Comments on: Performance anxiety

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:36:25 +0000

And the feeling of being behind quickens the panic.

I’ve declared ‘responsibility bankruptcy’. It was almost entirely a matter of perspective, rather than action. I got out a piece of paper and listed the sine qua non items of life, and separately, all of my entanglements.

The sine qua non list was refreshingly small, but more demanding than I gave it credit for. 2x the time I gave it, commonly. That understood, eyes and stomach began to (were forced to) agree, and the entanglements were ranked and weeded.

I’ve managed to keep my nose above water since, now and then scribbling out those lists to keep my head clear.

I posited atheism once, to see what it might allow me to discard. Little. My thoughts and cares proceed ‘from the ground up’ when I am not in the thrall of some writer on metaphysics (most of college), so I wasn’t too terribly surprised.

By: pamccf

pamccf — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:32:37 +0000

Thanks for that. Tangential: I think I have a block in my mind that prohibits me from using lists or journals of any kind. I managed to keep a journal for two months last summer, a record for me, but then I lost it. Any lists I make will be incomplete or damaged or lost. I don’t know if its psychological or psychological, if you follow the distinction, but I just don’t do well with written records that intend to be true. Especially if I’m making them for myself. (Who’s he? Oh, he’ll remember.)

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:15:31 +0000

I like the sponge metaphor. I sort of closed my eyes and sighed after reading it.

Then I thought maybe we are like sponges, each being saturated with our own talent and that we simply need to be squeezed so that we can drip all over the people and world around us. Ideally, many sponges are being saturated and squeezed constantly, both around and above us.

Then can we squeeze ourselves? I have no doubt of it.