Welcome to Radical Correspondence, A New and Different Blog
I’ve looked at blogs from lots of sides now, and am never quite satisfied with their limitations.
In that spirit, and inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s term “Radical Correspondence” which appears in his Essay on “Nature”, I’ve decided to try something a bit different. Emerson defined a “radical correspondence between visible things and human thoughts.” Eloquently, he expressed it as: “A man’s power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth and his desire to communicate it without loss.”
I’ve loved that pure and elegant expression of Emerson’s the moment I read it, and it linked directly to the profound influence which Saul Alinksy’s “Rules for Radicals” had upon me more than 40 years ago. Alinksy’s definition of “Radical”, like Emerson’s, was not political, but conveyed the necessity of getting to the root cause of “things and thoughts,” in all communications and actions.
This “Radical Correspondence” will be an attempt to express the simplicity of truth in the tradition of Emerson and Alinsky. I’ll use essay, poems, photos, artwork, guest blogs or any combination of them, to get the job done. There are, I believe, lots of paths to finding the truth, and “communicating it without loss.”
I welcome constructive suggestions about how we can better travel this path toward simplicity and truth together.
Thanks. I hope you enjoy our efforts.
Be well.
Steve Villano
www.socialvisionproductions.com