(#42-1) November 12 2014. Am I afraid of death?

ON CREATIVITY AGAIN

“STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING FOR THE MOMENT AND ASK YOURSELF: AM I AFRAID OF DEATH BECAUSE I WON’T BE ABLE TO DO THIS TOMORROW?”

MARCUS AURELIUS.

Every so often, a quote absolutely nails what I feel—and this is such a one. I have been reconciled to dying for quite some time—though not without a period of angst before I came to terms with the inevitable (and the manner of my dying is of some concern—decapitation seems to lack charm) but I will deeply regret dying before getting my publishing business going and making a serious dent in my list of writing projects.

That means I’m shooting for ten more years—but would rather like fifteen (and you needn’t stop there). But, who knows! 

I ran across the Marcus Aurelius quote on an intriguing site called 99.com (“Insights on making ideas happen”—by Behance). I’m not quite sure how I latched on to it, but it is one of my regulars—and rarely fails to surprise.

Its latest piece was written by Paul Jun (a name to note). Here are some extracts. The full piece is worth reading.

7 Pieces of Wisdom That Will Change the Way You Work

Wisdom, in the words of Maria Popova, is knowledge that matters; it has both a practical and moral component to it that enriches our lives and inspires us to act wisely. Because the path to creativity is fraught with uncertainty, fear, and self-doubt, we naturally look to the wisdom of others to stop us from getting off course.

1. Ship and don’t look back

Author Steven Pressfield

In July 2012, I set off to write a short book to sell online. It took me eight months to write and ship it. I patiently waited for the results—praise, recognition, and opportunities. To my surprise, nothing happened, and I felt mortified. There were no downloads, no reviews, and no revenue—just crickets.

In a desperate attempt to understand why I was feeling horrible, I emailed one of my favorite authors, Steven Pressfield.  His response:

What you’re feeling is what everybody feels.  Start something new right away and don’t look back.  Don’t check the grosses, don’t look up the reviews on Amazon. Get used to it.

In “The War of Art,” I tell the story of when I finished my first novel (after about ten years of trying and failing), walked down the street to visit my mentor, Paul Rink, and told him the good news.  He never looked up from his coffee.  ”Good for you,” he said.  ”Start the next one tomorrow.”

My own theory is to have the next one already in progress.  I like to have 30 or 40 pages of the Next Book already done (and have momentum going on it) when I finish the Current Book.

Congrats to you, Paul.  You did good.  You shipped.  I salute you.   Every other member of this select club salutes you.  Get drunk.  Have a party. 

Then start the next one tomorrow.

To believe that any project is the cure to our restlessness, uncertainty, and fear of failure, is borderline egomania and it’s unhelpful for the creative process or creativity in general.

When we “start the next one” it keeps us vigilant for the long haul, to remove the desire for immediate gratification, and to ultimately create a mindset that serves as a foundation for sustained and disciplined creativity by enjoying the process and not the outcome.

It’s also about momentum, because after this project ships, what are you going to do next? It’s easy to sit around and read reviews, but that doesn’t prepare us for a fruitful career. Shipped projects are essentially a reflection of how your skills and mind are evolving. Each project is a step up from the last. Your first project, say, is a level one—not so great. But as long as that project ships, as long as you learn from it and poured your heart into it, your next project can’t help but be better.

4. Build your solid routine

Choreographer Twyla Tharp

In Daily Rituals, author Mason Curry shares choreographer Twyla Tharp’s morning ritual. She says:

I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30 a.m., put on workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirt, and my hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st street and First Avenue, where I work out for two hours. The ritual is not stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.

Think about how your day is structured and what you do versus what you actually need to be doing. Whether it’s waking up early, working for hours, and then going for a walk, you need to find a rhythm—your rhythm. When you create a solid routine, you save your willpower for the stuff that matters.

Through this disciplined, personalized routine, it will help you bring out your best work, to put your hours in deliberate and focused practice, and to learn to pace yourself so you don’t burn yourself out for some faux honorary badge that shows you worked eight hours straight.

