Jay Matthews

Through fantasy we repair, compensate, and transform. For a few moments, we rise above the reality of life and, subsequently, the reality of death.

Alright, I thought. Writing is about working harder and faster than everyone else. It’s about overwhelming the world with the sheer volume of words you can churn out. It’s about hitting wordcounts and it’s definitely about making fun of anyone that mentions “writer’s block.” ... I loved writing and I was doing what they said you have to do if you... See more

“I ask you, dear sir, to have patience with all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves, like closed rooms, like books written in a foreign language. Don’t try to find the answers now. They cannot be given anyway, because you would not be able to live them. For everything is to be lived. Live the questions now.... See more

Now the questions begin. What am I free to do alone and what do I have to share?

And there’s the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look for something better? I don’t know— is it? Who can make that decision but you? But even by DECIDING TO LOOK, you go a long way toward making the choice.

on erotic intelligence

At first, I just thought — I understood it intuitively, but really, there was nothing substantive and scientific behind it. I did understand that animals have sex. It is the instinct. It is the base. But

we have an erotic mind. And that erotic mind, it is infinite. And eroticism thrives on the ritual and the celebration

... See more

Psychoanalysis is profoundly influenced by and in turn influences the social, economic, cultural, and political contexts in which it is practiced. Although created as a therapy for individual suffering, psychoanalysis has also always contained important implications for the progressive development of a more humane society and has defined its cures... See more

The colonists followed the same trails to expand governance, and on the other hand, they required fine colonial engineering that eventually including land surveys, anthropological and topographic investigation, and cartography. In this land of hardship, the implementation of governance techniques needed to create a fictional collective... See more

When approached with caution, labels can genuinely be useful to us and others. We just have to periodically check in with ourselves to make sure we are not being controlled and consumed by our labels.