Hi All,
Welcome to this week's edition of The Contemplative Life.
If you are new around here these letters (I call them letters because I want them to be read like an old-school letter from a friend) are a reminder to practice and a quick way to stay informed of the various projects, essays, book updates, and workshops I am offering to those interested.
Moving forward, I am going to keep the letters shorter than previous letters so as to keep you informed in a timely fashion, yet not waste a good title.
I had planned to call this one, Identity, Masterpieces, and Gertrude Stein. I had a wonderful story I could tell about a time in my 20's while I was at music school where I had the strong impression the more I knew about musical theory the less I knew about music.
I had it all planned out. The back story, the inciting incident, but I began writing and kept bumping on format.
I had a lot to say about identity and I wanted to relate this to my education in music theory. But I was also trying to fit in with updates on how this relates to the contemplative life. And I was trying to write it with updates on my goals for 2024 (as I promised I would do in the previous letter.) And I was trying to write it so as to let you know about a new workshop. And I was trying to write and have it be philosophically insightful. And I was trying to write it with practical takeaways. And I was trying to write it as...you get the point!