Routines will change from time to time due to circumstances. The idea is that you have a routine, something that builds the necessary habits to develop your creativity and mind, and to ultimately do the work. Your friends know not to text or call during your creative hours because, from past experience, you don’t respond—you’re working.

7. “No artist is pleased”

Dancer Martha Graham

In 1943, American dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille was having a soda with the renown choreographer and dancer Martha Graham. After years of having difficulty finding work, Agnes de Mille had an unexpected, wild success for her choreography for the Broadway show Oklahoma!, which she thought her work was only “fairly good.” The production ran over 2,200 performances and eventually closed five years later. Mille recalls that her desire for greatness was always present, but her lack of faith is what kept her in the dark.

Graham gives her one of my favorite admonishments ever [emphasis mine]:

It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. … No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

This ties closely to what Steven Pressfield said: “What you’re feeling is what everybody feels … Start the next one tomorrow.”

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(#41-1) November 11 2014. Creativity is about seeing the obvious—except that it is only obvious to you. Later, everyone takes it for granted.Do you get credit? Frequently, you do not. But, that is not really the point. The satisfaction comes from the struggle, the insights, and the doing.

THOUGHTS ON CREATIVITY

“CREATIVE GENIUS ISN’T THE PRODUCT OF CONFORMING TO COMMON STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE, BUT OF FINDING ONE’S ELEMENT.”

The above comment stems from Maria Popova’s piece on Pablo Neruda. Popova (see above photos) is the considerable talent behind www.brainpickings.com – the best website on creativity that I know of. The woman is so consistently prolific and on message, you have to wonder does she ever sleep. She is certainly in love with her subject matter and combines a deep understanding of the written word with an impressive visual sense. She illustrates her editorials with the most intriguing graphics.

You will gather I’m a fan. Damn right.

Her remark hits at a major obstacle to creativity—the status quo made up of the conventional wisdom that surrounds the previous creative breakthrough. It is quite remarkable how speedily breakthrough ideas—once they have broken through—possibly after years of struggle (a fundamental qualification) are seized upon, exploited, and canonized as the only way to do things.

All kinds of people—who know little or nothing about the breakthrough in question—then emerge as experts, exploit it to the fullest extent, and, in the process, block, insofar as they are able, any further creative advance.

This is one flaw intrinsic to education as currently practiced. It tends to teach an ever-out-of-date standard as the acceptable norm—because that is what the educator knows—and be less than open to anything which threatens the expert’s professional standing.

You can witness this phenomenon in just about every field, and it is principle reason why achieving a creative breakthrough is so extraordinarily difficult—and, all too often, takes so long. If you want two areas where ‘creative drag’ (to coin a term) is particularly prevalent, look no further than the military and medical fields.

The reality is that the best does not drive out the good. All too often, the good crushes the best because it serves vested interests to advantage.

Is there an upside?

Of course there is. There is an upside to almost everything (though when you are dangling by your fingertips on the edge of a cliff, it can be hard to think of one). But, the core truth is that the creative struggle seems to hone the outcome and make one’s eventual breakthrough (if it comes) all the sweeter.

But supposing you never breakthrough?

Then you will be like most of us—but all the better for your effort. Failure is a building block of success.

Not much consolation? Now you are beginning to understand.

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(#41-2) November 11 2014.

 A WELL DESERVED SALUTE TO THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED—AND TO THOSE WHO SERVE RIGHT NOW.

WE RESPECT AND HONOR YOU. WE ARE IN YOUR DEBT.

I never know quite what to say to my veteran friends on Veteran’s Day. Somehow, “Happy Veteran’s Day” doesn’t seem quite right in view of its rather grim associations—and yet I hear it used. Perhaps the simplest answer is the best one. So, Happy Veterans Day guys (of both sexes).

I look forward to the day when there won’t be any veterans—because we won’t need them. Sadly, I don’t see it being the situation in my lifetime.

