“DON'T TRY” 🪦
maybe the old man has a point. we care too much and it makes us worse at the game.
there are characters that come around that embody something. they stand out by pure contrast. they’re not the model, they’re like a parable. unforgettable. many will try to emulate them, which they would think is hilarious, because they weren’t trying to be anything. they just accepted fated and destiny embracing them because they knew they were damned if they did or didn’t. for some reason they felt that way and in retrospect it seems like it couldn’t be any other way
Bukowski drank like a fish, worked at the post office, lived like a debauch, and wrote some really beautiful poems.
it wasn’t all pretty, but none of it was phony.
hmm.
you could say he wasn’t TRYING to be anything, he even gave up writing for a long while. until he couldn’t help himself.
this sentiment of DON’T TRY is echoed many other places, people like it, for a long time I didn’t understand it, but I think its what I needed to hear.
just anecdotally, we know it to be true.
-you try to force a relationship, so they push you away.
-you try really hard to look for the keys, you get frustrated, its only when someone less invested in the keys looks that you find them.
-you’re at the foul line, DONT MISS, and so you miss.
it has something to do with tension, your field of vision, your perspective. missing the forest for the trees.
you get too close to the problem, you can’t see an obvious solution near by.
you try to convince someone of something, its because you need to convince yourself more than them.
you care too much, it makes you worse at the game.
something to ponder.
Epictetus on Socrates and PLAY
And what was the ball in that case? Life, chains, banishment, a draught of poison, separation from wife and leaving children orphans. These were the things with which he was playing; but still he did play and threw the ball skilfully.
So we should do: we must employ all the care of the players, but show the same indifference about the ball. For we ought by all means to apply our art to some external material, not as valuing the material, but,
whatever it may be, showing our art in it. (2.5)
Bukowski was even more interesting than that. He quit drinking the last few years of his life, but did not admit to it in public, but the shift in his work is fairly clear. It seems he enjoyed his life more during that stage. But yes; fairly prolific. Found somebody to pay him what he made at the PO to write and jumped at the chance. Prolific and fun, at times profound, all from not trying.
Reminds me of the ancient Chinese philosophy of wu wei, which means "non-doing" or "effortless action." I don't think a person can just choose to do it, although we might set our intention in that direction. It's more like the outcome of a process of an internal transformation that we can lean into.