Heeding Colson Whitehead's Advice

Recently, The New York Times published Colson Whitehead's rules for writing. Rule No. 9 turns out to be good advice for living, too:

"Have adventures. The Hemingway mode was in ascendancy for decades before it was eclipsed by trendy fabulist “exercises.” The pendulum is swinging back, though, and it’s going to knock these effete eggheads right out of their Aeron chairs. Keep ahead of the curve. Get out and see the world. It’s not going to kill you to butch it up a tad. Book passage on a tramp steamer. Rustle up some dysentery; it’s worth it for the fever dreams alone. Lose a kidney in a knife fight. You’ll be glad you did."

In honor of this bit of advice, I've taken stock of the past year:

I learned to weld.

I made art

I saw art

Photo by Joseph Beuys at The Walker Art Center

Jenny Holtzer

I saw myself in art

I listened to the sounds

I dug a grave by moonlight

I got back on a bike after eight years

I went to the shooting range (and went my own way)

And then there was this