“Procrastination and mourning are tied tightly together: for to procrastinate is to mourn the precariousness of your creation even before you bring it into the world.

We should perhaps spend more time dwelling on the rich virtuality that precedes the fall into existence. That is, after all, what true contemplation must be about: a commerce with the irreality of things, a learned habit to see them from the privileged perspective of their pre- and nonexistence. Rather than get caught up in the misleading appearance of the material world, we transport ourselves back to a moment when the world, with all its holes and imperfections, hasn’t happened yet.”

— Costa Bradatan, From The Stone, New York Times, September 17, 2016

When I read “Why Do Anything? A Meditation on Procrastination” this weekend I wept with recognition. Accompanied by an exquisite illustration by Leigh Wells, the piece cuts right through to the contradictions and poetry of the  contemplative state. [Read more…]