Kathryn G. O’Brien, PhD
Foundational Essays | Reflections
Does Everything You Love Have to be Useful?
When did we become so determined to make our pleasures productive?
You start painting, and someone asks whether you've considered selling your work. You enjoy taking photographs, and suddenly there's a conversation about building a portfolio. You write because you love writing, and before long someone wants to know when the book is coming out. Even walking can acquire targets, metrics and a device congratulating us for having done it correctly.
We are remarkably good at turning things we love into things we accomplish. And I'm beginning to wonder what gets lost when everything we enjoy has to justify the time it takes.
When Words Keep Taking You to the Same Place
Sometimes we have explained a problem so thoroughly that we can no longer see it differently.
We know what happened. We know why. We know who did what. We know what our options are. We may even know what we should do, and yet we're stuck. At that point, more words may simply take us around the same familiar circuit
Why Do We Keep Talking Ourselves Out of What We Want?
Some desires barely survive the week.
Others survive decades.
You keep thinking about Paris. Or writing. Or learning to paint. Or starting a business. Or living somewhere entirely different.
And every time the idea appears, you have an answer ready.
It’s too expensive. Too impractical. Too disruptive. Too late. You don't have the talent. You have responsibilities. You should be satisfied with what you already have.
