Attributes

If I posess any brilliance
it would be attributable
to heat rather than light.
Yes, I served the barbeque
at the gathering of great brains,
but was far more concerned
with my sauce than their theories.
My gift is for covering my befuddlement
with bravado. This has helped me slip
through a few doors and under a couple of others.
Once inside I tended to lose interest.
I overcame or worked around
my lack of conventional intelligence
with a stubborn indifference
to any subject which did not directly
affect me. Later I would label
this propensity as ZEN FOR THE EASILY BORED.
I have a short attention span
and a scatter-gun approach to experience.
Later in life I learned to rotate
my attentions in a passable resemblance
to a pattern. All of these were good tools
for an emerging generalist. And outsider.
I'm a generalist AND an outsider! What a hoot!
I proclaim myself to be interested in everything
but choose not to merge. I can blend,
I can schmooze, I can mingle, I can flirt,
I can hunt, I can gather, I can slash,
I can burn. I can live in one room
as easily as I can a whole world.
I can create beautiful patterns
just by connecting
all the blind spots.     -Jim Gustafson

Dispatch Detroit Vol. 3