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We’ll see
Today’s letter is titled “We’ll see!”
“We’ll see” is the refrain in the Charlie Wilson’s War version of the 2000-year-old Chinese parable about the old man who lost his horse. (Bluey used the same refrain, while Alan Watts used “Maybe.”) It’s a favorite parable of mine and one I think about often.
Here’s how Ursula K. Le Guin’s translation of the Tao Te Ching puts it:
Alas! Misery lies under happiness,
and happiness sits on misery, alas!
Who knows where it will end?
Nothing is certain.The normal changes into the monstrous,
the fortunate into the unfortunate,
and our bewilderment goes on and on.(I am someone who believes in embracing bewilderment.)
Read the rest here.
Kids ask the darndest questions
Tuesday’s newsletter was all about the wild and wonderful questions that kids ask:
I really think that the best artists and scientists are grown-ups who somehow manage to retain their ability to ask child-like questions.
In Harold Gardner’s Creating Minds, he writes:
“I contend that the creator is an individual who manages a most formidable challenge: to wed the most advanced understandings achieved in a domain with the kinds of problems, questions, issues, and sensibilities that most characterized his or her life as a wonder-filled child.”
Read more in “Questions without answers.”
Disintegration
This poem was inspired by listening to The Cure’s Disintegration at top volume in my studio.
I put it at the top of last Friday’s newsletter, “A New Appreciation.”
Your next best friend
Here is an old blackout poem I stuck in Tuesday’s letter, “Your next best friend,” which is about making good friends — with people and books.
We spend a lot of our lives as readers on the search for new books. But how many great books are already waiting for us on our shelves? How many favorite authors would we form deep relationships with if we simply read or re-read a few more of their books?
I really like the way this one turned out. You can read the whole thing here.
The Inflatable Man
“The Inflatable Man” is a metaphor Meghan came up with on one of our morning walks. I thought maybe there was an essay or a newsletter in it, and went looking for them around town. Once I shot this footage, I decided to make a Weird Little Something out of it. I believe we should all make Weird Little Somethings once in a while.
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