![\"rejection\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/rejection-420x219.jpg\")
After the Durango trip, during which I read three articles I’d saved for down time, I made two decisions.<\/p>\nSummer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Woolly Mammoth Moon<\/p>\n
After the Durango trip, during which I read three articles I’d saved for down time, I made two decisions.<\/p>\n
First, I would shoot for 100 rejections in 2018. I just submitted Missing to Parvus Press and School Spirit to The Metz Review. Since I’m starting with the year almost half done, 100 may be ambitious, but I’m going to work toward that end.<\/p>\n
Second, I reaffirmed a decision I’d made when I started caretaking for Kate after her shoulder surgery. When she had recovered enough to clean up after I cook and feed the dogs their lunch, I’d go back to five days a week exercise. Three days resistance work and two days HIIT. This last week I got back there.<\/p>\n
Without tumbling around in the conceptual concrete mixer that stirs together individualism and authenticity vs social responsibility I’ll say I like the idea of ground projects, projects that give us a reason to live. This conforms well to my existentialist self who believes we are responsible for the meaning in our life and with my Taoist self who seeks the Way regardless of social convention.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Woolly Mammoth Moon After the Durango trip, during which I read three articles I’d saved for down time, I made two decisions. First, I would shoot for 100 rejections in 2018. I just submitted Missing to Parvus Press and School Spirit to The Metz Review. Since I’m starting with the year almost half done, … Continue reading 100 no’s, 5 days, and life grounds<\/span> ![\"becoming](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/becoming-native-420x198.jpg\")
In that reading I also learned, in an article<\/a> focused on Gauguin and the moral philosopher Bernard Williams,\u00a0 about the idea of ground projects. “If you are going to live a life that is true to yourself, then you had better know yourself, and remember that \u2018know thyself\u2019 was one of the Delphic maxims that set Socrates on the road to philosophy…A wiser, older Williams gave more emphatic expression to the fact that the pursuit of authenticity can lead to \u2018ethical and social disaster\u2019. He also moved away from the stark individualism of \u2018Moral Luck\u2019 and stressed the role that one\u2019s community plays in preventing or enabling one to become whom one wants to become.”<\/p>\n![\"labyrinth\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/labyrinth-420x315.jpg\")
My ground project for many years was economic justice, transmuted later on into the Great Work of Thomas Berry, creating a sustainable presence for humans on this earth. My ground project of the moment is reconstructing faith with the assistance and stimulation of the Reconstructionist Jewish movement. I have a side project, perhaps a little hillock on my ground project, which is creative writing. All of these have and do give me a reason for being alive, for being enriched and enlivened. Good enough ground for me to stand on.<\/p>\n