The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)
Category: Inspiration
The reason I’m here, the reason I was born, the reason I’m on this earth, is to write songs.
Joan Armatrading, Joan Armatrading: Me Myself I [57:45]
Admire the clarity of purpose. Joan Armatrading speaking right at the end of this fascinating documentary on BBC4.
Continue reading “Clarity: the reason I’m here…”
Be more wolf, less sheep, with Nicholas Bate…
7. more wolf
8. less sheep
9. (although no reason
10. -no reason at all-
11. why you can’t be a
12. nice wolf.)
13. But how?
14. Read so much you can out-think anyone;
15. Think so much you can out-solve anything;
16. Solve so much you know exactly the Life you want.
17. Write so much you tumble with ideas;
18….
The wolf vs. sheep debate reminds me of this cartoon from Hugh MacLeod at Gaping Void (a copy of which hangs over my desk)…
Image by Andrea Bohl from Pixabay
Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (7.27)
On September 22nd, 1735, Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister (although the title was not used until much later), moved into Number Ten Downing Street (although it did not have that number then). Its famous door (through which it was not then entered) has become an iconic symbol of Britain’s democratic government.
The Adam Smith Institute’s Madsen Pirie on a famous house and its early resident.
The residence at 10 Downing Street that he occupied is not what it seems. Walpole had the architect William Kent connect two houses, making the Downing Street front one effectively a passage through to the main building behind it. A corridor connects it to the Cabinet Office much further up Whitehall, and there is a tunnel under Whitehall that we’re not supposed to know about that connects it to the Defence Ministry…
In many ways Ten Downing Street resembles the British constitution it safeguards. There is much more to it than the outward appearance might suggest, and it adapts and changes over time to meet the new challenges it is called upon to face. Yet it preserves the outward form, providing reassurance of continuity. It is modest, rather than grandiose, reminding us that the Prime Minister is a person like us, who lives in a house, as we do, rather than some god-like remote dignitary.
And, more on the official government site, here.
Photo by Jordhan Madec on Unsplash
It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.
Joseph Campbell (1904 – 87), The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Ch 1, para 2)
…with Nicholas Bate.
This is well worth a read.
From…
Continue reading “The Z to A of personal wealth”
There are three things which the gentleman guards against. In youth, when the physical powers are not yet settled, he guards against lust. When he is strong and the physical powers are full of vigour, he guards against quarrelsomeness. When he is old, and the animal powers are decayed, he guards against covetousness.
Confucius (551-479 BC), The Analects, Book XVI, para. 19
Paper or electronic, it’s not a big deal. The key is to capture. Ideas, quotes, references. Things to follow up. Authors to read. A person to contact. Regularly review and consolidate. Private to you. More scrap book, less text book. Start. Write. Daily.
From How To Be Brilliant, here.
Everyone should have a notebook, or several.
Yes, you can dream. You can devote hours to seeking hacks and work-arounds and short-cuts. You can refuse the call and distract yourself with the siren-call of the mundane: the lawn always needs cutting, there’s always more news to read, those books could be tidied and re-ordered.
But, in the end, there is no real escape.
The essential Nicholas Bate reminds us of the basics of Hard Work…
1. What you seek will take hard work.
2. There is no quick fix for health, publication nor financial security.
3. Hard work-once started-feels good.
4. …
Read the rest, here. Then get to work.
Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash