“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Isaiah’s image is more severe than it first appears. The well may be full, but fullness is not enough. Water still has to be drawn. There must be a vessel, a hand, and something strong enough to reach into the darkness and bring what is hidden to the surface. I have begun to suspect that inspiration works the same way. Ideas are not always absent when we feel empty. Sometimes they are simply deep. And joy, not noise, entertainment or the performance of happiness, may be one of the ropes by which we reach them. We usually put joy at the end of life’s equation. Work first. Struggle first. Survive the month. Finish the manuscript. Win. Endure. Then, if life is merciful, rejoice. But a mind trained to postpone joy eventually forgets how to receive it. Worse, we demand inspiration from the very state that has exhausted it: pressure. We sit before a blank page as though interrogating a suspect. We threaten the mind with de...
Xplore diverse concepts in the digital age, from an interconnected transcendental perspective.