Yet somehow we have to get from endless wars—and focus more on peace. War has become endemic to the U.S. culture to the point where we don’t even question it. That’s just not healthy. The costs in blood and treasure are undermining the fundamental strength of this Great Nation.

We’re spending over a trillion dollars a year on National Security—and yet neglecting the less fortunate, and underinvesting in a host of areas which underpin our core strength. We have let manufacturing decline and our training is inadequate. Our infrastructure is in a disastrous state. We are out exported at every turn , and the pay of most Americans is shrinking.

We are winning the battles, but losing the wars, and weakening our economy. That is not the way things need to be. This country needs a prosperous peace

Our veterans, in particular deserve better. Instead, we have let them down badly through the Veterans Administration—and truly vast numbers are homeless.

Words fail me.

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(#40-2) November 10 2014.

A TRIBUTE TO A FRIEND, A FELLOW AUTHOR, A GENERAL OF DISTINCTION , A REMARKABLY FINE HUMAN BEING AND AUTHOR OF A VERY IMPORTANT BOOK.

WHY WE LOST

LET ME SALUTE LTG DAN BOLGER U.S. ARMY (RETIRED)

I was born on May 23 944 (which makes me a ‘war baby). Though I am Irish, I was actually born in London and, a couple of months after my birth, was nearly killed when a doodlebug (a German V1 rocket) exploded nearby, blew in the windows, and dumped sharps of glass all over my cot.

Sometimes, when I’m in the mood, I claim that Hitler tried to kill me.

This was actually London’s second blitz. The first occurred after the Battle of Britain and consisted entirely of heavy bombing. It started in September 1940 and lasted until May 1941. It killed over 40,000. Most were civilians. 

The second started on June 13 1944 and was far from a trivial affair. Sometimes over a hundred missiles a day were fired—9,521 in total—before the last of the launch sites within range of Britain were overrun by the Allies in October 1944.

A single V1 carried 1,870lbs of Amatol—nearly a ton—and made a very big bang.

Matters could have been a great deal worse except that the British, using fighters as well as anti-aircraft guns, became exceptionally good at shooting down the doodlebugs—and eventually destroyed over 80 percent before they could impact on a target.

I grew up much influenced by the war and its after-effects—and this led, in turn, to a deep appreciation of what the U.S. had done in WW II. That regard, accompanied by a deep interest in military matters in general, eventually led me to plan to write a  series of books featuring the U.S. Army—and the mid Nineties I spent a considerable time researching various units of the XVIII Airborne Corps.

One was the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) which was where I first encountered Dan Bolger. As it happens, I knew about him already—but as an author. He had written a number of excellent non-fiction military books.

At the time he was a colonel, and he impressed me equally both as a  soldier and as a human being. He went out of his way to see I was well briefed. Beyond that, he gave me a copy of his latest book which was still in manuscript form. That is an unusual gesture for an author to make and was deeply appreciated. Suffice to say, we became friends—and have remained loosely in touch over the years..

I was particularly pleased to see Dan make general. He had taken a risk by writing about military matters while still in the Army because the Army culture does not take criticism well—and almost any non-fiction book about a subject tends to be critical, if only by implication, in some way or other. Dan’s works were critical—albeit in a constructive way—but, somehow, he survived. Despite his exceptional ability, this was far from a foregone conclusion. The Army is rarely kind to its intellectual talent (a significant weakness in my opinion) . But Dan is not just a outstanding military thinker but he was also a consummate practical warrior—the kind of leader who gets the job done.

The club of generals—whether serving or retired—fosters a go along to get along culture which does not encourage criticism. Would Dan, who retired as a three star, go with the flow—or would his writer’s imperative and integrity win out?

Well, now we know—and I am much cheered. Dan has thrown political correctness to the winds and is telling the truth, as he sees it, without mincing words.

It will be the kind of truth we need to hear—and as far as the generals as whole are concerned, is long overdue.

Fortunately, Dan Bolger is not your average general. He will pay a price for his outspokenness—but, I suspect, will pay it willingly.

