"Which is the right way? Indifference, perhaps. That's not possible; since we are here, we can't help participating; we can't be detached from the manifest world, since we are immersed in it. We cannot reject the world. Then let's take everything seriously; that's equally ridiculous. Or can I be like a tree: but I'm not a tree. Or can I follow the drift of history, in the direction of cosmic evolution? But nobody knows quite what that means. I don't know the basic elements of the game. One ought at least to feel at ease; I cannot, because living is the source of my unease. Anxiety is ignorance. Non-anxiety is also ignorance. I seem to be going around in a circle. Perhaps I'm not going around in a circle. Perhaps there is no circle. I cannot laugh, nor weep, nor sit down, nor lie down, nor get up, nor desire, nor not desire. I am paralyzed." - Eugene Ionesco
Posts filed under Thought
On "Balance"
Why do we say “It’s all about balance!” as if it’s just that simple? As if it’s some sort of "zen” conclusion easily won? As if balance weren’t a working of the muscles? As if balance weren’t tiring and requiring energy and focus?
Have you tried to stand on one foot for a long time? Or tried to balance a broom by its top-end in your hand? Have you seen a baby finally learning to walk? As adults, we forget that the balance to stand or walk came after hours upon hours of practice, falling, failing, and trying again.
Take 2020: the fears of a pandemic combined with social isolation, plus fights for racial equality, plus (in California at least) a freak lightning storm that leads to the state being on fire, plus the upcoming election, plus kids at home if you’re a parent, plus plus plus plus. “It’s all about balance” feels almost laughable in the face of this stack of things we are being asked to hold.
So, sure, it may all be about balance, but remember that balance is hard work. It only comes with ease after you’ve put in the time to master it. And if lately, things seem to keep toppling over, if you seem to keep toppling over, please show yourself the compassion you would a toddler just learning to walk. For we are facing a balancing act in 2020 we’ve never, ever had to face before.
Creativity Quotation #33
“Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became 'geniuses' (as we put it)... They all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole." - Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human
Gowiththeflow
Gowiththeflow is not passive
contrary to how it may sound
It is positioning
and posturing
and placing myself
to heed what the Moment calls for
Creativity Quotation #32
“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence.” - Sherlock Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle