This Post Intentionally Left Not Blank

Rhodes Skatepark, Boise, Idaho. Early morning photo session. July 2020.

On solitude: “a country whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. You do not find it by traveling but by standing still.”

- Thomas Merton

I am sitting here wondering what if I didn’t write and post ‘These Things’ today and just had a message “this post/email left intentionally blank” would that inspire or just be silly? I don’t mind trying and there’s a fine line between these and I’m just tired because of the “big secret (not so secret) project” this week, I wasn’t thinking of not writing “These Things” in a “it doesn’t matter” sense because I love it so, well, it matters, but in a “it was March, then April and now August this week somehow I’ve misplaced my months I know they’re gone because it’s finally hot here I’m not complaining because we had such a lovely spring, like, it was so amazing here in Boise this spring and I’ve been reading a lot of Frank O’Hara poems because so many feel like summer to me maybe because he died on Fire Island after being hit by a dune buggy around July 25, 1966, and anyway one of his poems inspired the tattoo of an orange I have on my left arm but that story’s for another day.

And! “These Things” inspired me recently:

• “Creep” by Radio Head. Medieval style cover inspired by Hildegard von Blingen’ - Yes, you read that name correctly, not Hildegard von Bingen, Hildegard von Blingen’

• Finding an Existential Second Wind - Anyone else feeling it? If you read this and find something practical in it, please help me. Still, it’s nice to read and be validated. I think I just missed it, but still good stuff here.

• Learn to be alone - I subscribe to Austin Kleon’s blog and so yeah, he shows up here because he inspires me. For all the creatives in the room, and by the way, we’re in this room together right now, and we’re all creatives here. Kleon made a tiny book (from one sheet of paper) with quotes and inspirations from some artists on the importance of being alone and isn’t the timing perfect?