Thrusting With Thumos
Tomorrow’s events:
Stoic Breath: Sunrise Edition w/ Steve Beattie. Every Monday @ 6:15 AM ET. RSVP here.
Deep Code Dialogos w/ Jordan Hall. December 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Metaphysics, Philosophy, Civilization Design, and Various High Arts w/ Forrest Landry. December 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. 5:00 PM ET.RSVP here. 90 mins.
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December 27th, 2020
I am feeling free now, with this thing. It seems like there is a series of what I’ll call “thumos thrusts” associated with it.
The first three months of this thing was one big thrust, followed by summertime sadness. In September another thrust began, which ended after the Chomsky session. That was followed by a “too weird” feeling, which was stemming from expectations being put on this place, located largely on asynchronous communicative channels where those expectations can fester.
The Stoa will have no affiliated “social” media platforms going into the new year, and I will be very clear that The Stoa is an act of personal creative expression. It is my artwork. While this feels somewhat pretentious to write, this perspective feels most resonant and accurate.
When you are creating art, you do not explain your art, especially to those who ungratefully expect it should be created in a certain way. No. You just create. It also feels like the right move for me to have a greater degree of “fuck off” energy going into the new year. I do not desire to be nice, as being nice does not make for good boundaries.
If people do not like the art, then buh-bye, go away. I do not have the bandwidth to listen to fools in the peanut gallery, who do not risk creating for themselves. My favorite actor Klaus Kinski is coming to mind again, along with that quote of his I love so much:
I don't need anybody to tell me how to be alive.
I was talking to Arran Rogerson yesterday, and we discussed learning the language of the daemon, then learning how to listen to that language. When you listen, you feel a sense of aliveness.
I have engaged in many creative projects throughout my life, all under different names, both private and public. The majority of them had no financially rewarding component to them, because it was not about making money. The throughline between all of them was listening, and experiencing this sense of aliveness.
This was never about The Stoa. I am not attached to this thing called The Stoa. That is a throw-away name. If the sense of aliveness cannot stay here, then buh-bye, I will go away. I will follow the sense of aliveness, and what makes me come alive in the new year might be something quite different and simple.
I do not know what it will be, and this makes my life exciting, not knowing how my art will take shape. Another Kinski quote feels quite alive right now:
You don't need a framework. You need a painting, not a frame.
Yeah. Totally. Fuck all these frameworks. You cannot control the daemon, or box him in. He will just rebel, and tell you to fuck off, and he’ll jump from one live player to the next. No one player owns him. Just be grateful when he is here, and make the choice of whether you are going to listen. You do not have to listen, sometimes it is not wise to.
I am ready for another thrust right now.
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