Here are a few words pulled from E.B. White's wonderful essay, The Ring of Time:
For the writers among us (or maybe for anyone, really)
It has been ambitious and plucky of me to attempt to describe what is indescribable, and I have failed, as I knew I would. But I have discharged my duty to society; and besides, a writer, like an acrobat, must occasionally try a stunt that is too much for him.For everyone
The only sense that is common, in the long run, is the sense of change - and we all instinctively avoid it, and object to the passage of time, and would rather have none of it.I've glossed over a lot of the essay, especially regarding the African-American Civil Rights Movement (which has, apparently, been left out of some of the reproductions found online). Overall, the essay is masterfully written, and well worth reading in its entirety.
Oh, and "plucky" is a word that needs to grow into regular usage. Who's with me?
