Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that being truly present in the moment is more valuable and complex than simply being productive.
Maria Popova emphasizes the importance of presence over productivity, highlighting that the ability to engage fully in the moment requires more skill and nuance than just focusing on achieving tasks. It suggests that real fulfillment and richness in life come from being aware and attentive to our experiences rather than rushing through them to complete a checklist of activities.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a mindfulness workshop to emphasize the value of being present.
Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity. Ours is a culture that measures our worth as human beings by our efficiency, our earnings, our ability to perform this or that. The cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living.
Our chronic discomfort with ambiguity - which, ironically, is critical to both our creativity and the richness of our lives - leads us to lock down safe, comfortable, familiar interpretations, even if they are only partial representations of or fully disconnected from reality.
We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.
A writer's work is the product of laziness.
Because if we the storytellers don't do this, then the bad people will win.
If I could be reincarnated as a fashion accessory, it would be a shopping bag.
I think the first little jolt I got was reading Gerard Manley Hopkins - I liked other poems... but Hopkins was kind of electric for me - he changed the rules with speech, and the whole intensity of the language was there and so on.
I want to establish a wide range and play all kinds of parts. It's that sort of acting career I really respect. I like to turn a sharp left from whatever I've done before because that keeps me awake. That's why I want to be an actor - I don't want to play endless variations on one character.
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