From the series Be Careful of Things Left Behind by Nigel Grimmer

via Toys with Fragile Feelings – Alice @ My Modern Metr

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

—Carl Sagan

Current neuroscience research confirms what creatives intuitively know about being innovative: that it usually happens in the shower. After focusing intently on a project or problem, the brain needs to fully disengage and relax in order for a “Eureka!” moment to arise.

Scott McDowell on The 99 Percent

Go Read It: Developing Your Creative Practice: Tips from Brian Eno

And that was my moment of awareness: that woman across the court who did not know me, and whom I did not know, was a person. She had thoughts of her own. She was. Our lives would never touch. I would never know her name. And yet it was she who revealed to me my first glimpse of personhood.

- Madeleine L’Engle

via Echo-location
(where you can read this snippet in greater context.)

“I believe that as artists we all have a certain pool of creative energy that we draw from. For me, I have found that it does not matter what I do with that energy – whether it is drawing, painting, building picture frames, writing music, taking photos, designing corporate branding, writing software, designing logos or creating digital composites – it all comes from the same place – and it doesn’t matter how I use it, it only matters that I do use it.

-Josh Summers

Hear hear!

Add acting to the list for me. I think going to concerts and plays also fits into the mix.

via Eugene at MyModernMet

Science fiction used to be a way to explore society. It was always about today, where the author was at that moment, and took the science fiction prism and altered certain things, [giving] a distance to the audience to examine interesting questions. Questions of morality, existential questions, where are we going as a people, what is technology doing to us, how is the human condition going to change?

via Ronald D. Moore on Why Galactica Steered Clear of ‘Technobabble,’ Wired.com.

Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.

Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, 22

Freedom means I may not be identified with any one group, but I can visit and find myself in every group. Freedom does not mean I don’t have values or beliefs. But it does mean I am not hardened around them. I do not use them as weapons.

Freedom cannot be bought or arranged or made with bombs or guards. It is deeper. It is a process. It is the acute awareness that we are all utterly interdependent. That economic injustice and inequity creates an environment of global despair and rage that, until balanced, will inevitably lead to hatred and violence.

Insecure At Last by Eve Ensler (197)

But I’d rather help than watch. I’d rather have a heart than mind. I’d rather expose too much than too little. I’d rather say hello to strangers than be afraid of them. I would rather know all this about myself than have more money than I need. I’d rather have something to love than a way to impress you.

Po Bronson, What Should I Do With My Life? 360

I want my experiences to add up. I want them to be useful, and to come together. I don’t really know how they fit together, but I think about it all the time. They have to add up to more.

Phil Caplan
in What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson