A Move to Simpler Things
April 2, 2008 – 3:45 pmAs you may have already guessed, I’ve revamped and streamlined my blog. I realized that I avoided blogging because the previous template was just too much. Over the last many weeks I’ve come to several realizations.
1. Sometimes simple is best. Complexity brings with it more choice. More choice can be taxing.
2. Each commitment brings with it additional responsibilities. No is the fastest way to maintain simplicity.
3. Fear is not a useful, long-term motivator. Scaring myself doesn’t really get me where I need to be, and I end up exhausting myself, too.
4. I like traveling by Amtrak. Everything is much slower on Amtrak than either flying or driving.
5. We’re here on earth to be kind to one another and help each other get where need to be.
6. Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” works in the city as well as the rural midwest.
7. I want to work my story, not find a story that fits my work.
8. I’m developing a passion for surrealist literature.
9. In the end, I will die and become one of the billions of nameless, faceless people who have gone before me. Despite the greater proliferation of information, I believe I will become, in death, more obscure than many who have come before me.
3 Responses to “A Move to Simpler Things”
I really love #3. I have felt that way for a very long time. I read somewhere that there are only 2 fundamental motivators — love and fear. Each of those two can take on many forms, but they all boil down to just those two. I try, very hard, to be motivated by love (I fail often).
I also feel #9.
By Denise on Apr 4, 2008
Denise,
Thanks.
Re #3. I am reading now books by the american surrealist Steve Erickson. He creates apocalyptic, frighting environments in which people are driven by love. Even in such chaotic conditions as the destruction of LA, Our Ecstatic Days for instance, Erickson’s characters always transform themselves or are transformed by love.
By Jay on Apr 4, 2008
I smiled at number 7 because I wouldn’t have it any other way. Also, the top ten seem to be standard comments as I recall hearing a few of them myself over the years. After awhile, I just accept ignorance and sing Angie Stone’s “Life Goes On”.
By Frances on Apr 5, 2008