The Gap, Unknown Friends, To-do Lists, and More
Friday, November 3, 2023
Happy Friday everyone!
Here are 10 things I found interesting from the last week or so.
Let Go and Answer the Door
To start this week’s newsletter, I’d first like to say RIP to Joseph Campbell. October 30th was the anniversary of his death in 1987. Campbell was an amazing teacher and writer and changed how we think about stories and life. One of my favorite quotes of his is a simple reminder:
“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”
Let go. Slow down. Breath. Relax. Don’t get distracted seeking. The Good, with a capital G, is coming — if you allow it. Campbell’s words remind me of another quote from one of my favorite books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig:
“The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”
If you let go of planning, strategizing, and seeking to find the Truth and simply answer the door when it knocks, the Truth, the Good, whatever you want to call it, will find you.
The Gap and the Wisdom of Ira Glass
Ira Glass, the host and producer of This American Life, has a great quote for beginners early on in their creative pursuits. As someone who feels like a beginner very early on the path of becoming a writer, I try to remind myself his wisdom. He said:
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
In pursuing creative work — writing, drawing, designing, building, etc. — things are going to take a while. And that is OK. Ironically, as much as I or anyone else wants things to happen fast, I think at a deeper level, we want more for things to happen slowly, for things to develop and take as long as they need to. The challenge is giving ourselves permission to go slowly, to not let ourselves feel rushed, so that in our pursuits, our times of seeking, we allow ourselves to learn to let go again and again. This is what I think Glass meant when he said, “You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Unknown Friends
In fighting your way through to let go and answer the door when the Truth comes knocking, there are times when you feel lonely. Austin Kleon wrote, “Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.” Kleon’s books are on the subject of creativity, but I think he really meant not just creative people but everyone. Sitting around and doing nothing intentionally while letting your best ideas come to you is an effective practice. Paradoxically, sometimes not working and letting your mind wander serves as one of the best productivity hacks there is. Working or not working, there are times when you may feel isolated. But Carl Jung has a great quote on this too:
“No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you may feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown friends will come and seek you.”
Sometimes it’s the Truth in the form of unknown friends that comes knocking when you feel the most alone. It’s at such times when we really should consider letting go of what it is we’re doing and set some time aside to just be — even at the expense of meeting deadlines. Perhaps then it’s the breaks we take from our work, the gaps of productivity, that help us close The Gap, as Glass talks about, between having good taste and creating something that is as good as our ambitions. By doing so, your journey will become an even longer one to fight through, which may, in turn, be exactly what you seek.
To-Do Lists
All of this — Campbell’s advice, Pirsig’s passage, Jung and Kleon’s thoughts — makes me think about scheduling, to-do lists, and getting things done. Theo Von, someone I’ve mentioned in this newsletter before, posed a question once that I wanted to share. He said:
“That’s what it’s like these days, things get so busy that I don’t know if I’m living sometimes or if I’m doing a to-do list. And then I don’t know whose to-do list it is sometimes. I don’t know if it’s my own things, that I want to be doing. Is it things I feel like people want me to be doing? Like whose expectations am I living up to? And it can be anything. Anything you’re doing throughout your day or in your plans or in your week or something like current job or undertaking or relationship even. It could be anything that you’re doing or committing yourself to and I just ask myself sometimes, whose goal is this? Whose expectation, is this mine?”
I think Theo Von’s question is worth pondering. Why? Because you can let go of the life you’re pursuing to accept the one waiting for you, you can answer the door when the Truth knocks, you can do your work truly and conscientiously and take gaps when needed to close The Gap, and you can create a schedule and a to-do list and a deadline to make sure you fulfill all of that such that unknown friends and great ideas will seek you. All that may be true, but as Theo Von alludes to, it’s worth it to stop and really question yourself on whose goals are the ones you’re pursuing and whose expectations you are trying to live up to. Funny enough, sometimes I think Theo Von is as much of a philosopher as any of those people mentioned earlier. The reason is that as much as his one-liners on TikTok make me laugh, and they always do, he also has moments that really make you stop and think and reflect on your life. Perhaps that’s the genius of Theo Von.
To Be or To Do?
To conclude this train of thought, I’d like to share another quote (lots of quotes this week, I know) by the late fighter pilot John Boyd:
“Tiger, one day you will come to a fork in the road and you’re going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. He raised his hand and pointed. “If you go that way you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments.” Then Boyd raised his other hand and pointed in another direction. “Or you can go that way and you can do something- something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide you want to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won’t have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a difference. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That’s when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do? Which way will you go?
This. If there was ever a question to ponder, this is it: to be or to do?
Victor Wembanyama is the Real Slenderman
Let’s change gears so I can remind you the NBA is BACK BABAAY! The league’s stars are shining bright, but nobody has caught more of my attention than Victor Wembanyama — in particular, his last two games against the Phoenix Suns. On November 1st, the 19-year-old had 18 points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes and even dressed up as The Slenderman for Halloween. Then, on November 3rd, Wemby went off: 38 points and 10 rebounds. He became the third teenager in NBA history to score 38 points in a game. The other two? Lebron James and Kevin Durant. Here’s a great edited shot by artist Jeff Cole from one of Wembanyama’s games vs Durant and the Suns.
Congratulations to Lionel Messi
Messi won his 8th Balloon d’Or trophy this year, recognizing him as the greatest soccer player in the world. Messi is so good that since winning his first trophy in 2009, he has now won 12% of all the Balloon d’Or trophies since the French news magazine France Football began giving out the award starting in 1956. My students at the English center where I work ask me all the time, “Teacher, Messi or Ronaldo?” Can we please end this debate once and for all? Messi is the GOAT. Here’s another great edited shot by artist Jeff Cole of Messi and Michael Jordan.
Making Art Out of Tape Jobs
I came across a cool video this week of Kobe Bryant talking about his former trainers, including Gary Vitti, and how he made art out of the tape jobs he did for Kobe. Check out the video here.
Favorite Song of the Week
My favorite song of the week goes to On My Mind by Jorja Smith X Preditah. Yeah, it’s a few years old, but it’s still really good. Check out the video here.
A Journal Prompt For This Week
To end this week’s newsletter, I’d like to share a journaling prompt I came across this week to try out:
What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
Enjoy the weekend and see you next Friday.
-Garrett
Excellent as always!