essays

 

Aldous Huxley’s description of the essay is simple enough, “a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything”. In my case I suppose would add also that I am, “almost succeeding”.

In many respects, an essay reflects the art of acting. Invented by Michel de Montaigne the day in 1580 that he published his book entitled, “essais”; they were most likely inspired by the death of a dear friend that left Montaigne with no place to turn for comfort but he blank page. He titled it after the French verb, “essayer” meaning “to try”. At best an essay will always be left somewhat undone - begging the reader to finish with thought, discussion, or action – and like an actor’s work they are built to be the best of what we have at the moment. An essay is in the moment, at the moment, of the moment – the perfect match for the actor’s craft; built to provoke and to start, not to finish, an argument.

Below are a few of a series of one page essays I wrote entitled “The Values” they are each just a page in length. The length is simply because it’s cheaper to hand out one page of paper to a class full of students rather than a stack of pages. What you have here is a small sample, but enough of one, I hope, to give you something to think about in regards to each of the values mentioned.

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