Why "Short Pieces?"

By nature I’m relentlessly philosophical, and am always observing and analyzing. I especially like questions that seem to lead to paradoxes. I remember as a little boy being totally intrigued by the Paradoxes of Zeno. Over the years I’ve become quite interested in certain seemingly paradoxical questions, and for a long time planned to write a book, a “collection of essays about life,” in which I would thoroughly explore and resolve these intriguing puzzles, one by one. I collected many titles about which I wanted to write, along with very brief notes to remind myself what the content of each would be.

However, each time I sat down to write one of the essays I could never finish it. I couldn’t answer the questions I was asking. I would get off to a good start, but could never reach a satisfactory conclusion. For a long time I thought it was writer’s block or just some kind of resistance, but an insight finally came: the human mind, in its current state of evolution, cannot solve these problems. When I saw that, it felt like a revelation. As human beings we stumble around trying to solve problems and questions we’re just not equipped to solve. Put another way, we are 3-dimensional perceptual beings immersed in a multi-dimensional reality which our minds cannot grasp. (See my article, 11-Dimensional Mind.)

When I saw that, things became much easier for me. Since I didn’t need to answer any of these questions, I found that it was valuable and interesting just to ask them. And the questions themselves were already laid out, in the form of the titles and notes I had prepared for myself. Hence, the “short piece”: a title plus some brief commentary. I edited them so as to make each one complete in itself, and very much liked the result. They were quirky, and packed a lot of punch.

This brief, no-frills way of communicating suited me and my temperament. And I saw that the short piece form didn’t need to be limited to deep, paradoxical questions. I could write brash, opinionated pieces about anything, to my heart’s content! Being a judgmental man of few words, I had created for myself a very satisfying form of self-expression.

And though these fiery pieces may confound you and/or piss you off, I offer them to you, with love.