2013年6月10日 星期一
2013年6月9日 星期日
Repetition Kills You
I used to think my life stops being meaningful when I begin to repeat myself. Now I know better.
As The Black Ghosts reveals in their song, "this (song) is a repetition of words, dancing needs a repetition to work," the secret of life, besides the trick to keep breathing, is accepting repetition, and learning to repeat while not repeating.
For people in the creative business, this is perhaps the most important revelation. Repetition doesn't kills you. Boredom does. How to repeat with style and interesting flavor to entertain your audience, and to stay relevant, is an art, even THE art, of creative lives.
And on a broader scale, isn't life a series of endless repetitions? We go to work, we knock off, we go on holidays, we get back to work. The mundaneness is torture, but only when you have mastered the routines, can you starting seeing the hidden possibilities and ironies.
And the fun to play with them.
As The Black Ghosts reveals in their song, "this (song) is a repetition of words, dancing needs a repetition to work," the secret of life, besides the trick to keep breathing, is accepting repetition, and learning to repeat while not repeating.
For people in the creative business, this is perhaps the most important revelation. Repetition doesn't kills you. Boredom does. How to repeat with style and interesting flavor to entertain your audience, and to stay relevant, is an art, even THE art, of creative lives.
And on a broader scale, isn't life a series of endless repetitions? We go to work, we knock off, we go on holidays, we get back to work. The mundaneness is torture, but only when you have mastered the routines, can you starting seeing the hidden possibilities and ironies.
And the fun to play with them.
2013年6月5日 星期三
Hooter
I heard a owl for the first time the other night. Actually it mustn't be the first time, because the sound came out familiar to my ears, only I didn't make the cognitive connection between the hooting sound and the animal that's making it, until that night.
You need to turn up the volume to the hear the hooter. It's in the background, masked by the incessant city chatter, but distinctly audible if you know what to listen to.
Owls in the city? Right beside my apartment? I only have limited knowledge about birds, but this discovery didn't come as much a surprise as it could have been. Subconsciously, I suspect more that a few nocturnal critters had ventured into the city domain, sneaking back and forth across the tacit boundaries of civilization and wilderness.
Believe it or not, a night heron once perched atop the fountain in our front yard, drooling over the carps, and just this morning at 4 o'clock, I ran into the spotted cat, strolling into the basement just as I opened the gate, as if I were the doorman, she a resident.
訂閱：
文章 (Atom)