From Oliver Sacks

Wordly Inspiration from Oliver Sacks, who not only wrote prolifically, he regularly reflected on the process of his own writing.

"The act of writing is itself enough; it serves to clarify my thoughts and feelings. The act of writing is an integral part of my mental life; ideas emerge, are shaped, in the act of writing...a special, indispensable form of talking to myself."

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Wild and zany - whose adjective is it anyway?

In these days of ubiquitous social media, online dating and 'tell us how good you are' job interviews, we frequently need to describe ourselves.

To do this, we use adjectives like friendly, fun, down-to-earth, positive, thoughtful, creative, caring, trustworthy, dedicated, motivated, effective. You can even find helpful lists online if you need more impressive adjectives for your profile.

When I was young, we were schooled in modesty: to assume effort, character and ability would speak for themselves. Self promotion was frowned upon. So, the contemporary need to self-describe and self-promote has been uncomfortable for me.

But I'm used to it now. I no longer panic in interviews when asked to describe myself in three words, and I follow the job seeker's guideline: 'Don't be too modest'. 

But sometimes the way people talk about themselves, well, it just doesn't feel right to me.

Source: Public Domain

Here are a few examples that feel off beam:

• We're soooo crazy! - group of performers in an interview after a concert
• We're wild; we're out of control; look out world! - group of 30-something football fans
• My parties are always great because I'm so zany! - woman at public function she organised
• We're all really cool; you'll like working here - new work colleague.

When a person says these sorts of things, it's not that I disagree with them. What feels strange and a bit off is that they use these adjectives to describe themselves.

I find myself wondering, is it actually their adjective to use?

TATKOP 121

There Are Two Kinds Of People: those who look for the answer 'out there' and those who look 'in here'. 

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Fear and writing

Wordly Inspiration for these weeks when I'm not able to get my thoughts clear. Fear from the pandemic is wreaking havoc with our bodies and minds, so no new posts at the moment. I hope soon to be able to focus.

Unfortunately, I am unable to find the source, but says everything I want to tell myself.



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From Georgia O'Keeffe

Wordly Inspiration from Georgia O'Keeffe's letter to Sherwood Anderson, in response to the doubts he expressed about his own writing:

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant—there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you..."

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From Toni Morrison

Introducing Wordly Inspiration, an occasional series of words and writing.

Our first Wordly Inspiration comes from Toni Morrison from her Nobel prize acceptance speech in 1993:

"Word-work is sublime … because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference — the way in which we are like no other life.
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."

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TATKOP 120

There Are Two Kinds Of People: those who know everything and those who know they know very little.

See more in the TATKOP series.