space

One of the reasons writers and deep thinkers for centuries have thought of space is because it is the largest canvas we have to paint up on. The vastness of the world above coupled with the endless unknowns we face when peering into the stellar, black lagoon stirs up worry in many and possibility in more.

Similar to a whiteboard, glossy and full of diagramable regions, space gives a framework that has been mantled and dismantled numerous times.

From Frank Herbert and George Lucas to Cixin Lin and Pierce Brown, this framework has been twisted and pulled to give us stories and tales of the far, far away and nearest feeling places.

Given the grandeur of the medium of space, these stories are not mere cosmic adventures. We clutch at anachronistic paperbacks that teach us to dream again, hope for beauty in the desolate places, and deeply ponder our place in the universe. There's something more within them than meets the eye...

Science fiction is not an escape,
but a window to a better world displayed through beauty or forewarning.

wash your hands?

Hand washing is a primal act of trust. We desire sanitation, so we wash our hands. But why don't we do jumping jacks or rub our hands together to "frictionize" the germs away?

From a young age, our parents taught us the value in hand-washing. Later on, we personally learned the science and had the practice reaffirmed by authoritative bodies. This act is trust because we cannot complete the tests to view the truth for ourselves.

If this doesn't appear an act of trust, then it's merely blind trust. Unspoken faith in an unforeseen act.

Any daily act of grooming, activity, or productivity is based on trust of something. Trust in the process that produces an outcome.

Reason is involved as well. When policy or culture fail to reason, our intellect does its job to root out fallacy. When women and minorities are excluded from business and governmental roles, a pendulum is released and culture begins to shift.

This is the basis for social contracts- trust counterbalanced by reason.

But what happens to a society whose reason is impaired? Aldous Huxley asked and answered this question in Brave New World speculating that psychological conditioning through repetition would transform the world in an identical image.

His dystopian society hadn't just stopped thinking and started laughing, "they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking."

So if a culture becomes ensnared by a technology that can manipulate, not just our behavior, but our thoughts, social contract theory is out the window.

Trust becomes worse than blind- it's ignorant. And ignorant is not what we can be when it comes to cornerstone behaviors we practice in culture.

We need to proceed with our eyes wide open, so that we may use technology rather than be used by it.

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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read // lpII review

read // stg 3

read // not the end

stuck

It's very easy to get stuck.

After traveling a certain direction for a time, your route becomes so narrow or clouded that your ability to push on comes to a halt. You can do one of two things: pull out as far as it talks to readjust to a new route, or mix up your process for doing what got you stuck.

Some ways the latter option has played out for me:

Learning to play tennis left-handed to get past a hump in my game.

Writing at a coffee shop instead of at my house every morning to jog better thinking.

White-boarding a Report question before sitting down to right it up.

Change is the primary component of innovation. Find creativity in your mix-up and you may find the path to get unstuck.

seasons

Why is it so important to name our seasons?

Part of the reason why is that if we don't, someone will name them for us.

Culture and technology name sport, shopping, and political seasons. Our life's reflection is halted to partake in these cultural liturgies. Looking back a year reveals how hard it is to remember where our spiritual or emotional journey took us.

Let's stop. Remember what the last four months have been. Put a name to the growth, hurt, or shifts that have occurred. If we take back this, a slew of rhythms become available to our newly liberated schedule:

Focus on a word a month and realize it's fulness in your life.

Build core values or a purpose statement over a period by reflecting and dreaming.

Take on a 30-day challenge doing Rice 'n Beans, Zero Waste, or a Digital Detox.

Then we can ideate visions for our future from the purpose statement. We can name a word that resonated deeply during a season. We can choose growth and a lifestyle practice to capitalize upon.

First, wake up to how hard it is to reclaim our seasons. We have been brainwashed and bamboozled by corporate greed and corruption; told what to believe when and how much importance to give now.

Then, wake up to the million good reasons to name your seasons now (and the couple bad reasons to not), and find the one that pulls you from your seat.

Name it to not just own your past seasons, but to take responsibility for your coming ones.

corollaries

Pick up a pencil and write any word atop a piece of paper.

Begin writing corollaries from your life to the word. This is how idea intersectionality is most fluidly acheived.

When you begin a practice like this, you awaken a deep need within to make connections and ideate meaningfully. You may also find this method to therapeutically unlock new parts of your brain.

Having a crosswalk of ideas bumping into each other on paper nurtures originality. The limitless amount of conjunctive concepts we are each able to create from our individual experience should not be wasted.

Begin thinking along new lines. Create from a generous place of original thinking. Write what gives you clarity and freedom.

(My own writers block was cured today by this very practice...).

core values

When we embark to name those crucibles in our lives, we set out on a multi-layered, confusing journey.

Core values are the things (3-5 words is a good boundary) most central to your life and longings. Thematically, they can be found in the past, through childhood memories and major life shifts. They can be found in the future through examining deep desires and aspirational goals. Here is the first place we experience dissonance: we have to set apart the person we want to be from the person we are at our core, just until we find an anchor.

There are lots of great people we could be, great virtues we could want to pursue, but we have each been created uniquely different, and there are parts of who we are that will be missed if we grasp only aspirationally to a new 'us'.

I believe the best approach to finding our values lies in finding one word we know is true about our identity, that resonates deeply for us to be firmly rooted in truth. From there, we can reiteratively ensure our processing is remaining in the arena of our 'self', warring not against the mind, but against the heart as we transform into our called purpose.

the black box theory

The world made complex by technology will become simple again.

A core tenant of speculative fiction is technology's eventual hiddenness behind a layer of reality. Its purpose: to reduce the cognitive load of knowledge workers and engineers, while bringing focus to work and life.

Like Ford crafting the model-T line, we're beginning to realize civilization's most valuable commodity. Cal Newport in his book, A World Without Email, writes that, "in Ford's world, the workers were dispensable (supremely valuing output), while in the knowledge world, our brains are the source of all value."

The Information Age of torrential inundation has to transform into an Age of Understanding. Understanding simplifies the data flood and leads to wisdom. To get there, we need to clear cluttered desktops.

Think about Clarke's third law: "any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic." The way we send emails today follows a process incomprehensible for a person plucked out of the 60's who ran information through complicated tube systems to receive physical mail.

"Black box simplification" is inevitable.

We already see it in small ways. You have no idea how the black box (literal and figurative) you're reading this on functions, but you're still competent to access information. And while it still has a complex interface that confounds some who were not born into an iSociety, its base functions become simpler and more efficient each year.

This learning curve leads to another pillar the field of ethical technology hoists- accessibility for those on the periphery. All this complexity and overload only serves a purpose if we perpetuate it on an equitable plane.

The Center for Humane Technology established baseline conditions for humane technology to enter society:

(Humane technology) narrows the gap between the powerful and the marginalized instead of increasing that gap.

We will simplify to this state.

One revealing point economists always reference post-crisis refers to "civilization immunity". After a societal state of emergency (e.g. wars, famines, pandemics...), a civilization's immune system is triggered, so that something similar cannot happen again. This can often have unintended and far-reaching consequences for good and bad.

It's not a leap to say a year and half with the screens of our technology more prominent and under circumspection than ever will lead to societal transformations alongside COVID-19-induced evolution...

radio

The radio makes me frustrated.

On one end, we hear uninspired, inauthentic "popular music" that tries to imprint on our brains with catchiness and hearts with false messages about life and love (this is not a feat, Chainsmokers- merely an algorithm).

On the other end, classic and country radio clings to outdated beats and tones heralding the long gone "good ol' days". Stuck in the past, there is no newness to inspire or experimentation to witness (I concede we have to appreciate and study past work grasp out current state- I take issue with stubborn grasping that ignores the didactic value the classics provide).

Very rarely do innovative, deep pieces of beautiful music appear over the "waves" to move our hearts or minds. It has inspired and changed culture.

Maybe this is asking too much of the radio, but for decades radio has been (and in other countries, still is) a joining of culture and common folk around shared values and beauty.

More than all that, radio makes me sad.

I believe radio in America is another sign of our polarized times. Without those shared values, without an artist producing who young and old, man and woman appreciate, we lose another mode of connection as a people in a world of increasingly few bridges...

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counterpoint // slaves to the algorithm

for the sake of Creation

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good...

Genesis 1:31

According to Genesis, when God created the world, it took Him six days to make His masterpiece. Five days of stars and fish and plants, leading to a man and woman who were created "very good."

