Author Archives: Jeff Ong

All flourishing is mutual. Potowatomi proverb

I’ve been thinking about noise: how much of it exists, its characteristics, and the lengths to which we go to remove it from our lives. Not too long ago it was assumed that clean water’s not important, that seeing the stars is not that important. But now it is. And now I think we’re realizingContinue reading “Noise Altering”

To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought. James Baldwin

Whatever you choose to do, leave tracks. And that means, don’t do just for yourself, because in the end it’s not going to be fully satisfying. I think you will want to leave the world a little better for your having lived. And there’s no satisfaction that a person can gain from what people callContinue reading “Leave Tracks”

It’s a frequently cited trope that art derives from experiences of suffering and pain. The discussion of the conditions for the creation of great art is usually a tired one, painted in broad strokes with its participants citing heartbreak, conflict, suicide, poverty. But the following passage from Ocean Vuong’s novel, On Earth We’re Briefly GorgeousContinue reading “The language for creativity”

Minor feelings are also the emotions we are accused of having when we decide to be difficult — in other words, when we decide to be honest. When minor feelings are finally externalized, they are interpreted as hostile, ungrateful, jealous, depressing, and belligerent, affects ascribed to racialized behavior that whites consider out of line. OurContinue reading “Minor Feelings”