What accounts for my low opinion of… opinions?
(I am well aware, of course, that this is another opinion, but life is rife with contradiction. We don’t know where we come from, don’t know where we are going, death follows life as surely as swallowing follows chewing, ‘this’ ends, ambiguity rules, and so on. This book too cannot avoid being a collection of opinions. Have I failed then? Yes, quite happily.)
Opinions are anti-celebratory. Celebration is inclusive, while opinions are always saying ‘this is good, that is bad’, ‘I like pickles, I don’t like fish’. Opinion is always weighing things, whereas celebration merely delights in them, even if it can also recognize them as failures. Opinion is so much ‘what I think is… ’, ‘what I believe is… ’, ‘what I want is… ’. Celebration looks out while opinion looks in, which means celebration sees more and further. Celebration doesn’t always have to check back to head office to see if it’s all right to enjoy life.
Writing should be a celebration: of stories, of life, of language. That is why most people today have forgotten how to enjoy poetry – they don’t know how to enjoy language. They have too many opinions. They are so busy passing judgment, making their opinions known, that they can hardly breathe, breathing being essential to enjoyment, appreciation and celebration.