I'm not trying to say an artist will sell every 6th day; that they will then strike upon an idea that shakes creation to its core. See in this passage the patience of the ultimate creator.

In this patience, an idea took shape and was gradually developed toward the grand finale.

God, in five days, "practiced" all the pieces of creating man He needed in unleashing his passion and love to His goal. The waves gave Him knowledge of man's heart, all at once tempestuous and calm. The stars imprinted the beauty in man's optics, shining with tear-fall and joy. The animals provided biological models and linkage to create the apex mamel.

Every piece played a part in forming God's art towards His destined manifestation of creative expression and affection.

determined

Technological determinism is the philosophy that says a simple innovation sometimes causes massive shifts, unforeseen in culture and the external environment of civilization.

This belief raises a host of questions like, "can an individual truly shape history through one act; do the impacts, for good or bad, moralize a technology; through an act of technological creation shaping our world, is technology the end all be all of existence?"

Not long ago I asked whether technology was the disease or the cure. My philosophy and this deterministic one need a revision.

Technology is a tool. We can use tools well or poorly, but ultimately, we are a more primary actor in our lives than the tools we use. We do well to remember our own agency.

More to come...

cease

It was one of those days where you come home and your body screams "cease and desist"! Quit your chatter, on the floor, stop what you're doing!

I think this is a sign of yet another modern dilemma brought about by our constant inundation in technology.

The Rock has been working out till 2am and waking up at 6am for his hustle- he's not listening to his body's commands and signals, or he's drowning them out with noise. I don't intend to judge the man or his work ethic, but when you start saying that,"the hungry human being at times can be unstoppable", a word which, in Rock's context, means losing sleep to gain muscle or fame or money."Once that human being starts to make a little bit of money — don’t be surprised if that hungry human being becomes even more hungry..."

Work in an agrarian society kept people from overlooking the signals that their bodies needed a break: sharp pain on your forearm clearly meant a gash from a plowshare.

Today, one of the aptitudes knowledge workers lose is the ability to perceive correlations between their body's groaning for rest, and how online and sedentary work styles cause this pain (mentally and physically we see this dissonance).

When we're immersed, its easy to keep going, refraining from breaks till we come home and give ourselves another dose of the mind-numbing drugs- social or TV. What we're missing is a Paleolithic connection to our physical beings. Presence in the world means we take responsibility for being aware of everything around us.

So, go for a run or kayak. Learn to juggle or bake. Your body is shouting the prescription- take it.

proximity

Van Gogh prepared his craft to go to Paris where the hub of neo-impressionists had been buzzing. He arrived to have his soul nourished by being in proximity to other painters.

Victor Frankl would say that being in proximity to those in suffering deepens your religious and existential purpose and drive. Freed from concentration camps, he began a psychotherapy practice to get close to the hurting again.

Activists in Richard Powers' novel, The Overstory, find proximal inspiration from fellow environmental defenders in upstate Washington where the battle against deforestation rages on.

Energy, depth and purpose, inspiration-unity through proximity. We all have a natural inclination toward communities. We can use community for self-gain, status, pleasure, or any other hedonistic rewards, or we can suck the marrow out of those last five letters.

trellis

One of the first things you can learn (and clearly observe) about growing grapes is that you need a trellis to bear any fruit. Without this formative tool, grape vines will not catch enough sun light, they will shoot off in the wrong directions, and they will not spread evenly across the area they inhabit.

A trellis gives space to the vine to hang off the wood a bit, but always be kept safe by lines and framework built into the grapevine's life.

A Rule (or Way) of Life was an early monastic practice of creating a trellis of habits and disciplines by which to live life. Similar to keystone habits, this Rule, to steal the sculptor Elizabeth Kings line, "guards us from the poverty of our intentions." When committed a Rule of Life protects your daily whatever by reinforcing its integrity to your being.

Practically, this looks like daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual practices that give life, grow goals, and gain purpose.

Now, this is usually the biggest contention point- routine sets free.
There are those who disagree vehemently and those who agree but believe written goals and detailed outlines are taking it all a bit too far.

Re-enter Elizabeth king.

Process saves us from the poverty of our intentions.

