I Don't Want an Office

"I am doing what seems to me the simplest--I have done with all that is not simple; I don't want the city any longer, I want the country; I don't want an office, I want to paint."

-letter from Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo

These words from Van Gogh were meant as a test for Theo, who was considering whether to give up his work as an art dealer and become a painter himself. Vincent gave the above quote as an example of what the painter must feel, must think, in order to commit to the artist's life--the life as he had come to understand it through years of struggle.

Two years now in the country, and I am nearing this sentiment. I don't want an office; I want to write. My second novel is coming along, coming alive. The possibility of life in the country--a full-fledged life in the country--seems less daunting than it did when I first started coming out here. Here is where I work, and where, ironically, I am least lonely.

Today, I split wood for the first time. Learning how to wield an ax without falling over.

But like Vincent, there are concerns, there are worries. Of money, specifically. In this I suppose I am in the same boat as all Americans at this particular moment in history.

On another note, here is an interesting article in today's Sunday Times about a supposed movement called Slow Blogging. A small comfort for those of us who still don't really know what Twitter is.