We
need a punctuation type that represents mindful writing, a device that can
serve two purposes: indicate that mindfulness occurred as we wrote and
like a bell remind us to be mindful.
I often ask my students to build their own (regular, not mindful) punctuation, to design a new symbol that
meets a creative or rhetorical need as of yet unfulfilled by conventional
punctuation. Students come up with a punctuation symbol, a name of the device,
and a usage rule.
What might mindful punctuation be?
Several existing
punctuation types already support mindfulness.
Question mark: Asking questions while
writing is helpful because it suggests a form of intrapersonal or internal listening.
A call & response. Use the question mark and really hear it in an early
draft, and you're likely to let yourself listen, receptively and
nonjudgmentally, to the nonverbal for the next moment. You're able to release
your grip on the verbal, your clinging to language, and return to a moment
where there is no language, to formlessness. (Because formlessness and form are
in constant interplay, this stance paradoxically puts writers in touch with
more writing often pretty quickly.)
Dash: The dash suggests the fragmentary, the incomplete, the partial.
It also shows respect for your intrapersonal dialog because you're willing to
record a fragment without feeling compelled to elaborate and without discarding
it because it is incomplete. You’re not imposing the false expectation that
every present moment of writing yield a complete sentence. You’re less tied up
in preconceptions, rigid thinking, and product outcome.
Ellipsis: An ellipsis suggests that your intrapersonal
or internal dialog, as with the question mark, has moved on to a razed,
nonverbal space. It has "trailed off" into formlessness and doesn't
cling to form (written material), and as a result, working with ellipses can
reduce the writing-related suffering that comes from mindless behavior. What differentiates an ellipsis from a question mark is that it's more accepting of emptiness. Ask a question, expect some sort of response (eventually). An ellipsis is like a wanderer headed solo and straight into a landscape of silence (even more acceptance of formlessness).
What's missing?—... If I were to design a mindful punctuation device, it would indicate something about writers' bodies as they write. It would be a symbol of the body's presence
and a reminder to include physical sensations in observed present awareness.
Appearance-wise, the symbol would probably represent the breath, maybe a
diamond-shaped portal or perhaps a curlicue.
Implementation rules for
this device would allow it to be used anywhere in a sentence (start, end,
middle) or paragraph, without limits on the frequency of usage.
Just as a comma
ordinarily tells us how to act around information and imagery (pause, stop for
a moment, breath), this device would focus on the mindful breath.
Unlike the comma, this new device would direct the writer and reader to the host of physical sensations attendant
to the act of breathing.
The device could achieve
something that’s frequently absent from conventional writing experience—embodiment.
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