Pay no attention to the craziness everywhere around you

Control is an illusion.

Human beings are meat puppets, bone machines, moist robots, collections of atoms, accidental byproducts of nature and, my own personal favorite, chimpanzees with a firmware upgrade.

We’re guided and constrained and manipulated by systems that we cannot understand. And that’s precisely why people continue to do things that give them the false sense that they are taming their world, taking command of its complexity and danger.

We prefer to treat life as a problem to solve, not as a mystery to be lived. Because without that precious sense of control, we’re lost.

The only problem is, that’s a boring way to live. If we pay zero attention to the craziness that’s everywhere around us, ignoring the infinite wonders that are to be found, shutting out the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to us, how the hell are we supposed to be inspired and awed?

Cohen’s legendary interview on the creative process said it perfectly:

If I knew where the good songs came from, I’d go there more often. Writing is a mysterious condition. It’s much like the life of a nun. You’re married to the mystery.

Leonard reminds us, then, to accept that we do not have magical control over the world. To look closely enough to allow ourselves to be delighted. And to learn to tolerate and even love the mystery, without the need to change it and make it unmysterious.

Beware of any approach to creativity that closes the door on mystery. Say yes to it.

What are you going to do to acquaint yourself with your own mysterious nature?