Pick the Pencil Back Up

“It was when I was in just such deep misery that I felt my energies revive, and I said to myself: in spite of everything, I shall rise again; I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.”
-Vincent Van Gogh

I’m on a real Van Gogh kick this week. His life is shrouded in existential crisis. The truth is his actual profession is totally unrelatable to me. My senior year of high school, I took a drawing class. For the final, we compared a self portrait we drew on the first day of class to the last to show how much we improved.

Upon examining my work the teacher said “I think you got worse". He was right. Probably should have left that pencil on the ground.

Vincent went through far more tragedy than being disparaged by a teacher. His relationships were unstable, he was poor, and suffered from lifelong depression. A central theme of existentialism is the idea of finding meaning in spite of life’s brutality. For Vincent, it was his art. His deep commitment to it has immortalized him.

What is your pencil and will you pick it back up?

The last three books I read…
The Comfort Crisis
Impact Players
Essentialism