by way
of a
preface
a number of years ago i was giving a talk very much like the talks
from which the pieces in this book took their origin and i was trying
to think my way through the difficult issues of what it means in this
culture to be a professional and why i was never quite comfortable with
the term after about forty minutes of this talking and thinking
feeling i had done as well as i could for the moment i came to a
provisional ending and as soon as i was done a woman who had been
following the course of my talk with apparently intense interest rushed up
to me and said with a strong sense of relief thank god i was so afraid
youd forget your words but there were no words my talks are not
lectures theyre thinkings and meditations i come with concerns and
reflections with questions and matter for thinking even obsessions
but there are no words not ahead of time
i could use the word "improvisations" ive used it before but ive
come to distrust what most people think it means the idea of starting
from a blank slate nobody starts from a blank slate not charlie
parker nor homer nor ludwig wittgenstein started from a blank slate
each in his different way going over a considered ground that became a ix