The following equally applies to writing and teaching:
“Half of the game is 90 percent mental.” — Yogi Berra
The other half is not overthinking it. — Bill Mohr
To that extent, Hannah Arendt overthinks “the human condition,” when she proposes that “(t)he task and potential greatness of mortals reside in their ability to produce things that are at home in their everlastingness.”
Maybe.
But I prefer things that are comfortable with their ephemerality, which is the fundamental condition of existence.
On the other hand, there are also things that one could only wish were ephemeral.
A typo, for instance.
“a bean and cheese burriot.” (See POETRY LOVES POETRY: “In Line at Pancho’s Tacos.” / Momentum Press, 1985.)
Now there’s a typo that exceeded its aspirations as a party crasher.
Charles Harper Webb never let me forget about “burriot.”
Perhaps that error, though, will cover my entrance fee to “everlastingness.”
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Footnote
Let’s face it: when a text contains a typo, it’s hard for the alphabet not to think, “Who invited him?”
About Bill Mohr