He is, as we say in Ireland, a decent man. I am proud to have such a friend—and I hope we pays attention to what he says. We are the most powerful nation on Earth, we keep on losing our wars—and the economic wellbeing of most Americans is in trouble.

We need to think about the implications of all this. These issues are connected. 

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(#40-1) November 10 2014. Average Americans are going backwards

MOST AMERICANS AREN’’T DOING SO WELL—BUT PERHAPS YOU HAVE DISCOVERED THAT PERSONALLY

ONE REASON FOR THE TRAUMATIZATION OF THE AMERICAN VOTER—AND FAR FROM THE ONLY ONE

The following is an extract from TOO MUCH, an online weekly on excess and inequality edited by SAM PIZZIGATI.

Researchers at Social Security have just released their annual scorecard on America’s paychecks. Most Americans, the new data show, aren’t doing so well.

The Social Security Administration divides American income-earners into 60 pay brackets, from under $5,000 all the way up to over $50 million. In only one of these brackets, analyst David Cay Johnston points out, did average pay in 2013 increase over 2012. Guess which one. A hint: the highest.

The median pay for Americans, the Social Security numbers also reveal, stood at $28,031 last year, $320 less than the typical American worker paycheck total in the year 2000. Average Americans, in other words, are going backwards.

Time to go forward. This week’s elections, unfortunately, don’t figure to move us much in that direction. But last week did see a new development that offers a good deal more hope for a more equal future. One of the world’s most visible charities is now speaking remarkably bold and brassy truth to power.

We have that story in this week’s Too Much. 

IN VIEW OF THE ABOVE GLOOMY NEWS, I THOUGHT I’D CHEER YOU UP WITH ANOTHER STUNNING PHOTO BY MY SISTER LUCY AYETTEY LYONS.

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(#39-1) November 9 2014. Fugitive from the looking-glass.

PERSONAL NEWS

SIX WEEKS OF 16 HOUR DAYS (AND COUNTING). I REALLY DIDN’T EXPECT OLD AGE TO BE QUITE LIKE THIS. AND I’M ENJOYING IT (OR HAVE FLIPPED).

When I think of old age, I rarely think of myself having achieved that august status—unless I’m looking in the mirror (and I avoid mirrors as much as possible—you never quite know who will walk through them).

My mental model of what old age looks like was formed when I was about five (and clearly needs modifying). I tend to think of my grandmother and various minder aunts who looked after me when I was very young—and my mother wanted space (which was for most of the time). I can’t entirely blame her. Mother liked men and they took up a lot of time. Well, there were a lot of men. Numerous lovers, three husbands and eleven more children resulted. She died a countess since the third was a Polish count. I was the eldest of twelve. Sadly, more than a few of my siblings have have died before their time.

All of these wonderful minder women (much loved by me) would have been in their late forties and early fifties at the time—and they certainly put in long days (though not by my standards)—but the more relevant point is that they thought of themselves as old—and dressed, carried themselves, and generally acted accordingly. Being old had physical and mental characteristics, of course—but, above all, it was very much a mindset—and a pattern of behavior.

Sex was never discussed. Sex appeal was never mentioned. They talked a great deal about gardening, cooking, and horse racing—in reverse order. I had both aunts and great aunts who were fanatical about horses, could judge form with frightening accuracy—and made bookies quake. All made money consistently from such gambling. They would chuckle as they won. Betting on the horses was their thing, and they were damn good at it. In fact, my Aunt Fanny’s husband, Uncle Cecil, had been a horse trainer of note.

My grandmother ‘s posture was not helped by her suffering from crippling arthritis and one of the two aunts in question was plump (to put it mildly—though cuddly) and constrained by various aches and pains. Their peers seemed to be no different. They wore hats, dead foxes (I kid you not) around their necks, tweeds, and sensible stockings together with practical shoes.

Their male equivalents were not radically different—except that they wore ties instead of dead foxes—and had leather patches on their jackets.

