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I have been aware for a long time, long before my father
died, that his work would remain mostly obscured by the way it was written and
presented. As I've already pointed out; this didn't cause him a moment's concern
because he couldn't have cared less how it was taken, or even whether it was
taken at all (or seen).... I respected his total commitment to the work itself,
and his amazing internal self-sufficiency and self-directedness. But I was
personally frustrated by the injustice embodied by the facts-- that his
work was labeled inaccurately as either mathematical biology (listed under M,
for Math) or as Systems Theory, etc.... where it would never be seen by
biologists or philosophers.... Plus the fact that his insistence on using so
much mathematical notation in his illustrations (as examples of the ideas he was
putting forward) would automatically make a majority of browsers at the
bookstore close the book and put it back on the shelf because of the appearance
of a need for expertise in mathematics in order to understand the concepts. The
reason those things bothered me is that his ideas make so much sense to me, and
it struck me as a deep injustice in the fabric of the cosmos that the ideas
would simply pass unnoticed by the people most wanting to find them, unless
something was done to remediate the "camouflage" that the ideas were unwittingly
wrapped up in.
When he died in 1998, my father left his work to me. His words to
me on the subject, when he had mentioned that he had written his will in that
way, were; "You don't have to DO anything with it, Kid. I don't need you to
spend your time on my work or to spend your energy on breathing "life" into it.
Either it will have a life of its own based on its own merits or it won't. If
the work doesn't develop its own life, it probably wasn't meant to anyway." I
envied his equanimity over the prospect of his life's work just disappearing!
That's what happens when you spend your life doing what you love and loving it
for very personal reasons. He was a lucky guy, my Dad. But there is no way I'm
going to let his life's work languish in obscurity, knowing what I know about
how applicable these ideas are to just about every avenue of human thought and
endeavor. I spent a great deal of time hanging out with my father over my
lifetime. In my adult years, more of that time was inclusive of his work-- both
as we travelled to meetings or symposia together, or as he was writing new
stuff. I became a writer myself, after school, and the nature of that beast is
similar no matter what kind of creative writing one is doing. Therefore, writing
is something else that we shared, and it was discussed along with all the rest.
The friendship that grew between my father and me (out of a combination of the
deep familial bond, a similarity in basic brain wiring, a compatibility of
temperaments, and a creative approach to the world) was the bedrock on which I
built my own foundations. This means, among other things, that I am a writer who
has a comprehensive understanding of Rosennean concepts and an even deeper
and more comprehensive understanding of the man, Robert Rosen. Somehow, it just
seems fated to me that I will be writing a lot of material translating my
father's ideas into various other "languages", meaning the languages of
philosophy, ecology, medicine, social systems, and so on... so that the ideas
will finally be accessible to their many different audiences. I also encourage
anyone else who expresses an interest in writing papers based on Rosennean
concepts to do so, and make it their own; develop things further, create
something new out of the basics that my father developed. That's what
"developing a life of its own" means.
The first half of this year is already earmarked to be devoted, in
an intensive way, to getting my father's "stuff" out there. That's
the task I've set myself. (I can almost hear him reproaching me for it, too!)
The second half of the year will be devoted to my own "stuff"(fiction and
art)(which I am always working on, all the time, anway...).
Judith
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