WSJ: How does the notion of aging and death affect the work you do? Has it become more urgent?
CM: Your future gets shorter and you recognize that. In recent years, I have had no desire to do anything but work and be with [son] John. I hear people talking about going on a vacation or something and I think, what is that about? I have no desire to go on a trip. My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That’s heaven. That’s gold and anything else is just a waste of time.
WSJ: How does that ticking clock affect your work? Does it make you want to write more shorter pieces, or to cap things with a large, all-encompassing work?
CM: I’m not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.
WSJ: The last five years have seemed very productive for you. Have there been fallow periods in your writing?
CM: I don’t think there’s any rich period or fallow period. That’s just a perception you get from what’s published. Your busiest day might be watching some ants carrying bread crumbs. Someone asked Flannery O’Connor why she wrote, and she said, “Because I was good at it.” And I think that’s the right answer. If you’re good at something it’s very hard not to do it. In talking to older people who’ve had good lives, inevitably half of them will say, “The most significant thing in my life is that I’ve been extraordinarily lucky.” And when you hear that you know you’re hearing the truth. It doesn’t diminish their talent or industry. You can have all that and fail.
via Cormac McCarthy on The Road – WSJ.com.
rePost::Complaining is like a drug. We get addicted to the euphoria of self importance, but inevitably it leaves us unfulfilled.
I have to confess that I know I’m a little less fun to hang with the past year, I was complaining a lot, I get irritated easily and I developed this passive aggressive stance that I’m working towards eliminating. this was a nice read.
One reason is I (like most people) really enjoy complaining. It makes us feel more important. But like a drug, the high wears off and we are left with nothing truly accomplished. We also are afraid of making our goals less vague. If they remain vague and cloudy, then we can’t really fail at them, can we?
This year, I’m back on the path described above. Back to nixing this habit of complaining. Back to visualizing some future awesome accomplishments behind me. So far so good, and I’m happy again with the results.
via Inkling Corporate Blog – Business Intelligence Using Prediction Markets: Complaining is like a drug. We get addicted to the euphoria of self importance, but inevitably it leaves us unfulfilled..
Holiday Reading::Published platforms : Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose
Published platforms
December 23, 2009 by mlq3
Filed under Daily Dose
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See my previous entries, Platforms and Platform time begins November 30.
In chronological order, the platforms thus far, are the following.
via Published platforms : Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose.
Manolo Quezon is a gem. He has compiled all published platforms of Presidential Candidates to the 2010 National Elections of the Philippines.
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rePost::Letters of Note: Your own private book event
Well, tell your dead grandpa the old German (Goethe) saying: “The longer you look, the more stars you see…” I prefer that to going crazy. It’s the same with meditation, how you can find the entire world in a single object or activity. Once you commit your life to a passion, you find that things open up. Still, it seems like a paradox. Most people never fully commit to their art, out of fear of losing options. But commitment brings more options than you’d ever lose.
via Letters of Note: Your own private book event.
Read the whole letter. This was written by Chuck Palahniuk. (The Author of The Fight Club.)
I loved reading the whole thing so hope you see the scanned original. From the marvelous blog Letters of Note!
Love To Read :: Making Light: Pushing back
Pushing back
Posted by Abi Sutherland at 06:36 PM * 31 comments
I gather from the Interwebs that August is going to be a heavy month for health politics. The fight back against any change to the way that America deals with health care and health insurance is starting now, and it’s going to be intense.
They’re going to say it can’t be done, that health insurance and health care are inevitably expensive. They’re going to shriek about rationing, and ignore the fact that the US already rations health care on the basis of ability to pay—one of the most barbaric and obscene metrics conceivable.
And they’re going to say that health care in the rest of the world isn’t really that good. That the American system, for all its flaws, is the best there can be.
via Making Light: Pushing back.