ephemera

I have built a new writing space for myself. Its name is Ephemera. What is Ephemera?

ephemera (e·phem·er·a)

A fleeting thing.

Printed matter of passing interest.

A plural of ephemeron

[greek from neuter of ephmeros, daily, short-lived. See ephemeral.]

One of the ephemeral flies. A genus of insects including the day flies, may flies, june bugs. An insect that lives only for one day in its winged form.

A Fleeting Thing

Time, life itself, any object is limited. Specifically, a passing thought. I am interested in passing thoughts. I strive, not for “stream-of-consciousness” writing but rather for a kind of “spurts-of-consciousness” writing.

Printed matter of passing interest.

I take my inspiration, first of all, from the printed matter of passing interest. I fell we live in an increacingly “Post No Bills” kind of world, and so, as a writer, I delight in the notion of broadsides; catch-pennies or hand-stapled religious tracts, even the misguided ones; zines; tabloids; grafitti; cocktail napkins; scrawl and margalia of all kinds… Words on the fly! Hot off the press!

Speaking of the press, I am in love with the books of William Blake, more than with their contents. They are beautiful, human books that escape the mass-produced boredom that so often accompanies books that are all the same. He made every one of his books by himself, and each one of them was a little bit different.

Ephemeros

Daily, short lived… life is. Come to think of it, so is an entry in a writing space like this one.

An insect that lives only for one day

My grandmother was a biologist, and a middle school teacher. She filled young minds with awe at the miracle of life, with curiosity about the complexity of, and with the confidence to live it. She showed me fascinating things.

With her life, she showed me how to create real change in the world. She said, “watch this,” once when I was young, during a visit to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, she somehow commanded the docent to break into a beetle cage, and she held high that enormous, bright green, African wonder, and it jumped on me, and she gave a lesson to everyone in the room about the creature. Even the authorities were impressed.

With her death, she showed me that for all the complexities that life has, eternity is not one of them. When my time comes, I hope to have done enough of what I am here to do, following her example.

And so, without any further introduction, I present to the world “ephemera” I hope you find it to be of passing interest, at the very least.