“Treat one strand of straw as important and never take a useless step.”
Fukuoka, Masanobu. The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming. Edited by Larry Korn. Translated by Chris Pearce and Tsune Kurosawa. New York Review Books Classics. New York: New York Review Books, 2009.
Lots to think about but first thing:
There are, in my view, three stages of making art. One of them is the imagining, and the final one is the shaping. But in between, there is the judging, which is kind of what we’re talking about here, the editing. And imagining gets a lot of space on YouTube videos and books that help you free up your imagination, which is very important.
And then the shaping gets a lot of attention because it’s about craft and technique and how you make the thing that is at least close to something in your head. What kind of never gets any love is this middle ground, which is the judging.
Had a scary moment at the end where I thought was going to get picked for the jury.
Many thoughts over the course of the day:
This is an adversarial relationship yet watching everyone involved was professional, clearly able to manage disagreement with civility. I know that’s the profession, that’s their work, but it’s still kind of impressive.
This day also reminded me of the work situation where you’re in a meeting with ten or more people and the meeting is two minutes of content packed into sixty; the cost of that meeting (everyone’s hourly wage) is extraordinary. All of these potential jurors waiting around all day only to find out they hadn’t been picked.
I also had time to closely re-read the Mock Trial Case for 2024.
Hey, let me double park my truck in order to get Halal.
Distressing loss. Meant a lot, though, to keep score with my boy.
