work

Through @reese I have come across this wonderful quote from 37signals' book "Rework" :

"You want to feel that if you stopped doing what you do, people would notice."

Basically it suggests that one needs to feel that one's work is needed, helpful and that it makes a difference, that one's efforts are valuable and appreciated. This is the most important driving force behind motivated work.

And this is not just a motto I believe everyone who needs to supervise a group should try to apply when it comes to motivating individuals or teams. It's a question we might as well just ask ouselves, while we're at it. And if the answer is not satifying, we need to change either the line of work, or the "client" ;-)

two things

"Life is mostly froth and bubble/ Two things stand like stone:
Kindness in another's trouble/ Courage in your one."
(N.Steinhardt - Jurnalul Fericirii)

feeling

"And be sure of this, I spent my entire youth writing slowly with revisions and endless rehashing speculation and deleting and got so I was writing one sentence a day and the sentence had no FEELING. Goddamn it, FEELING is what I like in art, not CRAFTINESS and the hiding of feelings." Jack Kerouac, 1968, Paris Review (via pinkhotel)

a good book

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it." (Holden Caulfield - "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger)

authenticity

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to..." (Jim Jarmush via Adam Schokora).

Basically the only artform we are left with is a "combinatory artform", a collage of references. Because everything has already been expressed. The only thing left for us to do is to play with and reinterpret fragments. Maybe now more than ever, art is a dialogue (related post on Romanian post-modernism).

precious things

"After all, the most precious things in life are found by searching."

I have recently read this comment on the internet and it made me smile. No matter how I think of it: it's true. And it goes for people, places, feelings, ideas, things.

Many times in our lives we are offered precious things, but we fail to acknowledge their worth because we haven't been needing and searching for them. We first realize something is precious only after we have experienced its (potential) absence. Because if it's not there, one needs to look for it or for a substitute. The mere fact of looking for something, makes one realize how indispensable it is for satisfying one's needs. A bit intrigued, I'm really looking for an exception for this rule. I guess, after all, the most precious things, are found by searching ;)

another world

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." - C.S. Lewis

murakami's jellyfish

"What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get into the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that's not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things."

- Haruki Murakami

The problem is, we don't see the big picture. We only perceive time and space, as they concern us personally but we don't have a perspective view. Of course, Murakami (who actually had a fear of jellyfish) might have wanted to convey something else with this quote, but after my previous posts like jelly invasion and giant jellies I am able to interpret it in an entirely different way: What we like to perceive is only a part of the whole story. The whole story is much more darker and frightening for us to acknowledge. However, the increasing number of jellyfish and the deterioration of the waters are signs that we ought to broaden our view on "things", until it's too late.