five star stuff, pt. 2

five star stuff is a series in which I share fabulous resources, inspiration, work, and ideas I love from others

I am an Austin Kleon subscriber, reader, and book lover.

In an email from him today, he wrote:

“My books, even though they’re fairly positive, are often written out of a negative approach that’s fueled by my disgust with the world.”

I followed those links (both great) and loved this from the second one, his post Disgust with Civilization:

“I feel like my readers see me as a fairly positive person, but I doubt they know how much I am driven by my disgust.

The trick is: I take the thing I’m disgusted with, imagine the opposite, and push that out into the world.

Identifying poison, privately, but sharing nourishment, publicly.

After all, aggravation is my muse.”

I especially love the idea of identifying poison and sharing nourishment!! And the creative work of imagining the opposite of what you hate/are disgusted by, followed with the generous offering of your imagination to others.

(If you love this as much as I do, follow those links to his posts… there are even more hyperlinks which I didn’t include in that second excerpt, and they all link to great stuff, too! Any time I read Austin Kleon’s online work, it turns into a delightful, wise, long-winding rabbit trail continually leading to more and more good work and good ideas. I hope one day everyday magic will be something like that, and I draw inspiration from people like Austin.)