Both sexes largely smoked—and quite heavily at that—though the men seemed to prefer pipes.  I love the smell of pipe tobacco to this day. The women drank sherry and the men whisky. One way or another, they all looked pretty lived-in by their fifties and were visibly old by the decade after that. They had cause, of course. They had all been through two World Wars, and the Troubles in Ireland (the 1916 uprising, the guerilla way that followed—and then the Irish civil war that followed that). And my grandmother’s relationship with my mother was, arguably, worse than all three.

About the only thing my grandmother and mother had in common was that they were both 78 when they died.

I guess—insofar as I thought about it, which wasn’t much—I expected to follow a broadly similar pattern. True, I did expect to write on after reaching retirement age—but not for more than a few hours a day. After that, I figured that lifting a few glasses of wine would keep me adequately occupied—and exercised.

The reality has turned out to be entirely different. Having decided to make some fairly drastic changes in my life back in mid 2010, I now find I have turned my life upside down—and despite my April accident—am feeling dynamic, entrepreneurial, energetic, creative—and decidedly interested in the opposite sex. It seems to be mutual and is not confined to women of a similar age. Who knew?

I think I’ll keep the rest for my memoirs (which I am starting shortly). I’ll merely observe that there are a truly remarkable number of attractive women in and around Seattle, and that women’s sex drive (virtually regardless of age) is way underestimated by we males. Way, way, underestimated. Damned if I know why we studied the classics, but were deprived of such vital knowledge.

I was expensively—but inadequately—educated. Still, perhaps those who ran my boarding school had some excuse for skating over the finer details of the desires of the fair sex. They were Benedictine monks—bound by their vows of celibacy.

Someone should write about this stuff.

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(#38-1) November 8 2014. Current traumatic stress disorder.

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

AND FINDING NONE

THE TRAUMATISATION OF THE AMERICAN VOTER

NOTE: The above cartoon courtesy of Joe Galloway’s (We Were Soldiers) mailing from his Facebook page.

Two of the prime attributes of punditry are a thick skin and a complete indifference to the accuracy of your predictions. If it were otherwise, very few of the current crop of pundits would still be in action. In truth, pundits are mostly there for little more than their entertainment value (or is it just because they fill air-time?).

Since I’m not a pundit, I can freely admit I was entirely wrong in relation to the Mid-Terms. Based on the near overwhelming evidence that existed just prior to the elections I thought I probably would be—but I proceeded with my contrarian forecast just for “divillment” (as we are supposed to say in Ireland). In short, I projected what I hoped would be the outcome—not what I thought it would be. It was a case of heart over intellect—and it was fun. As in writing, when sometime you don’t know whether a particular approach will work or not, you only push the envelope if you are prepared to take risks. I was; I did; and I still am.

My more serious thought is that American voters are deeply mentally traumatized by recent events, their current situation, and future prospects to the point where they are lashing out rather than thinking. Certainly, based on their recent track record, anyone who hopes the Republicans will save the day must be on something a great deal stronger than marijuana. Individual Republicans  (just like individual Democrats) may do a good job—because the dictates of a situation can cause pragmatism to over-ride ideology—but the party’s current policies are murky. This is a sad thing because traditional Republicanism had a great deal of merit. Backing the ultra rich regardless of the issues—in order to secure your own advancement—does not.

As far as rational consideration of the issues is concerned, it is disconcerting to note that a great many Americans are drugged—and legally at that—and meds certainly do dull the mind. If there is any thinking time left—why, there is always distraction (something at which we excel). I joke about this, but I have to wonder whether it may not be a deadly serious issue. In effect, we have created a culture of mass manipulation which actively discourages rational thought.

The evidence suggests than most Americans have every right to feel mentally traumatized because we are finding out the hard way that the America (at least in terms of the economy) we thought we lived in is primarily a myth—and reality is now intruding with a vengeance. If it had been a typical cyclical recession, the effects of the Great Recession would have been over years ago. As it is, as far as most of us are concerned, we are still losing ground—even as the stock market climbs to new heights.

