apppendages viii-xiv one limp a-d

Listening to the recounting of a religious based event reminds me that sometimes I feel like the point of a story never gets explained. I have a feeling about this part of play. How do I really explain a spell when by its nature it has that inexplicable aspect, which has an unexplainable, though expectable effect that defines its essential quality?

[story begats memory]




When I play I enter an altered state of connectedness. I use the word connectedness rather than consciousness, because I think the levels of awareness of connection determine play. Levels exist of safety, recognition or familiarity. Layers exist of strangeness or quirky novelty. Levels exist of persistence and of reward. I willingly go to a place inside myself where I defer expectations. Being present in the moment allows me to connect myself to what holds my attention. I focus. This may describe the entire act of casting the spell.

[connections begat play]


(The sleight of hand that accompanies
a magic
trick has our
attention
carefully
drawn
away
from something;
that calls
our attention.
Play accomplishes
this feat.
Perhaps I call it play
for the soul,
because the soul
redirects our attention
momentarily
and when we turn back the shift has occurred and
the magic unfolds?)

[hands begat tricks]




I set myself in play motion. Do I just bring two or three threads of intention together and see how they connect to and unravel about each other? Unraveling ravels something else new of a value that I only indirectly hold. (Did I really write this before the conversation with Gary about raveling something out?) How would I give an example when examples, too, seem to elude the process? Suddenly it seems I don’t know how to play and have never authentically played with written language. Play doesn’t come into my head; it comes in through my hands. And play comes through the materials that the hands connect and the unexpected connections the hands reveal. This might happen with words, if I weren’t so concerned about writing them correctly and having them be understood as intended. So rather than focus on the spell we focus on where it can occur. Bear with me; we may get through to somewhere by going here.

[threads begat ravels]