thoughts, words, deeds

a fascinating life

"In order to lead a fascinating life, one brimming with art, music, intrigue and romance, you must surround yourself with precisely these things." Kate Spade What is your take on this? I'm in a Kate Spade mood, so I will be using quotes from her.

This one feels kind of self fulfilling. I mean, if you surround yourself with art, music, intrigue, and romance, certainly your life will be brimming with them. However, I think I’d question the idea that fascinating means a connection with those things. The problem is, people who are not fascinating can surround themselves with things, and still feel their lack of fascinating while their lives look on the outside to be rife with everything anyone would want. And there’s no guarantee that such a life will be happy or fulfilling—in fact, observation seems to suggest otherwise.

I think that the people that I find most fascinating are those who are creative. An artist or musician rather than a collector. I find writers fascinating. I find intelligence fascinating—people who can hold a conversation about something interesting. I find kindness fascinating. Yes, it can be that those people have their dull moments as well. I have a brother-in-law who studied jazz piano and composition. And listing to him perform is amazing. But behind that performance is hours upon hours of practicing and playing all the wrong notes to find the right one. And that’s fascinating.

I would suggest that the most fascinating individuals are those who are doing. I don’t care what they’re doing . . . just that their lives are filled with purpose and discovery and creation. And sometimes that means that we who are introverts retreat to a tower sometimes, in order to survive, but that doesn’t mean that our quiet life in the tower isn’t fascinating. Even though it isn’t as noisy as the people who surround themselves with life and people until they burst with it.