jim harrison | overtrying

Sometimes we live without noticing it. 

Overtrying makes it harder. 

 from Carpe Diem, by Jim Harrison

william shakespeare | god's spies

Come, let's away to prison. 

We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage. 

When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down 

And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live, 

And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh 

At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues 

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too- 

Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out- 

And take upon 's the mystery of things, 

As if we were God's spies; and we'll wear out, 

In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones 

That ebb and flow by th' moon. 

King Lear

Act V, Scene 3

russell mang | house, south central saskatchewan

garrison keillor | staying home is an excellent idea

"I’m a Scot on my mother’s side and so I expect the worst and for us pessimists, staying home is an excellent idea and the pandemic gives me a good excuse. I can imagine walking down the street and a 500-pound anvil falls out of a tree and crushes me and someone gets it on video and it goes viral, a tall scholarly man suddenly obliterated and it’s horrible but also weirdly humorous — he’s a white male and then suddenly he’s a pile of clothing — and though you ask, “Why was a 500-pound anvil parked in a tree on Columbus Avenue?” it’s too late for Nowhere Man — he’s being carried in a coffin the size of a fruit basket and his death video has gotten 57 million hits. I refuse to be him; I am the man happy to be eating waffles in his own kitchen."

ursula leguin | art is work

"If you have to find devices to coax yourself to stay focused on writing, perhaps you should not be writing what you’re writing. And, if this lack of motivation is a constant problem, perhaps writing is not your forte. I mean, what is the problem? If writing bores you, that is pretty fatal. If that is not the case, but you find that it is hard going and it just doesn’t flow, well, what did you expect? It is work; art is work.”