The best thing we do is learn from our mistakes, but we have to free ourselves to make mistakes in the first place.
– Brian Clark, aka The Copy Blogger

“When you love books and live with them daily, it’s tempting to believe they’re the answer. That whatever the crisis — war, pandemic, social delamination — books will be our lanterns and compasses, our balls of string leading out of the labyrinth. I think all this is true, and moreover that these primitive bundles of ragstock and ink still pulse with curious music, but twenty years on it’s plain that their greatest power is to move us toward each other.”

— Lief Enger, quoted in the Washington Post book newsletter, 9/2/21, in a foreword to the new 20th anniversary edition of his novel, Peace Like a River.

“Writing is an art. But, like any art, it depends on craft techniques, which can be taught to anyone who is willing to learn them. They are not easy. Like any craft worth mastering, writing calls for hard work. The tools of the craft are the writers hand, brain, heart and senses. They all have to work together to shape up the finished product. Writing thus calls into play the whole personality of the craftsman.”

— Robert Strumpen-Darrie & Charles F. Berlitz, The Berlitz School of Languages (1956)

Being creative is “having the ability to make unexpected connections, either to see commonplace things in new ways — or unusual things that escape the attention of others — and realize their importance,” as Georgetown University psychiatrist Norman Rosenthal describes it in this Washington Post article titled Creativity may be key to healthy aging. Here are ways to stay inspired. It isn’t limited to the arts, of course; there is much creativity in everyday activities, from rearranging the furniture to advising a teenager. And it may be a big boost to healthy aging. I can’t summarize the suggestions here — do read the article; it isn’t long — but what most struck me was the observation that we become truer to our vision as we age, able to solve problems, whether they involve pages, paint, or people, with less dependence on others’ expectations.

So it seems fitting to share a painting by an over-70 artist friend who got serious about painting after retiring from another career, and whose work sometimes turns expectations upside down