John Cage’s A Year from Monday is part of our Essential Bathroom Library; you can open the book anywhere and find a short concentrated bit to shake your head up. As one reviewer wrote: “Cage’s writing does not tell us what to think as much as it makes us think in a particular way…”

We find this one to be quite a nugget, scanned from our ancient, dog-eared copy:

“How immediately are you going to say Yes, no matter what unpredictability, even when what happens seems to have no relation to what one thought was one’s commitment?”

Now that, to us, is what real risk-taking is about.

Related posts: john cage applying ‘what would happen’ if to music

tina fey’s 4 1/2 rules (in 4 1/2 minutes)

yes

what is the most powerful word in the English language?

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4 replies on “bathroom read: john cage’s “a year from monday”

  1. Even though I have 2 copies of this book, knew JC and spent 30 years performing his music, it was still great to see when I visited your site today. Thanks for posting and carrying the JC flag 🙂

  2. Fast Forward, Thank’s so much for telling us that.
    We took the liberty of we googling you and have been finding all sorts of treasures on your website…http://www.mrfastforward.com, which we hope to write about. Glad to be in your sightlines.

  3. I was moved to poke around the website of Mr. Fast Forward which is captivating and inspiring – excited by the “Feeding Frenzy”!!!

  4. We’ve actually had an extraordinary correspondence with Mr. Fast Forward, and plan to write about him soon to coincide with the launch of his new project. Stay tuned.

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