Along with the KFC Double Down the daily American diet consists of roughly 34 gigabytes of information. And that number is from a 2009 NYTimes story so let's just assume the figure is a little higher by now. Now I don't know about you, but my Google Reader hits 1000+ about an hour after I mark-all-as-read (thanks, BBC news feed) and between NPR on the ride home and a chapter of Twilight before bed my mind is buzzing and I end up dreaming about a Cullen-Totenberg rendezvous in northern Afghanistan. Well something like that.
My point is: there's a lot of sh*t out there and sometimes it drives me crazy. Because a lot of times the shit is good. And my ability to retain information is not so good. So I recommend: a post-it/scrap paper wall of inspiration (mine is pictured at the left). I don't have the time to memorize my favorite passages of essays, novels or Facebook memos so I tack them to my wall. I can muster up some minutes to glance at the quotes and slowly I begin to incorporate them into my long-term memory. It helps. Some quotes below.
- "The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to their dream." - Didion
- "The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty 'yes' to your adventure."- J. Campbell
- "Give me enough time in this place and I will surely make a beautiful thing."- Dillard
- "At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph or paint or even remember it. It is enough." - Morrison
- "Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies — God damn it, you've got to be kind." - Vonnegut
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