoughts Were Made To Be Thunk

"Learn is not a transitive verb." ~Peter Gould

When I used to teach university courses, something that I found myself often needing to say to students was: "Show me that it passed through your brain." Contrary to what most of them presumed, I wasn't interested in having information parroted back to me. Teaching is not information delivery, and learning is not delivering it back. Thoughts were made to be thunk.

"I am wondering, why are you here?"

"I am wondering, why are you here? Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?" ~Yoda


Welcome to Maganda Mind! It is an ad hoc collection of semi-original thoughts, little bits of the view from where I sit, in the digitalreal. What's the digitalreal? It's the gossamer gradient between virtual and real. In a color gradient, like from yellow to orange, where does one color become the next? There is no line. That gradient is my world. If you're reading this, the digitalreal is your world, too.


Most people have ideas about things. For me, ideas are things. They are things to be seen, found, and made. They are big things, they are little things. They are serious things, play things and serious play things. Some come in handy, some lie around. Sometimes they're shiny, sometimes they're not. Sometimes I'm borrowing them, other times making some of my own. Sometimes they're in my head, other times in my hands. But, whatever and wherever they are, you'll always find me tink, tink, tinkering. Let me know what you tink, tink, think!