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So, go into the world. Make something useful for other people. Set higher standards for yourself than anybody else is setting for you, your editors especially. Go the extra mile to be fair to people. Put in the extra work to understand them on their terms. And amuse yourself. Follow the thing that interests you and attracts you and amuse yourself. More than anything else that will lead to work that is valuable to other people.
- Ira Glass, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Commencement Speech, 2000
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There was a slight pause. "You'd better get busy, though, buddy. The goddam sands
run out on you every time you turn around. I know what I'm talking
about. You're lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddam phenomenal
world." There was another, slighter pause. "I used to worry about that.
I don't worry about it very much any more. At least I'm still in love
with Yorick's skull. At least I always have time enough to stay in love
with Yorick's skull. I want an honorable goddam skull when I'm dead,
buddy. I hanker after an honorable goddam skull like Yorick's. And so do you, Franny Glass."
-J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
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Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is worth the trouble? Look at sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It's okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.
-Miranda July, "The Shared Patio" from the collection: No one belongs here more than you.
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To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but…
If we're not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?
Gregory Orr, "To be alive"
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"It's an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you've been and what's happened. In the end, you're just happy you were there--with your eyes open--and lived to see it." -Anthony Bourdain, The Nasty Bits
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