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The web site collecting data for and making notes about noematics ended with this entry, abbreviated for purposes here.

'First and fundamental. Interests--what characterizes and drives people--center around questions, or quests.'

'For my part my question/quest goes something like this.

'Can I increase my general and specific knowledge in the areas of science and epistemology, phenomenology's relation to absolutely accurate understandings of selected things, including the person-as-subject, and writing's role in all of these?

'These interests/quests take me into an inner world and personal or private study, often observations, of the realities of self and others as expressed in words meant to be heard or read. Thus the central aspect of my studies is expression; however, my expression, my words, are for "no audience." They are not other-directed. I invite no one to view my personal evolutions unless for some reason they show an interest, or I carry on temporary and relatively singular relationships for specific purposes--like this one here, just now! [I am writing to be read by you.]

'Life is more than such serious stuff . . . but having said that, the reason for pursuing what I do is greater and greater understanding of the depths of human and spiritual potential. My world is not place specific, unless place provides the impetus for subjects to be looked at oh-so-carefully. This explains why I can reside, as I have, in my own and other cultures without getting too close to or too deep into them.

'Living in different places affords me a buffet of delicacies I can taste and experience, to delight in and entertain myself with. . . .'

'. . . I am not confident, or presumptuous enough, to attempt definitive articulations about stuff and other people, although it is tempting at times. For fear of getting it miserably wrong, I refrain, or restrain, and internalize. After some fermentation, I can employ the insights I gain, and I hope greater understandings, in getting along in the world and its different localities. The world and each of its corners are other--foreign, alien, to be coped with. The premise is that this is so whether one is born-bred in a given place or not. Landing here [or there] and the fact of being equalizes us.

'The conclusion to all this is . . . People are different and they get about different stuff.

'And that different stuff on the one hand makes for a rich stew--life is beautifully messy. On the other hand stuff divides us one from the other fundamentally, sometimes tragically.'

Having thus said and therefore surpassed the initial steps in getting my head and heart around noematics, I would add: These are the reasons for the importance of understanding and appreciating as much stuff as possible. More of the stew will nourish and strengthen us to manage and work the fields that divide.

And I will now correct myself: Enterprises such as education and research and conversations about stuff are still worth doing because salvation lies in the we. To the benefit of one is not the only objective, so Noematics 101 assumes.

The first things that students I have had want to know is who I am and what am I about--before we embark on the journey which is always, or should be, mutually enlightening, sometimes in different ways. Noematics 101 thus begins, and the colloquium, if that is the proper metaphor, is open to frequent participants, occasional visitors, and established authorities.

The next contribution will be what is most often and logically next--what this course (journey) is all about, some preliminary notes about what noematics is, and what are its central concerns.

Welcome.