mission accomplished

i did it. i completed 'the goethe project'....give or take a few days. for the most part, i blogged every day for the past 30 days, reflecting on beauty and meaning through some aspect of art, music or literature.

what did i learn from this practice?

1) beauty is everywhere. everywhere. this is nothing new but all too easily forgotten. as cheesy as it sounds, sometimes we really are too busy to stop and smell the roses. maybe we begin to find the roses annoying, or we just tell ourselves we hate roses anyway. and we barrel onwards, frantic and frazzled.

this past month was one of the craziest months i've ever experienced, in the sense that all things personal and professional culminated in one massive consuming storm of a schedule. how fitting that the goethe project forced me to stop and meditate each day--even for a few minutes, on things beautiful and life-giving.

2) insight comes with discipline and the rigor of intentionality. surface observation is easy: the grass is green, the water is cold, the cat is fat. but to connect the dots between the details, to analyze and slice through the obvious to reveal the core - that is quite challenging. i sometimes have the eyes to see but not the heart to feel. other times, i feel things strongly but totally miss the forest for the trees. i think practicing both capacities in tandem and learning to give things time (such a valuable trait!) builds insight.

3) both beauty and despair point to the world that ought to be. both feed the sour ache inside us, the longing to be where all this beauty comes from or where sorrow and despair have no place.

4) it's fun to be writing more consistently again, even it's just a blurb here and there.


i hope to be blogging more...even if not daily, then at least more frequently. more than that, i hope this practice began building a more consistent habit of appreciation and meditation particularly in the throes of busyness.


on another note, happily searching through amazon.com for books i want to purchase this summer when i'm home. here's what i have so far:

voluntary simplicity: toward a way of life that is outwardly simple, inwardly rich

a way of working: the spiritual dimension of craft

the $12 million stuffed shark: the curious economics of contemporary art

four seasons in five senses: things worth savoring (i am especially excited about this book - reminds me of writing assignments in college where we had to write descriptively about mundane activities such as making a peanut butter sandwich, eating a peach, etc.)

hmmmm. apparently all the books i want to get are non-fiction and possess super-long titles.


cups of coffee: 1 1/2

mood:  fidgety

simplicity and work

"Simplicity (as greater directness, clarity, and unpretentiousness) can transform our approach to work in a variety of ways. . . . First, our relationship with our work is enormously simplified when our livelihood makes a genuine contribution both to ourselves and to the human family. It is through our work that we find opportunity to develop our skills, relate with others in shared tasks, and contribute to the larger society. If our work is directly contributory, it can be a source of great satisfaction and great learning. It was Thomas Aquinas, I think, who said: 'There can be no joy of life without joy of work.' Our relationship with our work is enormously simplified when we move from an intention of 'making a killing for myself' to that of 'earning a living in a way that contributes to the well-being of all.' . . . . Without the clarifying frame of reference provided by sensing the contribution of our work to the well-being of the world, it is immensely more difficult to find satisfaction and fulfillment in our work."

-- Duane Elgin, Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich

"There can be no joy of life without joy of work."  hmmmmm.......

cups of coffee: 2 1/2

mood: sleeeeeeepy

the big shaggy

NYT ran this eloquent and insightful piece by david brooks yesterday, arguing the necessity of studying the humanities even when economic downturns appeal to our pragmatism to pursue more lucrative fields.

besides arguing the importance of reading and writing skills obtained through humanities studies, brooks touches upon the true heart of why the humanities matter: they tell us of the human experience and enable us to engage with life beyond the superficial. it's not just about constructing systems that better our lives; it's about understanding the very framework of our human nature, delving into our fallacies and splendors. we read shakespeare to laugh at our foibles and ponder our mortality (and fall in love with the english language); plato teaches us rhetoric and challenges us to question what is just and true.

what i found most insightful in the article was when brooks talks about "the big shaggy." here's how he describes it:


Over the past century or so, people have built various systems to help them understand human behavior: economics, political science, game theory and evolutionary psychology. These systems are useful in many circumstances. But none completely explain behavior because deep down people have passions and drives that don’t lend themselves to systemic modeling. They have yearnings and fears that reside in an inner beast you could call The Big Shaggy.

You can see The Big Shaggy at work when a governor of South Carolina suddenly chucks it all for a love voyage south of the equator, or when a smart, philosophical congressman from Indiana risks everything for an in-office affair.

You can see The Big Shaggy at work when self-destructive overconfidence overtakes oil engineers in the gulf, when go-go enthusiasm intoxicates investment bankers or when bone-chilling distrust grips politics.

Those are the destructive sides of The Big Shaggy. But this tender beast is also responsible for the mysterious but fierce determination that drives Kobe Bryant, the graceful bemusement the Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga showed when his perfect game slipped away, the selfless courage soldiers in Afghanistan show when they risk death for buddies or a family they may never see again.


brooks goes on to argue that the observant individual will take the time to really dig into the big shaggy, to recognize the faceless yearning and learn from the realizations and efforts of the men and women who have gone before us in the tides of history. it is about learning who we are as humans so we may be more fully human and live in this world with all its proper tensions.


as someone who graduated with dual degrees in english literature and journalism, i'm a humanities-buff, no question. i think studying the humanities gave me the tools and resources with which to examine the big shaggy, but i don't think a college major is necessarily a prerequisite. perhaps it's more in cultivating an environment that values reading, writing and introspection. i know plenty of accountants and engineers who are very reflective, who enjoy reading keats and listening to bach in their spare time. it's not mutually exclusive.

we do, however, live in a society that is increasingly obsessed with information. the 24-hour news cycle, social media, onslaught of blogs (ironic, even as i blog).....we have become information gluttons. but what good is knowledge without wisdom?



cups of coffee: 1 1/2

mood:  thankful

all my sour-sweet days

Bitter-Sweet

Ah, my dear angry Lord,
Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.

I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love.

- George Herbert


cups of coffee: 2 + 2 cups of green tea

mood: all sorts of full

it's (really) happening!

the soft launch party for 'the urbanity project' was this past saturday. over 75 folks packed out our little studio to hear about the project and catch a preview of artworks and writing that will be included in the book.

it's been a crazy month for our arts group in getting everything together but all so worth it. wow. wow, wow, wow.

it's really happening. :)


cups of coffee: 2

mood: happy to have reached the end of the tunnel...for now

where i cave in and brave the masses to attend the world expo

the crowds were not as bad as i thought, though there were some ridiculously long queues (over 3-hour wait for entry to some of the more popular pavilions! needless to say, i did not wait). certainly overwhelming and surprisingly impressive.

this was my favorite pavilion: the 'urbanian' pavilion. similar in concept to our 'urbanity project.' if you go to the expo, definitely check this pavilion out--extremely thoughtful and well-done.




cups of coffee: working on 1

mood: tiiiiiiiired

the alchemist

finally getting around to reading the alchemist, which is a nice quick read. beautifully and simply written, lovely fable of life. shepherd boy, deserts, camel caravans, ancient pyramids, mysterious old king, a quest to fulfill.....all the elements of magical storytelling. how i love a good story!

i love this quote:

"We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."

cups of coffee: 1

mood: giving in....going to the expo today....