Month: February 2025

I’ve been thinking about a book’s cover art this week. The book is Effortless if you want the visual for yourself, but the cover art is two arrows pointed upward albeit with one basically straight and the other a mess of scribbles and circles before finally pointing in the right direction. My working life has definitely felt like the crazy scribble since I returned from Morocco, and on more than one evening I’ve questioned whether I’m even pointing in the right direction at all.

While I eat meals in such a way that I eat a little of this and a little of that so that I finish each item within a couple of bites of the others, that is not how I work. When working, I like to do one thing at a time and drive it to completion before attending to the next task. Given the nature of some of my current projects, that hasn’t been possible in these last few weeks. I’m able to do a little bit, but then I have to wait on something external to be able to proceed to the next step. That means there are several things active and nothing has been completed.

This feeling has only been compounded by the success we’re starting to see. We’ve talked to a lot of prospective clients this month, so many that I’ve limited the number of meeting slots available each day as a stopgap measure. A champagne problem for sure, but it comes with prep work, scheduling and rescheduling emails, follow ups, etc. And for better or worse, we’re simultaneously building systems for which the need became glaringly obvious during our January travels. There are a few other areas in a similar situation. The net net has been fading back into some old, unsustainable work habits. It will only be for a season (I tell myself) and work and life will be better on the other side, but right now isn’t the most fun. That said, we are making progress. Paso a paso, no?

My big souvenirs from my Morocco trip were two rugs. They are different from each other, different from the rest of my décor—much busier than anything else in my apartment and with pops of color. I was attracted to them by a similar compulsion that attracts me to the works of Jackson Pollack in a white museum gallery, order within chaos within a larger order. They are also hand-woven antiques with slight asymmetries that add to their charm. Computers aren’t very good at recreating those slight imperfections, at least not yet, so that makes the human touch stand out even more. 

One of the rugs is a long runner. It fits nicely in the hallway connecting the entry to my apartment with the main living space. I enjoy its yellows and blacks and greens and reds and crazy interwoven patterns each time I return as there is so much going on that I see something new each time and so it still hasn’t become familiar. Having it has also produced a side of benefit of me taking off dirty shoes at the door so that my whole living space stays that little bit cleaner. 

The other, roughly 7×10 feet, is even more special. It’s also older and was much more expensive, but as my maternal grandmother loved to quip money only makes you happy when you spend it (not that I fully agree with that statement, but there have been many more times in my life when I’ve regretted not purchasing things when I travel than times when I’ve regretted making such purchases). It is reds and blues and different patterns in rectangles of threes and multiple focal points as well with different textures for the borders. I won’t attempt a detailed visual description because, selfishly, doing that might strip some of the magic for me. 

One day, it will be a floor centerpiece in my home office/study. As I sit here writing this, however, the floor of my office is largely taken up by the bed in what is also my guest bedroom. That presents a slight conundrum. The rug is currently straddling different spaces in the main living area so that I can enjoy it, but it doesn’t quite fit there. I don’t think there will be a solution to this dilemma while I’m living in this apartment, but that won’t be forever even though I have no present intention to move.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve worked my way through Blue Eye Samurai. It is an animated show set in late medieval Japan. I haven’t watched anime since I watched Pokémon as a child so this was not a show that the algorithms would have chosen for me. I never would have even found the show if not for YouTube. Via that platform, I’ve found two different movie review channels that I watch that are very different from each other. One is highbrow and analyzes the technical aspects and artistry of filmmaking and storytelling (Thomas Flight). The other is more widely known and most of its videos are takedowns of Hollywood blockbusters (The Critical Drinker). I heard about this show via the series “The Drinker Recommends,” a series I find more helpful since it is about what I should watch instead of what I shouldn’t (though the positive videos get fewer views and so the series is sporadic at best).

I have not yet watched the final episode. That said, I’ve enjoyed it thus far. All of the characters have depth. The hero is also part antihero, the villains have redeeming or at least ameliorating qualities. Even the minor characters contain multiple facets and competing emotions and goals. The animation is sharp and the shots well-constructed, but as I’m no connoisseur of anime I don’t have the most educated opinion on those technical items. It is on the graphic side so this is yet another item I’ve included in these missives that isn’t for the children.

I’ve always liked an outsider story too, and the premise undergirding the show is the main character’s blue eyes and what those blue eyes mean in a time when foreigners were banned from Japan. I’ve never dealt with anything like the ostracism the show portrays but have felt an outsider at many points in my life. Addressing those internal feelings has compelled and continues to compel me to try new things in search of belonging, here more than in any place I’ve lived since I left for college. Lest anyone be too concerned, though, I’m not at risk of going on the sort of quest for revenge that Mizu embarks on in the show.