- I get up
- I feed the dog
- I turn on Kindle
- I pee
- I brush my teeth
- I take my pills
- I let out the dog
- I let in the dog
- I plop down on the sofa and start reading the L. A. Times on Kindle
After all this, I begin thinking about coffee, breakfast, work, whatever special projects may come to mind.
The more stability in the external life, the more reckless and cutting edge the mental life can be without interior destruction. This is why so many writers are so different in person than you'd imagine them being from their books.
I'm reminded of one of Norman O. Brown's favorite quotations from William Blake, to paraphrase: the real fight, the mental fight, the Fiery Chariot of His Contemplative Thought.
Our culture is in a rush to destroy environments conducive to contemplative thought.
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