{"id":12333,"date":"2019-08-27T22:36:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T02:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/?p=12333"},"modified":"2020-01-14T15:49:49","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T19:49:49","slug":"vanaprastha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/archives\/12333","title":{"rendered":"Vanaprastha"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat\u2019s important is striving to detach progressively from the most obvious earthly rewards \u2014 power, fame and status, money \u2014 even if you continue to work or advance a career. The real trick is walking into the next stage of life, Vanaprastha,<\/em> to conduct the study and training that prepare us for fulfillment in life\u2019s final stage.\u201d
\n\u2014 Arthur C Brooks<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Having recently read this widely circulated admonition of Brooks, I honestly have not looked into what Vanaprastha<\/em> is. Nevertheless, conditioning oneself to be increasing less concerned with external reinforcement makes perfect sense, especially if youth is a distant image in the side mirror (or even if it\u2019s closer than it appears). Visual artists (not bloggers) probably are more equipped to handle this than people who have spent the bulk of a lifetime overly attached to outer compensations. Those of us driven by a creative impulse typically don\u2019t expect power as a byproduct of accomplishing goals, or high-status recognition. Most of us would still pursue our passion, even if money never became a meaningful part of the equation. But the pitfalls are there, regardless. Let\u2019s challenge ourselves to make art as if nobody will ever see it, or buy it, or bestow upon it yet another jot of devalued online praise. It might get interesting. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

One\u2019s Own Priesthood<\/em><\/strong>
\ncollage on book cover by J A Dixon
\n6.125 x 8.25 inches
\n(I\u2019m trying not to care what you think.)
\n 
\nI\u2019ll buy it anyway.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat\u2019s important is striving to detach progressively from the most obvious earthly rewards \u2014 power, fame and status, money \u2014 even if you continue to work or advance a career. The real trick is walking into the next stage of life, Vanaprastha, to conduct the study and training that prepare us for fulfillment in life\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,168,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12333"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13410,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12333\/revisions\/13410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}