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What Matters Most: Living a More Considered Life is a kind of summing up, reflecting not only aspects of my personal journey, but some of the stories I have seen and witnessed as an analyst for many years. Analytic work is most humbling for a number of reasons. First, we cannot “fix” any other, solve their problem, cure them. We cannot even fix ourselves. And the human condition is not a disease, despite one ancient who said that life is a disease, the cure for which is death. Second, it is a privilege to attend the unfolding story of another human being, and to learn that for all our limitations, something healing generally arises out of these most intimate conversations. Third, as both analyst and analysand share the same condition, albeit with different journeys, we are mutually humbled by the powers of the invisible world to guide, shape, wound, and govern for good or ill, the visible world. Perhaps my life journey could best be summarized as a well-intended bumbling in the world on a daily basis, yet a consistent, life-long desire to discern the invisible world through the lineaments of the visible.

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I love art. I love spending long days in museums, I love coming across odd sculptures in parks and on street corners, and I love looking at the funny, lovely paintings, photographs, and objects that my friends make.

Now, I'm not much of a visual artist myself, so it was especially enjoyable for me to turn my main character, Vidalia, into an artist. I decided to give her two big art projects, and to have each of these come out of a completely different school of thought about art-making.

Vidalia's Rabbit Houses are the first project, and they come out of what I call the "Art is fun!" school. Most of the artists I know are people who love to play with stuff. They'll see a piece of trash and turn it into something amazing, or they'll dream up some crazy idea and then make it real.

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