The overexamined life is not worth blogging
(Will respond to all those who asked for books shortly! Apologies for delay.)
Have been wondering what to do with My Life (personally, professionally, creatively - most ways apart from sartorially). But at the same time, I'm wondering if that kind of question is something I only ask when I'm not at my best. It's not really a quest for meaning, just a melancholy-long-withdrawing whinge.
I consulted Mr Russet and he wisely pointed out that 'What should I do with My Life' might be a productive question, or it might something for the mind to obsessively fiddle with: he phrased this as 'tool' v. 'Rubik's cube'. The one could produce anything from a boiled egg to a landscaped garden, the other will take up most of the afternoon and give you, at best, three yellows in a row and RSI.
That's not even taking into account that earlier, you may have attempted to cheat by peeling off the stickers and replacing them, and accidentally put two of the blues on different sides of a corner piece, creating an unsolvable cube, which is the point at which the metaphor becomes tortuous.
So I've been thinking 'Tool or Rubik's cube? Tool or Rubik's cube?' Which is fun and interesting.
However, now I'm wondering if that question isn't a useful task of discernment, but a second-rate spin-off version of the first question - something for my brain to fiddle with, but even less likely to produce anything enjoyable or useful. A Rubik's snake, if you will.
And I think this final question is itself a Rubik's Magic - a third-generation concern which is dizzying and confounding. However, it'll be fine, because the question will soon spring apart into a nest of plastic plates and fishing wire, allowing me to return, contented, to my usual pursuits.
Have been wondering what to do with My Life (personally, professionally, creatively - most ways apart from sartorially). But at the same time, I'm wondering if that kind of question is something I only ask when I'm not at my best. It's not really a quest for meaning, just a melancholy-long-withdrawing whinge.
I consulted Mr Russet and he wisely pointed out that 'What should I do with My Life' might be a productive question, or it might something for the mind to obsessively fiddle with: he phrased this as 'tool' v. 'Rubik's cube'. The one could produce anything from a boiled egg to a landscaped garden, the other will take up most of the afternoon and give you, at best, three yellows in a row and RSI.
That's not even taking into account that earlier, you may have attempted to cheat by peeling off the stickers and replacing them, and accidentally put two of the blues on different sides of a corner piece, creating an unsolvable cube, which is the point at which the metaphor becomes tortuous.
So I've been thinking 'Tool or Rubik's cube? Tool or Rubik's cube?' Which is fun and interesting.
However, now I'm wondering if that question isn't a useful task of discernment, but a second-rate spin-off version of the first question - something for my brain to fiddle with, but even less likely to produce anything enjoyable or useful. A Rubik's snake, if you will.
And I think this final question is itself a Rubik's Magic - a third-generation concern which is dizzying and confounding. However, it'll be fine, because the question will soon spring apart into a nest of plastic plates and fishing wire, allowing me to return, contented, to my usual pursuits.