Abstract thinking is what we do about the gaps in language that we happen to come upon. Sometimes the gap is simply how we get around a fact presented as an obstacle, when we are motivated to preserve and foster ignorance. But in better times it is how recognizing equivocation “snaps” a brittle, underlying assumption and shoves two concepts together, forming a kenning, before being taken over by its own, dedicated word: that is, sometimes it is digging-up-knowledge-treasure, while other times it is already adequately named “obfuscation.”

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You have the idea that will save the world? Set it to a ditty or kiss it goodbye. Life is made up of songs and love stories, and reality is its villain.

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High poetry is how a straight logic makes use of a crooked memory.

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Don’t “find a way” to do something, do something that then finds a way.

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