There’s been a bit of a gap in posts here, partly intentional, partly not. Intentional, because I do not want to exhaust my subscribers’ patience or interest with endless posts. If that happens, just unsubscribe: you can always check back another time.
Unintentional because of busy days and fluctuating mood. Ups and downs are normal in freelance work. Ups and downs in how I feel are also normal, the personal climate in which work happens and which influences my changing ideas, especially in recent years. If and how that should be part of A Selfless Art is a question I’ve yet to resolve.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig, was very important to my ideas of quality. More recently, I’ve been thinking more about that book’s form. It describes a motorcycle journey the author made with his young son in 1968, from Minnesota to Northern California. Through that story, Pirsig weaves an account of his evolving philosophy and his breakdown and hospitalisation. His former self is another figure in the book: Phaedrus, named after Plato’s dialogue.
Robert Pirsig’s approach inspired early drafts of A Selfless Art, but I have none of his genius and must, in any case, find my own voice, my own solutions. Still, his courage and creativity continue to show me that it’s possible to balance the personal and philosophical.
A Selfless Art 
2 responses to “The personal is philosophical”
I haven’t thought of that book in decades–I need to add into my scroll of books-I-need-to-reread. Also, I did not recall the trip began in Minnesota–that is where I live! I get the ups and downs and the desire to map it out. I am working on a similar project via my Iterative Librarian work, specifically through my nascent Reflective Librarians project. The reference point flips back and forth between personal and philosophical and it is hard to know sometimes where I am and where I am going. That is why quick snap shot posts like this are invaluable. They are honest be-here-now (Ram Dass) witness points. I am here for it. Thank you for sharing–I love your work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for this generous response to what was, as you say, a be here now post. It actually started with something I read by a different writer, then cycled through something I remembered from another of Pirsig’s book before settling where it did, in a memory of something I had almost forgotten (three years is a long time thinking about a book) but an happy to have recovered. Good luck with your own project, and thanks again for your interest in this.
LikeLiked by 1 person