Jay Matthews

But I don’t think obsessive hustling makes good literature, or good writers, because writing is only the second part of the work. Most of the work is just existing. Writing, like, I suspect, any creative art, is just an attempt to transcribe infinity. And you have to sink into infinity slowly.

Writing, art, creation: this is smithwork. You set your fire; you use your bellows, your pen, your paper, to heat it to the right temperature. You set your base metal in the flames, heat it until it is white. Then you begin your transformation.

"So it's taken some 4.6 billion years for a cosmic swirl of gas and dust to evolve into a planet fit for butterflies and children...This intricate web of life exists because Earth operates as a system in which everything is connected and interdependent. The word 'complex' does not begin to describe the workings of this system ."

But I don’t hate writing, and I don’t think most writers do either. They hate that an art form that’s all about noticing and feeling has been turned into just another hustle job full of quotas and shame.

When we recognise our ongoing participation in the sort of interaction that drama models, we are drawn to look at the process from an ethical perspective. A key issue here may be, ‘How do I sustain myself within the intricately balanced network of relationships (that makes up the drama, in life)?’

To survive, any society requires moral legitimization. The philosophy of liberal individualism serves to legitimize capitalism because it espouses ideals that suggest that all human rights and needs are respected under its terms. If it were generally recognized that capitalism is a system of dominance and exploitation that requires the enrichment... See more

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