This week I was reading one of Gertrude Stein’s lectures, ‘Poetry and Grammar’ and something she said made me think about the internet, blogging, and risk taking.

At one point she is talking about the idea that verbs are more interesting than nouns and she points out the following.

“It is wonderful the number of mistakes a verb can make…Nouns and adjectives never can make mistakes, can never be mistaken but verbs can be endlessly so, both as to what they do and how they agree or disagree with whatever they do.” 1

I find this fascinating and undeniably true.

Nouns really are static.

Labels attached by some action not their own. They simply are or they aren’t. No shades of gray. As much ability to unname themselves as I have to teleport to Peru.

The world around me seems to have an awful lot of noun about it’s countenance. Especially these days.

What is your name, where did you publish, who was your teacher, what is your nation, what color your skin, who sleeps in your bed, what car in your driveway, who is your god.

Not a lot of activity there. Just a catalog penultimately incomplete—the parts totaling far less than the whole.

But verbs are altogether a different deal. Stein is right.

Verbs are out there doing, and being, and becoming, and pushing and pushing back.

Which brings blogs to mind for me.

Blogging is definitely a verb gig. The ultimate non-static construct. Writing, thinking, discussing, commenting, linking, reading, thinking some more.

No question. Verb heaven.

And with all that action comes the undeniable potential to make some mistakes. Which, as Stein points out, really is pretty wonderful.

Running with the verbs is exciting.

and risky

And that really is the crux isn’t it?

No guarantees.

To put it out there realizing the possibility it may implode—downsides too plentiful to innumerate.

And doing it anyway.

Chasing upsides of pure possibility.

A dangerous game—winning moves elusive as untempered dragon’s fire.

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1. Meyerowitz P. Ed., 1971 Gertrude Stein - Writings and Lectures 1909 - 1945

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