Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005.<\/b> Friendship needs addressing, maybe tomorrow. It’s not a reaction to a news item, either, like most Bricks. But it is a reaction, to how this subject broadly came up in me, even though I don’t know.<\/p>\n
With this as the latest example, all writing is reaction, reaction to stimuli. All action and all speech is reaction. So anyone who says my stuff is merely derivative should study that flying doughnut and aim to jump on it.<\/p>\n
Of course writing’s derivative. Those who don’t care for these meanderings, well they’re reacting<\/i> to me, no? Hah hah, got you.<\/p>\n
My beloved sometimes feels self-conscious about my concern for her day-to-day goings-on. I try to divert that by saying that I’m being merely selfish, that when she’s unhappy she makes me miserable. Sure it’s true, but complicated by being in love and thus having concern altruistically.<\/p>\n
Sure, it’s all about me. It’s all always been about me, just like what concerns you ultimately is always all about you. Does that mean even believing and acting on profound religious faith is a means to an end, one’s selfish end? In this context yes. But why be so petty? Just accept one’s ultimate, instinctive selfishness. Accept it … on faith. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005. Friendship needs addressing, maybe tomorrow. It’s not a reaction to a news item, either, like most Bricks. But it is a reaction, to how this subject broadly came up in me, even though I don’t know. With this as the latest example, all writing is reaction, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-lessons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":159,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/02\/plug-the-spin-spin-the-plug\/","url_meta":{"origin":158,"position":0},"title":"Plug the spin, spin the plug","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005. It seems fruitless and self-serving to merely write stuff that's a reaction to stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Last month, I threw a Brick that Johnny Carson in death deserves all the credit for talent, longevity and knowing when to leave the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/04\/news-recycle\/","url_meta":{"origin":158,"position":1},"title":"News (Re)cycle","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, April 1, 2005. The paradox of broadcast journalism. It's known for immediacy and visuals, especially compared to print. CNN and similar channels have brought 24\/7 continuousness to the medium as well. This emphasizes its demand for the NOW, as opposed to print's process: Gather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/10\/proud-of-arrogance\/","url_meta":{"origin":158,"position":2},"title":"Proud of arrogance","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005: Apparently, I spoke out of turn. I didn't mean to cause a stunned silence but rather say something I thought was not out of line, not unusual. I said the same thing to two different audiences, and got this same reaction:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":244,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/11\/you-dont-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":158,"position":3},"title":"You Don’t Say","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Two people on Thursday asked me the same question, not just topic but exact words. If I had a more public job -- not a computer-glazed copy editor -- or had more friends with whom I had more frequent contact, getting the same question twice in one day might be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1402,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/06\/opening-volley\/","url_meta":{"origin":158,"position":4},"title":"Opening Volley","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"LOS ANGELES -- I'm about 20 years too early to have hearing aids, but there it is. I've had one in my right ear since mid-2005, and six months ago had to begin wearing them in both. Each new auditory circumstance, rather than getting, \"Wow, birds chirping!\" often starts with,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Few Bullets More"","block_context":{"text":"Few Bullets More","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/ventura-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":396,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/an-endorsement-iowa\/","url_meta":{"origin":158,"position":5},"title":"An Endorsement, Iowa","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Iowa: I know you a little. I've been visiting almost every year since 1991. You house my in-laws. A lot in common with Arkansas: Mainly rural. Your shape. A prominent capital city instead of a tucked-away one like Jeff City or Austin (that's a little joke). You held on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}