Henry David Thoreau famous said, “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” And a friend once said to me, “Shouldn’t he have just said, Simplify?” I believe this is called irony. This point is this: Even when you think you are simplifying your life, you probably aren’t.
It is Spring and several weeks ago I embarked upon the seasonally appropriate purge and clean. My house is filled with what seems like endless clutter, clothes I don’t wear, and stacks of Runner’s World and New Yorkers I’ll never go back and read. I got myself into the requisite unsentimental mindset and set out to simplify my world. But every direction I took ended up in an eddy of some kind. Have to try on the clothes to see what fits and what looks out of date. Have to sort through the old notes and photos to see what I can’t let go of just yet. Have to sort the New Yorkers and save the ones with the David Sedaris articles. Have to put this book in this room, that one over there. Have to find the camera to take the pictures of these things so they can be uploaded and then listed on craigslist… You get the point.
This is the story of modern life. First there was the microwave, then the personal computer and the wireless phone. Then came the laptop and the car phone. Now Facebook and Twitter are right on our cell phones. And we can never rest again.
I’ve set out on this journey of self-publishing and promotion with Waking Up at Rembrandt’s because I want to explore what can be done with these new technologies of viral networking and print on demand, among others.
Unlike most aspiring writers, I had a literary agent almost as soon as I had a finished manuscript. And I thought it would all be that, well, simple. But one year, two rounds of submissions to publishers, and an endless amount of waiting in the dark later, I cut the rope.
For most of us, the world of the big publishing houses still exists behind hundred-feet-tall castle walls, surrounded by a moat. The publishing world is changing, though, and I want to be a part of this new world. Actually, as is my aim with my writing, I want to bridge the worlds.
I believe the things we create on this earth plane are metaphors for the way things already are in the invisible realm. Like cell phones and the wireless internet, connecting us in ways we are already invisibly connected, but haven’t fully realized. I also believe in synchronicity, in magically ending up in the right place at the right time. I am banking on the upside of technology -- the ability to reach exponentially more people through online networking, for instance, than I could on my own – to make up for the fact that since joining the ranks of the mobile Facebook crowd, my life is anything but simple.
In the meantime, if you like what you read here, share it with a friend.
Namaste,
TQ
