the world to begin

As soon as I saw the title, I knew that Jessica Olien must be writing about Marian Keyes. Ms. Keyes openness about everything—including the crushing depression that she suffers—makes me feel like I know her intimately  and I wish I could do something to help her. Somewhat selfishly, because I want her to write more, and faster. I miss her.

This post on XOJane made me happy that others agree, and then sad again for Marian Keyes. Her books look silly, but they are just not. She is a brave, funny and truly gifted writer. 

Sidenote: XOJane (stupid name) had a kind of rocky start and I had some serious doubts, but I am in love now with half the staff, especially Cat and Emily.  They are also brave funny writer ladies!

nprfreshair:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

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Ira Glass (via nefffy)

I’m a sucker for even parodies of Wes Anderson. 

(Source: Slate)

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them.

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Bill Watterson (via calvinnhobbes)

Bill Watterson, one of the best people ever.

(via seedsot)

(via bluishorange)