THE SUBTRACTORS

here come the ideas from the mound ... one by one ... some slow some fast ... some curved some twisted ... almost all of them wide or low or high ... and of the rest a bunch of singles a few doubles and triples just one or two homeruns ... in other words your typical ballgame only with ideas mostly errant but each and every one claiming the same authority at the center of the mound ... the trick though is still the same ... knowing when to swing and what to ignore ... clearly a method is called for ... my favorite is subtraction and to do this you need good subtractors ... they go after things foul and out of bounds ... things wrong and malcontented ... the judgments that snarl the appraisals that wander ... they take away excuses misunderstanding and lies ... they pick up the rug and vacuum out all the fine grit down to the last cosmetic blemish ... they leave the colors as long as they're smooth and gradual with sharp contrasts and fortunate backgrounds ... be careful though ... there's one squad that's radical ... the metaphysical squad ... they see accident they cut to substance ... they discard the ephemeral ... they'll accept only the timeless ... they'll suck the substance out of being itself