A writer lives at the frontier between the creative energy of inner life and confluence of situations and circumstances of the outer world. Sometimes, while focused on the mercurial threshold between the familiar and the uncertain, a new terrain is revealed that becomes the underlying ground of discovery. The writer’s task is to endure the creative struggle to say something personal and authentic yet universal at the same time. In this sense, writing has the potential to inspire a shared sense of meaning and conjure a momentary place of belonging inhabited by the writer and reader.
Good writing serves to clarify the nature of being. Language is generative. Words are energetic and conjure motion. A single phrase may become a catalyst for an unexpected journey, a quest for meaning, and a refinement of purpose. Sometimes we may be offered a glimpse into realms of experience that, once revealed, offer no hope of retreat. When writing leans into the mystery and touches our sensibilities, the old familiar ways deteriorate creating space for the uncertainty of new potential for living. And this potential for living a life worth living is a deep inherent need within the human condition.
Brian Alger writes on the frontiers of experience, on the threshold between periods of relative calm and the volatility of transformative experiences that become crucial moments in our life course. His work is anchored in the belief that the essential purpose of creativity is to broaden and expand the experience of being alive. Writing on the frontiers of experience is always an effort to balance light and dark, positive and negative, stability and turbulence, and joy and hardship in the hope of finding something meaningful to hold on to.
During his graduate work in ethnomusicology, Brian discovered his passion for creativity, improvisation, and artistry as expressed in music as well as life in general. These three qualities evolved into principles for living a life worth living. As an educator, Brian sought new approaches to learning, curriculum, and instruction. During the next phase in his career, creativity was the foundation for successful business ventures as a consultant and entrepreneur.
Today, Brian’s work focuses creativity, improvisation, and artistry as pathways to explore the culminating phase of life. He writes from the perspective on someone who, approaching age 60, is engaged in the deep work of seeking a more vital sense of identity, meaning, and purpose while moving ever further into the temporal entanglement called, “the second half of life.” However, this is a website for creative people of any age who seek to establish a useful and practical philosophy of living a life worth living that is good for self, others, and the world at the same time.
