Sailing, not rowing
The way of the Wu Wei and other nice things worth your while this week.
By far my favourite gravestone in the world, is that of American writer and poet, Charles Bukowski.
For a long time, I didn’t quite understand why those two words were left on there as a kind of final message to mankind - but I know I had been intrigued. And then, last week, I was putting together a talk about attention and I looked into the concept of flow, and how flow can result from extreme focus and meditation.
As creative people we understand this state to be those elusive moments in our lives when, if everything is just right, we are able to almost become one with the task. If it is writing, painting, composing or conceptualising a new poster, flow means you are able to shut out the world and just fully immerse in what you are doing. Runners also report a similar feeling, beautiful moments when the sense of the effort fades away and only the joy of the forward motion remains.
Turns out this concept as is old as humanity itself. It shows up in ancient Eastern philosophy as Wu Wei. The School of Life has a beautiful explainer on it which you can watch here, but my favourite definition comes from British philosopher Alan Watts:
Life is most skillfully lived when one sails a boat rather than rowing it. It’s more intelligent to sail than to row. With oars I have to use my muscles and my effort to drag myself along the water. But with a sail, I let the wind do the work for me.
Sailing, not rowing. Don’t try.
Playing, not working
I for one have always been inhibited by this idea that whatever you make has to be perfect, otherwise don’t bother. But that in itself turns out to be rowing, not sailing.
I’ve been listening to a podcast series with Dana Carvey and David Spade in which they frequently interview former cast member of Saturday Night Live. More than once I have heard them mention how much better cast members get in their last season as the pressure falls away - and they just start to play.
So as the universe wills it when it teaches you a lesson, I came across this quote by Jeff Tweedy during the week:
To say I’ve never been inhibited by expectations would be a lie. It’s more daunting to contend with yourself. It’s like saying I don’t even need to write songs because the greatest songwriter in the world has already done this—Bob Dylan. But he’s dealing with himself, too. The internal stuff is the stuff that kills you. I want to write the greatest song in the world sometimes. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in wanting to do that, but I think you’re better off when you realize you have no control over it. You just gotta keep making shit up, scribbling—like sitting down and drawing with my kids. It reminds me to do that in my songs. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad. I think it looks great. Let’s hang it on the refrigerator.
I want to hang that on my refrigerator.
Old timey smart thinking
I’m a really big fan of analog creativity. The limitation of the technology involved means our brains work harder and produces perhaps a more human innovation. Here is a fantastic example I came across this week. It is on-board navigation for cars using cassettes, not satellites.
Speaking of cassettes. The New York Times published a beautiful interactive essay last week about Fire Island House - a story of love and loss. A truly moving story how long lost cassettes brought a forgotten story back.
And keeping with things mechanical, I found this amazing website that explains how wrist watches work.
Not just is it incredible to see how these tiny machines are put together, the website itself is a joy to behold. It is everything good user interface design can be, and reminds us how beautiful the web can be when it is uncluttered and simple.
Last week’s letter on death and candles
Thank you for all the beautiful responses I got from last week’s note. For those of you who get it in your mail, one of the links was wrong. I meant to link to Bill Murray’s great interview with Charlie Rose, but instead I sent a link to the trailer of Tom Hanks’ new movie, Finch - which is also about death and dying and very beautiful, and also worth your while, but not quite the intention. Here is the correct video for those of you who were confused.
Many of you also sent me your favourite bits of life advice. My friend Sergio sent me a few that he wrote for his daughter and I loved these the most:
Raise your children to be better than yourself. You are a low bar. The day children stop being better than their parents, civilization will stop and humankind will start regressing
Teach your children about love. Love conquers all and is the purest energy. Remind them every day. There’s no life, no happiness without love. May love guide all their actions
Never give up studying, never lose your curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Time and life are constantly moving forward and evolving. If you stop learning, you don’t remain static –you go backwards
Curiosity is indeed a beautiful thing. I hope some of these links and thought satisfied yours and made you find many other beautiful things. And if you enjoyed it, please send it to a friend who might find it worth their while too.
Leon