The Elegance of Links

 During the process of editing my meditative walking website, I was debating about whether or not I should insert quotations from an article or essay or simply insert a link for others to read at their leisure. There is something special about linking, however; it is more than simply a reference or an acknowledgment. In fact, it positions what I am doing less as an isolated work than as a portal or a gateway to many others' work lying outside the scope of the website.
   For a long time, I have thought about what's so attractive about using social media to link to other social media. Is it a form of pandering to others, or might it reflect a laziness in the sense of refusing to select parts that matter to me and summarizing my thoughts about it? I sometimes do feel that providing a link or "cut and paste" features can be a lazy substitute for doing the work of selecting and commenting on the research that I want to present to others. It doesn't in any way reflect how I feel about the article or what resonated with me the most. This explains my reluctance to engage with these sources. On the other hand, links can be personal reminders for healing resources that meant something to me and had a positive impact on my life. It's a little bit like having a "favorite playlist" in a literary form on a website or a blog, where I can organize my favorite articles according to their subject areas. This becomes a form of artful presentation that, like a "remix", draws from others to produce new forms of meaning or forms.