I walked into a bookstore. Nowadays the shelves are, let’s say, heavily “curated”, the pre-selection of books in any given bookstore very “sharply defined”, so to speak. Nevertheless, I still do walk into a bookstore, now and then, here and there. So I did yesterday; and indeed did find a book that caught my interest!

Washington Irving writes, in »The Sketch Book«,

“I then went on to explain that I found myself peculiarly unfitted for the situation offered to me, not merely by my political opinions, but by the very constitution and habits of my mind. My whole course of life, I observed, has been desultory, and I am unfitted for any periodically recurring task, or any stipulated labor of body or mind. I have no command of my talents, such as they are, and have to watch the varyings of my mind as I would those of a weathercock. Practice and training may bring me more into rule; but at present I am useless for regular service.”

Thus I read at home on my couch, lowered the book onto my lap, and thought to myself: the nerves he has! Brilliantly put! So blunt! So courageous! So honest! Yet here I am holding this very book, 177 years later, a testament to their all success and triumph.

Would it be permissible to speak like this of oneself nowadays? In recent years I had the impression that even great talent need to be strongly disciplined and hold to a strict schedule, in order to be viewed in good regards.

Well, I do get up every morning 6:30am, and start working 7:30am, and do mostly get in 6 to 12 hours of work, Monday through Sunday. But similar to what Washington Irving writes, I do not have command of what exactly I work on. The tasks present themselves to me in sequential order. One step leads to the next. A perfect line-up with very little side-steps or back-tracing.

I paraphrase his next paragraph (changes in brackets):

“I must, therefore, keep on pretty much as I have begun; writing (what) I can, not (what) I would. I shall occasionally shift my residence and write whatever is suggested by objects before me, or whatever rises in my (own practice); and hope to write better and more copiously by and by.”

To my mind, watching the News, seeing the robots rise and nations fall, we humans need to hold on to each other, cherish and support each other tightly, as according to our abilities.

I end today’s blog post with another befitting paraphrase from »The Sketch Book« by Washington Irving:

“I cannot express how much I am gratified by your (steadfast support). I had begun to feel as if I had taken an unwarrantable liberty; but, somehow or other, there is a genial sunshine about you that warms every creeping thing into heart and confidence.”