Exploring Now

Explorations, philosophy, mindfulness

May26

A comment I saw on an fb status: “Alarm clock. I dare you to think of another gadget specifically designed to kill dreams.” But it’s not just the literal alarm clock.

There’s also the daily or weekly figurative alarm clock; the thing that has to be done, by a certain time, some externally imposed requirement, that interrupts or prevents you from doing what you *really* want to do.

And of course the existential alarm clock. There’s an alarm clock … waiting for you. Don’t let it kill your dream. Time is short. Do it now.

Jun9

What we believe is based on what we choose to remember.

Jan27

The fact of the matter is, I want everything we do, that I do personally, that our office does, to be beautiful.  I don’t give a damn whether the client understands, that that’s worth anything, or that the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it is worth anything.  It’s worth it to me.  It’s the way I want to live my life.  I want to make beautiful things.  Even if nobody cares.

Now sometimes, you can’t make everything beautiful, because, you know .. but that’s my intent.  And I’m willing to pay for that - now that’s where money comes in.  Because, you can get much more quickly to an answer, if you don’t worry about those things.  It costs every designer money, to make it beautiful.  Because it means you have to spend more time, have to futz with it, you have to noodle, you have to push, you have to pull, you have to try, you have to do, and that’s all money.  You’re eating up your budget.  But that’s a commitment you either make or you don’t make.

Now there are a lot of firms, a lot of designers, who just .. do the work.  And get paid.  And make a buck.  And are happy.  And there are many, many, designers, I would suspect more, that really do care about those things.  But, I think it’s very important for us not to be under the illusion, that anybody else cares.

— Saul Bass

Jan6

Josephus— “Even before I could reason, I was overcome by the force of this strange enthusiasm and I turned all my thoughts and feelings to music.  And now the burning desire to understand it possesses me, drives me almost against my will, and day and night lovely melodies sound around me.  Therefore I think I no longer have reason to doubt my inclination.  Nor do the difficulties of the work discourage me, and I hope that with thehelp of good health I shall be able to master it.  I once heard a wise man say: Study is pleasure rather than a task.”

Aloysius— “Perhaps the hope of future riches and possessions induces you to choose this life?  If this is the case, believe me you must change your mind; not Plutus by Apollo rules Parnassus.  Whoever wants riches must take another path.”

Josephus— “No, certainly not.  Please be sure that I have no other object than to pursue my love of music, without any thought of gain.  I remember also that my teacher often told me one should be content with a simple way of life and strive rather for proficiency and a good name than for wealth, for virtue is its own reward.”

—Johann Joseph Fux’s Gradus Ad Parnassum

1 notes

#music #art #learning #ancient

Oct17

You gotta figure out what you want, what you Really want. Not ‘“what you want from among the choices Everyone else has given you”’

#purpose #outsidethebox

Oct15

The arts, especially, address the idea of aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak. When you are present in the current moment. When you are resonating with the excitement of this thing you are experiencing. When you are Fully Alive.

An anesthetic is when you shut your senses off, and deaden yourself to what’s happening.  We’re getting our children through education by anesthetizing them. 

And I think we should be doing the exact opposite. We shouldn’t be putting them to sleep. We should be waking them up to what they have inside of themselves.

— Sir Ken Robinson

Oct14

If there’s a lot of things you want to do, and you’re not having enough time, get to those things by choosing simplicity over complexity.

Complexity adds hurdles, makes things take longer, makes things less achievable, doesn’t necessarily increase intrinsic value, often even gives you a convenient excuse not to do it.  If you really want to get to more those things, let go of the complexity, don’t let yourself waste time on minutiae, let go the perfection and the idealistic, the way it could be, the way it should be, and focus on the way it can be.  Find a way, a simpler way, and get some movement, get to it.

If you can find a simpler route for the goal, always choose that over the complex route.  Choose simplicity and just get to it.

7 notes

#letgo #simplify

Oct13

Oct12

Oct10

The purpose and meaning of life, is to find out what YOUR purpose is, to find what has meaning for YOU, and to DO THAT, instead of doing what Everybody Says you should do

#purpose

Oct9