" riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay".

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about character development. It is one of those traits you look for in good writing, but is it something you see in blog posts? In other words, how are the bloggers you follow changing, how are they developing as characters?

I look at myself, as a blogger, as a person; how much have I changed? How does it affect the relationships I'm in? How are the people around me changing? What are the underlying constants in all of this.

In the political realm, we here criticism of Romney flip-flopping and praise for Obama evolving. Does evolving show character development and flip-flopping show a lack of character? Are we, as an American people, ready to elect leaders that are capable of changing?

"To wound the autumnal city. So howled out for the world to give him a name."

I started this blog post with a reference to Finnegans Wake. I continue with Dhalgren. Both have a cyclic nature to them. How does character development fit in a cyclic story? Perhaps it is something that T.S. Eliot points to in his poem, "The Four Quartets":

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Today was a normal sort of day. At church, they are starting a choir. I sang with choirs years ago, and I've returned to sing again, knowing the place for the first time, as my character has developed, or perhaps evolved. At home, I talked politics with friends; again something old and something new, reflecting changes, at the same time. My relationship to home has also changed as we settle into our new house. My relationship with each abode carries certain consistencies and certain changes.

"I've looked at life from both sides now…"