And, I suppose, it is because of this that I have such an issue with academic advice. Also, what is the difference between having “discipline” in a positive sense and forcing yourself to do something? Why is it that love notes work so much better to get me to do things than warning notices?
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And a related point: we are supposed to produce good products, yet at the same time we are advised to mediocrity. I remember this from school, constantly being told that the most important thing was to make deadlines and avoid controversy. Then, when finally I decided I must make a serious effort at my Ph.D. examination in English to make sure I would pass, I was told I really ought to make that kind of effort more often because my work was very good and people did not know it, since I did not give myself the chance.
Later there was that moment at the ceramics studio where the teacher took me aside and said, you have been improving as slowly as you could manage to do for years, but you have been improving and you are now quite good. You must stop treating your work in such a casual way.
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Being good to oneself: something I usually thought was only possible in foreign countries or late at night, when nobody would know I had taken a break from suffering.
Choosing what one likes: something I thought was not possible for me. I thought that for me, the only possibility was choosing what seemed best from a pre-approved list. Also, it seemed to me that my first choice would always be denied, so the key was to choose the second least objectionable activity from the pre-approved list. This is why I have difficulty knowing what I like, or rather how much I like something or not — and to what degree I am doing something by choice, or out of interest in its intrinsic nature.
Waking up in the morning and saying, what can I do for ME today? This, again, is something I normally consider impossible, disallowed, during the day in the United States. In a foreign country were I cannot be seen from here, or while others sleep, I can of course consider these things, and I could here if I were independently wealthy. But I consider that while here and visible, what I must do to survive is prove each day that I am NOT putting myself or my own work first. This, of course, is what must change and this weblog is my form of psychoanalysis and is here to change this very deep training.
#OccupyHE
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
It seem to me that ceramics is something you do for yourself. Certainly the case for me. I don’t care at all what others think of my work but am pleased, of course, if they like it.
Yes, but I mean at work. I am very self-sacrificing at work and it is a distortion.
Oh, I just had an insight. All your activities must be salable. You must sell your pots in order to establish their worth and their worth. Everything you produce must have a market value, be salable, or it isn’t really important. The market is the sole judge of value.
There is that and it was what I found I did NOT like about working at my R1 (although I would still take that over many alternatives).
“Why is it that love notes work so much better to get me to do things than warning notices?”
– Because you are a normal healthy person. The opposite is what’s diseased. I should know since that is my own, very deeply rooted disease.
“In a foreign country were I cannot be seen from here, or while others sleep, I can of course consider these things, and I could here if I were independently wealthy.”
– I know exactly what you are talking about, exactly. To me, such a place, the place where I feel like I’m actually, finally me, my true self, a self that is all-powerful and free is an airport. It’s an in-between, liminal space which is a place of great freedom. Just like the night can be.
Let’s keep discussing this because that’s a place to healing.
I meant a way to healing. Sorry, I’m not feeling well today.
I love airports for that reason. Yes, let us keep discussing this.