“We need always to separate the problem of virtue from the problem of lack of control.”
– Jim Harrison, Off to the Side
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“Writing is a matter strictly of developing oneself. You compete only with yourself. You develop yourself by writing.”
– John McPhee, Draft No. 4
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Manifestos and grand proclamations are best self directed.
Prescriptions are personal and who do we know better than ourselves?
My focus is on creating systems, rather than lofty goals.
It’s a change of habit rather than a change in principles.
If I wish to change a behaviour it’s simpler if I detach from that behaviour any moral judgement.
And how do I know what needs to change?
By writing. The pen doesn’t lie if you use it enough.
By repeatedly asking questions the truth emerges: writing is a gentle self-interrogation.
Eventually I find out what I want, or don’t want.
Along the way I hope to discover who I am. But I acknowledge this is the task of a lifetime, not to be found in a single line.
If I err in my daily systems I am training myself to resist the reaction of blame. Rather it is sensible to recognise that what makes us human is our fallibility.
Perfection is for machines. I am content moving in this organic, haphazard way.
Question and answer. Step and falter. Proud and bowed. Fast and slow. Up and down. Smile and frown.
I put down the plan and create a map instead, by studying my fading steps to the present.
There is no straight line to the self.
Conversations With Quotations 