I finished Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott the other week. I enjoyed it. She's funny and down-to-earth and has some great perspectives on writing and life. I've marked up my copy of the book, underlining and whatnot (topic for another post: who among us marks up books and who views that as sacrilege?), and by the end, find that I now have a nice stack of juicy quotes. One of these feels very relevant at this time, although I suppose, as the quote itself suggests (this was published in 1994), perhaps this sentiment has always been relevant, no matter what time period we find ourselves in.
"The society to which we belong seems to be dying or is already dead. I don’t mean to sound dramatic, but clearly the dark side is rising. Things could not have been more odd and frightening in the Middle Ages. But the tradition of artists will continue no matter what form the society takes."
-- Anne Lamott
There's something very comforting in that last line.