It all depends on what perspective you look at it Daniel,
At first I was sure you were the decentralized pen. There is only one person alive I know who could spin words together like you. Most of his writing came in his twenties. It it a treasured time but confusing time. You did well to write a poem a day.
From my point of view you have exposed a lot of yourself already in your writings and actions on Steemit. When I was curious about where you were coming from and asked I usually got no answer which made the puzzle to understanding you more interesting. I got a lot of the answers from the poem itself. Others may consider esoteric writing as ostracizing because they don't feel like they can grab anything out of it or it is too indirect. Anyway you really couldn't hide on Steemit because your full name and city are here and by interactions your story unfolds. I won't tell it for you as I have my own story to unravel. To each his own. But from my shoes I have ask, "What did you get out of your visit to India?" Honestly for a while I thought you were an amazing Indian living in North Carolina. You just knew too much of the terrain and language. I know your major was Music but I wonder if you had a minor in Geology or inorganic chemistry. I know computers run in your blood. You also come from a background of a certain professed faith. Your writings reveal the struggles you have had.
One of the problems with Steemit.com is that I cannot message you directly or have a voice conversation from the blockchain. I really respect your decision to reduce media. From my perspective you should just say what you want to when you want to. You don't have fit any pattern. Once you shared a podcast here about poetry. That was interesting. I know you are crazy busy getting stuff together so I couldn't imagine asking you to do more. I remember twenty years ago when I prepared to go to Korea. Everyone told me not too go because it seemed of uncertainties with IMF but I was glad I came. Standing on the other side of the world I was able to see both sides of the yin and yang.
Oh and spiritual things... I'm pretty sure we can't teach them like poetry or English or learn these things in the same matter either. There is so much I can say here but i will just say,
Namaste
I'm so grateful for this comment, @mineopoly. You have been able to see something in my poetry that only one other person ever has. That was @cabbagepatch, and she was my only cheerleader when I began. She would comment on every single one of my poems, often with paragraphs. She was an amazing soul in the body of a middle-aged Japanese lady living in Hawaii. I fear she must be either quite ill or have passed many months ago. It's not like her to leave Steemit. I wish you could have met her.
Since you started commenting on my pieces last winter, I've appreciated it a whole lot, more than I could really say or my meagre upvote could convey. It is so nice to have someone being able to intuitively know what I'm saying, beyond the words. Sometimes what you got out of the pieces was quite different from what I did while writing it. I love that, too. It's just a part of the dynamic transmutation process. You're right that I never tried to hide my identity, but I made people find it out on their own, if they were curious enough.
That is so funny about thinking I was Indian. Actually, I started writing a little bit about my intense experience in India the other day. I always tear up when I think about it. It was the first time in my life I ever felt like I belonged somewhere on this planet. The air quality and other infrastructure issues in India were very severe, and I chose not to return, even though I promised them I would. That still haunts me. I will definitely write some blogs about my experience in the future. It completely changed my life.
The way my music school was, we didn't have minors, instead we had "emphases." My emphasis was Composition & Arranging, so my most challenging classes were about advanced Music Theory, Orchestration, writing for Brass & Woodwinds, etc. However, I took an Environmental Science class as my elective science, and loved it. My mom @violetmed also wanted to be a Geology major before she finally decided on a Math major. I know much of my love for nature and rocks came from her, as well as (eventually) my understanding & appreciation for the strong faith in God she exuded. (I'll save the story of my "atheist days" for another time. ;-)
We definitely should chat on text or voice more. I hope in the future something of the sort is integrated into Steemit so it functions like a proper modern social media site. If they could find a way to put that on blockchain, that would be interesting, though one with privacy features would be nice. I'm thinking it could be based on a separate but complementary blockchain that had the ability to send secure transactions so people could still chat in confidence.
Namaste!
So much to read in this world but sincere interaction so hard to come by. I will never match your upvote and don't intend to. You invested a lot in Steemit. As for me I gave some of my time and was educated in return. I always got something out of your poems even though it may be something way out in left field.
Thank you for introducing @cabbagepatch. I read her articles. It seems that her last post on Steemit came the same day as my first post. She is an angel. I am nothing.
At the age of twenty I spent a summer in Haiti. I took care of kids in an orphanage at the edge of Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince. Of course I foolishly promised I would come back. What's more the oldest kid in the orphanage sent me letters when I was back in Chicago (no internet back then). He got a scholarship to study in Minnesota, became a pastor and got married. Still I never kept my promise to go back there again. James keeps drilling in my head: "Listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'"
Quote from some other guy who lived in Minnesota