We Do What We Can

In Henry James’s short story "The Middle Years," the main character, Dencombe, offers a summation of his life:

We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.

Brian Morton burrows into the passage:

Let’s listen again to Dencombe: "Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task." I love the fact that he uses the word "passion" and the word "task" in the same sentence—the one so exalted, the other so commonplace.

More than this, I love that he equates them. Our passion is our task. To follow the calling of art, to keep faith with it, to continue with your daily labors despite the frustrations, the distractions, and the other varieties of madness that will inevitably beset you—all this requires passion, but it also requires something else, something more down-to-earth. Call it steeliness. Call it persistence. Call it tenacity. Call it resilience. Call it devotion.