“Grub first then ethics.”

Bertoltd Brecht said that, in outright denial of the religious reminder: “Man does not live by bread alone.” Brecht was right; people can’t absorb much doctrine on an empty stomach.

I thought of his words this morning as I woke up with a firm resolve. BLOG FIRST. Blog first and then what? Well, almost first. I checked the daily digital news but more fleetingly than usual, and I checked my email - very little as the weekend begins. Wait till Monday. So it’s blog time. Blog before grub. Actually, I’ve had breakfast. I’m always hungry after my swim.

I had saved, as a reward for my patience and yours, a few file folders I had accumulated:, all labelled: “Ideas”, “Blogs”, “Seed Beds”, “Files” and “On an On and On, a veritable treasure trove of thoughts that I could pass on with commentary. Unfortunately. It’s now an hour later or longer , and I have just riffed through the first collection. It comprises mainly, reviews of books that I subsequently bought and read, intending to insert the review in the book it belonged to. That was easy and enjoyable. But I found a few reviews of books I never tracked down, and now I want to. I want to NOW. And I want to google them, one writer, in particular, but it’s almost noon, and I am getting hungry. (What’s that about grub?) Oh dear.

I came across a review of a book I didn’t get, The Information: A History. A Theory. A Flood. published in 2011, by James Gleick, illustrated, 526 pp, Pantheon Books, $29.95, and it sounds necessary. But there’s a cautionary quote from the reviewer ( Geoffrey Nunberg) in a sidebar:

“Even in the 17th century, people felt overwhelmed by what Leibniz called ‘the horrible mass of books.” Overwhelmed. Yes, we know what it means, but look again:

overwhelm verb [ with obj. ]

1 bury or drown beneath a huge mass of something, especially water: floodwaters overwhelmed hundreds of houses.

• give too much of something to; inundate: they were overwhelmed by farewell messages.

2 have a strong emotional effect on: I was overwhelmed with guilt.

3 defeat completely: [ with obj. and complement ] : the Irish side was overwhelmed 15–3 by Scotland.

• be too strong for; overpower: the Stilton doesn't overwhelm the flavour of the trout.

This, you see, is what I have been suffering from lately, as I wade through my files. How am I ever going to get my blogs in order? Let alone my files?