With the "labour and wait" idea, what's interesting is that the work itself does not change during the waiting period. My good friend who is a cartoonist and writer once said that it's you that changes in the interim, you are never exactly the same person who created the work as time passes.
How true, and yet not something I'm aware of ever really thinking about before reading this. Perhaps what makes good work is that all future versions of you will still find it interesting and worthwhile? Hmmmm
Yesterday I got rejected from a writing residency I applied to months ago—and put a ton of work into— and was feeling down. Seems like all I’ve been doing is laboring and waiting with my book project! Your post and hearing old-school Tom sing to me helped bring things back into perspective. That song is my (old) new writing anthem. Thank you. Off to labor!
Wow. Your subject line was more than perfect, because I'd just said to a painter friend, "I'm keeping busy writing poetry and new board books so I keep my mind off whether my agent will sell my book." Labor and wait. And keep creating.
There was an excellent traveling exhibition that focused around the inspirations of that group. I bought the book, that accompanied it just for the range of ex-votos imagery which was so raw and fresh.
I was looking for this exact art this week and couldn’t recall the title/name of it. And lo and behold , it shows up in my email box! Wow. There are no accidents. Thank you!
The part of the Longfellow poem jumping out at me this morning is “with a heart for any fate.” It addresses the scary part of the creative process, and the putting the work out there and seeing what the fate will be.
I have to give a talk this afternoon and I told my wife I was thinking about this story about a talk Jiddu Krishnamurti gave in 1977:
“Part-way through this particular talk," writes Jim Dreaver, who was present, "Krishnamurti suddenly paused, leaned forward and said, almost conspiratorially, 'Do you want to know what my secret is?' " (There are several accounts of this event; details vary.) Krishnamurti rarely spoke in such personal terms, and the audience was electrified, Dreaver recalls. "Almost as though we were one body we sat up… I could see people all around me lean forward, their ears straining and their mouths slowly opening in hushed anticipation." Then Krishnamurti, "in a soft, almost shy voice", said: "You see, I don't mind what happens."
I think about that all the time: I will do my work, but I don't mind what happens. It isn't necessarily up to me!
Love! Thank you! I give a lot of talks too, and as the first in-person events since before the pandemic come back, I feel like I’m starting over. I’m going to work on not minding what happens.
August is not my favourite month. Labour and Wait--too true. I have no creative thoughts, ideas, or energy. This article captures my feelings perfectly.
I love Iris Murdoch, The sea, the sea was the first one I read. In my first college comp class the professor asked what we liked to read. He was a bit taken a back when I said Iris Murdoch 😂 And I think I'm going to adopt labor and wait as my slogan for the rest of the year, I'm building a new community art center and dealing with all the construction issues makes this a perfect fit. 😂😂
I fell back in love with A Hard Day's Night a few years ago and I could rewatch that movie at the drop of a hat. They captured lightning in a bottle—the movie has no business being that good, the lads are ridiculously good, and the fact that they started filming a movie classic less than a month after their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show boggles my mind.
(You could probably make a case for The Beatles in '64 having one of the great artistic and commercial stretches with conquering the US, Hard Day's Night [movie & music], and 5 records in the US Top 5. And I'm sure there's a great Motown run that would need to be considered in that discussion too!)
With the "labour and wait" idea, what's interesting is that the work itself does not change during the waiting period. My good friend who is a cartoonist and writer once said that it's you that changes in the interim, you are never exactly the same person who created the work as time passes.
How true, and yet not something I'm aware of ever really thinking about before reading this. Perhaps what makes good work is that all future versions of you will still find it interesting and worthwhile? Hmmmm
Yesterday I got rejected from a writing residency I applied to months ago—and put a ton of work into— and was feeling down. Seems like all I’ve been doing is laboring and waiting with my book project! Your post and hearing old-school Tom sing to me helped bring things back into perspective. That song is my (old) new writing anthem. Thank you. Off to labor!
I actually wrote this whole newsletter to Tom Petty’s GREATEST HITS :-D
I love him so much. Did you ever watch Running’ Down a Dream, the documentary by Peter Bogdanovich? It’s long but so good…
Meg usually balks that the phrase “4-hour Tom Petty documentary” but maybe I'll wear her down eventually LOL
😂
Wow. Your subject line was more than perfect, because I'd just said to a painter friend, "I'm keeping busy writing poetry and new board books so I keep my mind off whether my agent will sell my book." Labor and wait. And keep creating.
😌🙏
Love the “ex-votos”! I am a big Frida fan!♥️
There was an excellent traveling exhibition that focused around the inspirations of that group. I bought the book, that accompanied it just for the range of ex-votos imagery which was so raw and fresh.
I was looking for this exact art this week and couldn’t recall the title/name of it. And lo and behold , it shows up in my email box! Wow. There are no accidents. Thank you!
The part of the Longfellow poem jumping out at me this morning is “with a heart for any fate.” It addresses the scary part of the creative process, and the putting the work out there and seeing what the fate will be.
I have to give a talk this afternoon and I told my wife I was thinking about this story about a talk Jiddu Krishnamurti gave in 1977:
“Part-way through this particular talk," writes Jim Dreaver, who was present, "Krishnamurti suddenly paused, leaned forward and said, almost conspiratorially, 'Do you want to know what my secret is?' " (There are several accounts of this event; details vary.) Krishnamurti rarely spoke in such personal terms, and the audience was electrified, Dreaver recalls. "Almost as though we were one body we sat up… I could see people all around me lean forward, their ears straining and their mouths slowly opening in hushed anticipation." Then Krishnamurti, "in a soft, almost shy voice", said: "You see, I don't mind what happens."
I think about that all the time: I will do my work, but I don't mind what happens. It isn't necessarily up to me!
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/aug/10/stop-minding-psychology-oliver-burkeman
And I hope your talk went great tonight!
Love! Thank you! I give a lot of talks too, and as the first in-person events since before the pandemic come back, I feel like I’m starting over. I’m going to work on not minding what happens.
On anger: boy, do we need to get angry...and do something with it.
Yes!
August is not my favourite month. Labour and Wait--too true. I have no creative thoughts, ideas, or energy. This article captures my feelings perfectly.
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/08/24/against-august/
I love Iris Murdoch, The sea, the sea was the first one I read. In my first college comp class the professor asked what we liked to read. He was a bit taken a back when I said Iris Murdoch 😂 And I think I'm going to adopt labor and wait as my slogan for the rest of the year, I'm building a new community art center and dealing with all the construction issues makes this a perfect fit. 😂😂
It is the weirdest book!!! I, too, am dealing with construction issues! Hard time to build anything (in more ways than one)
I fell back in love with A Hard Day's Night a few years ago and I could rewatch that movie at the drop of a hat. They captured lightning in a bottle—the movie has no business being that good, the lads are ridiculously good, and the fact that they started filming a movie classic less than a month after their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show boggles my mind.
(You could probably make a case for The Beatles in '64 having one of the great artistic and commercial stretches with conquering the US, Hard Day's Night [movie & music], and 5 records in the US Top 5. And I'm sure there's a great Motown run that would need to be considered in that discussion too!)
A good point made in 150 GLIMPSES OF THE BEATLES: “By the end of 1964 they had become the most famous young men on earth.”
And that “young men” was no exaggeration—24, 24, 22, and nearly 22 by the end of that year 🤯