Ritual and getting on with it

Tonight’s message from Robert and Sara Genn is about the role of ritual in the creative process. I know there are certain things I do whether I need to or not, clean the machine before starting, hang the quilt up at the end of the night… etc.

PS: “The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews
Not to be born is the best for man
The second best is a formal order
The dance’s pattern, dance while you can.
Dance, dance, for the figure is easy
The tune is catching and will not stop
Dance till the stars come down from the rafters
Dance, dance, dance till you drop.” (W. H. Auden)

“Keep your shop and your shop will keep you.” (Benjamin Franklin)

Esoterica: For Auden, ritual meant rising at 6, making coffee, taking a pass at the crossword and beginning work. After lunch, he went back to his writing desk. Cocktails began at 6:30 sharp — vodka martinis, then dinner with wine, friends and conversation, then into bed by 11 o’clock. Brooklyn writer Mason Currey, in his 2013 book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, compiles the routines of 161 artists. “You owe it to all of us,” wrote W. H. Auden, “to get on with what you’re good at.”