Years ago — I don’t remember where, unfortunately — I read an old Chinese Proverb: “Nobody’s family can hang out the sign, ‘NOTHING THE MATTER HERE.’” I immediately set Owen, who was only 3 at the time, to the task of hand-lettering us a sign that said just that. (I found it in a box and hung it up in my office yesterday.)
“Are you amplified to rock?
Are you hoping for a contact?”
—Guided By Voices, “Hardcore UFOs”
I haven’t written a book in this office yet. Yesterday, my wife hung my guitars and my Guided By Voices poster and then she hung up a blank bulletin board with my father-in-law’s 3 Axioms:
And it’s been nice and wet and cloudy in the mornings:
And it’s starting to feel like it’s time to really get down to business around here.
Count the days that we have wasted from the start
Speak the words and build a playground
In your head
If you are having trouble reading right now, here is what works for me:
1. Keep a book at the breakfast table and read it in the morning instead of looking at the news on your phone.
2. Be promiscuous. Read more than one book at a time until one pulls you into monogamy.
3. Quit more books than you finish. Read lots of short books until you work up the concentration for longer ones.
4. Read poetry! First thing in the morning! It’s perfect with a cup of coffee.
5. Read trash! No guilty pleasures!
6. Read old books! Read old favorites! (Every time you re-read a book you’re reading a new book.)
7. Read to your kids! If you don’t have kids, FaceTime someone else’s kids and read to them! (Optional: Steal books from your kids and read them.)
8. STOP READING BOOKS THAT AREN’T DOING IT FOR YOU. SERIOUSLY. STOP.
9. Try writing a book. It’ll make you want to quit and read instead. (“Read more than you write, live more than you read.”)
10. If you can’t read a book right now give yourself a break and just watch TV.
“Imagination is when you close your eyes and think of a door.”
—Dave Hickey
“This is about lack of imagination.”
—Ali Khan, formerly of the C.D.C.
Imagination is simply the ability to make images in your head.
If you’re blessed with an imagination, it’s part of your job to bring better images to the world.
Some wisdom from F.B.I Special Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks:
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Everyday, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it, don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the Men’s store. A catnap in your office chair. Or two cups of good, hot black coffee.
Filed under: routine
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