Worse still, the future looks no better—and shows every sign of deteriorating further. Positive economic indicators like rising GDP, a booming stock market, falling unemployment,and improving productivity (I’m suspicious of some of those figures) are of scant use use if you have no innate job security, few employee rights, your personal costs are going up, and your income is in decline in real terms. And they are—for most of us—and it is.

When people lash out without thought, matters normally get worse before they get better—and particularly so when nations are involved. And economic troubles have a tendency to lead to more serious outcomes—severe social unrest; violence in various forms; and wars. Wars are a great distraction—and have become pretty much a staple of the American Way of Life. Sometimes they are big; sometimes they are small, and sometimes they are cold—but they are ever present and ever a debilitating drain on our substantial, but limited, national resources.

We are the strongest country in the world, but a fifth of our children go hungry.

We are the strongest country in the world, capable of sweeping aside governments with minimal effort—yet we can scarcely contain Islamic terrorists let alone defeat them. In fact, despite our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and our infliction of carnage upon our enemies, we now face more of them than ever before.

Financialization, excessive militarization, out out of line medical costs, the corporatization of third level education (which has increased  such costs way in excess of inflation) and ever more expensive housing—coupled with low pay—are crucifying most Americans economically. The corporate Big Squeeze on labor is working with a vengeance. In fact this corporate victory is so complete that its consequences are sapping home market demand to the point where corporate profits are being endangered.

The generally accepted term for such a costly victory is a Pyrhric victory. The definition:

A Pyrrhic victory is a victory with such a devastating cost that it is tantamount to defeat.

Well, the cost of the Big Squeeze is certainly devastating as far as most Americans are concerned—and it continues to be so.

Some Republicans are treating the results of the Mid-Terms as a mandate for a “Republican Revolution.” 

Rubbish. Most Republican gains were marginal in terms of extra votes—which means nearly as many Americans hold contrary views—voter turnout reflected the normal pattern of fewer Democrats rather than Republicans voting—and the positive results where social issues were concerned—are extremely significant.

So where does that leave us?

Under the banner of “The government is the enemy,” the Republicans still argue that an economic system that demonstrably favors the rich—and the ultra rich at that (and we have an abundance of data to support that statement) is the optimum solution, but needs worker rights to be largely eliminated, regulations to be largely done away with, and climate change to be ignored, for it to function at full efficiency. As for healthcare, they remain totally committed to a free enterprise solution even though decades of free enterprise has led to an entirely inadequate system which costs nearly twice as much as anyone else’s, whose quality is highly variable (unless you are rich) and which delivers lifespans which are three years shorter than those of most other developed nations.

So what do the Democrats argue for? Well, we know in fuzzy terms—very fuzzy terms—and we know on individual issues, but the remarkable thing about the Democrats right now is how poorly they they make their case. Individual politicians like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders do have a clear and consistent progressive vision, but the Democrats, as a whole, do not. What does Hilary Clinton stand for? I have absolutely no idea.

Why don’t they? Well, there are many reasons, but a fundamental one is that they are largely financed by the same people who finance the Republicans—so they don’t dare become the party of social reform because they will alienate their paymasters.  

Frankly, it’s a grim picture. It shouldn’t be because this is a country of enormous strengths and resources, whose problems are eminently resolvable—and fairly speedily at that.

But, its political system has been hijacked. The influence of money is now so overwhelming, and so pervasive, that the U.S. is no longer a democracy—as most Americans would understand it. The U.S. is now a plutocracy run by the ultra rich for their own benefit and employing a business model which is decidedly not free market capitalism. If anything, it is crony capitalism where the spoils are divided amongst the few. Many, who serve the few—such as politicians and corporate CEOs—do well out of this situation. Most Americans do not—and whether they admit it, even to them selves, or not—they are frightened. Frighten people badly enough, and for long enough, and they become traumatized.

We have reached that unhappy state—and it is evident.

As far as we writers are concerned, it’s all material. But for what? A story of redemption—or a tragedy? Humor will feature either way.

Humor is such a pleasure to write—but then so is just about anything.

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