“Nobody Said it Was Going to Be Fun”

I’m often floored by how many incredible thinkers, scholars, and leaders pass through Columbia. I don’t have time to see all of those who visit the J-School, much less the university at large. As my grad school days draw to a close, I’m trying to glean as much from the experts as possible.

I first went to a panel on business intrapreneurship – being innovative within an existing infrastructure or corporation. I heard Andrew Ross Sorkin (my dorky journalist crush) speak about reporting on things like mergers and aqusitions that, try ans I might, I cant’t muster an interest for.

In the evening, I heard Israeli writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret speak to a crowded room of creative writers and translaters.

He read a story, and I stat on a stool that reminded me of an old art studio, and I was reminded why I’m draw to what Etgar has to say about living life more than the flat dictates of a how to succeed panel:

He said something along these lines….

“I was in Sweaden, and there was this man holding the paper underneath his arm and cup of coffee in his hand. He took a sip of coffee and then paper fell from his arm. He picked it up, put it back under his arm, and did the same thing again about four times. Drink coffee, drop paper, pick it up, repeat. And I thought, my God, this is so sad. And my friend said, no, its a stupid man dropping a paper. Yes, okay, perhaps he’s right. But in a way we are all the man drinking coffee and dropping the paper, you know? And so that’s why I had to write about it….Writing is a way for me to articulate something I can’t explain. Maybe it is only something I have to express, if only to myself.”