Like the grapevine that climbs past the trellis to the sun, we desire to rebel from that which is good for us (at least till we re-habituate our desires), but we will find, like Icarus, we cannot leave our "groundedness" without getting burned.

A trellis to put our lives on gives consistent, daily groundedness and fluidity to pursue our deepest desires without the pressure of perfection.

16,000

How do we say 16,000 words per day (on average)??
With frivolity (I say, using 0.0001% of my limit).

Aaron Burr may have been onto something with his "talk less, smile more" mantra, as smiling improves livelihood and silence saves oxygen.

I admit many of these 16,000 fall into important categories like encouragement, building relationships, or sharing information.

But how much more conscious can we be of the quality of our words further than the quantity?
7dc.

cease

At a garden on campus, I see a bluejay pecking at capsules holding meaty pecans high above. She flits between branches to remove her prey from its branch. Nervous, she glances left, right, up, down, seeking out predators with a literal flight or flight response intact and spring-loaded. Her's is a world of dangers and threats too innumerable to avoid long-term. She and those she nurtures await a life of constant fearing and ceaselessness.

How often do so many of us live this way?
How many of us forget that we are blessed to be able to cease?

cease; v.

Bring or come to an end.

environment

You are a product of your environment...

This is only half a truth.

A truth that allows people to stay shaped by their environment in a vicious cycle of false desires to change that aren't enough to escape more self-suffering.

The other half of this truth is antithetical and seemingly contradictory.

...who is able to change and grow past your past.

heart and mind

Our passions lie at the intersection of heart and mind when our calling taps into deep love and intense intellect.

Our mind is not bored but challenged to a developing point (flow), and our heart sees the restoration of a thing, but not yet its perfection. These margins let us sing freely and create passionately.

When we discover this crossroads, we should be prepared to sacrifice. Leisure, career, and acquaintanceship are held here with an open hand. Our work calls for a greater sense of purpose and urgency in our commitment to it. If it becomes a daily practice, space must be created.

We stoke the flames of our passion, carefully, seldom letting the blaze increase past a controlled burn. When fire goes out, it leaves embers to be coaxed and fanned as we work to realign the places where heart and mind are leading.

resume of failure

"This might not work". Want that on a t-shirt? Seth Godin's coinage and philosophy behind this idea already made that happen.

Here's a problem in society: our proportion of failures to ideas is too balanced. An abundance of ideas is great, as long as we're trying them all. Remember-

Failure is not terminal.
This might not work.

Adam Grant keeps a resume of his failures. Everytime your startup goes bust. Everytime you create an album nobody likes. Every time you get shot down during an interview.

Nobody gets lucky first try (at least we can't count on that).

So, we try and push and run and run our ideas into the ground to build a tiny, but vital, resume of successes and a long, long resume of failures we knew "might not work".

foreword

I knew I wanted to write about an idea the moment I heard it, but I wasn't there.

Having to set it aside when I felt so convicted and so ready to share was a painful part of the process. There was a disconnect in what I could say and what needed to be said. The disconnect had to be bridged.

I read, I thought, I reasoned, I read some more. All throughout desiring to begin on this piece and be able to share it. It still wasn't ready.

Then I realized the gift I was creating needed "motion" to be realized.

A breakdown. A unifying voice. A start.

Here is that start.

gift

"Hobbits give presents to other people on their own birthday. Not very expensive ones, as a rule, and not so lavishly... but it was not a bad system."

The Fellowship of the Ring

What a simple change. Reversing the direction of giving to recenter the focus on others.

Let's play this out.

Pros:

• Chips away at our entitlement and pride.
• Batches your gift-gathering to one day.
• Spreads the gifts you receive on other's birthdays over the whole year (practice delayed-gratification).
• Gives ample time to be as intentional and prepared as you want.
• Necessitates more thought behind each gift.
• Subtly influences a closer connected circle of relationships.
• Instead of reinforcing selfishness and individualism, encourages belief in the perpetual reciprocity of the gift spirit.

Cons:

• Can become a contest of "self-righteous selflessness."
• Reduces the days you give which may lead to lower net generosity.
• Increases social pressure in the comparison of gifts given.

Let's look closer.

Instead of reinforcing selfishness and individualism, encourages belief in perpetual reciprocity of the gift spirit.
I once wrote about Jimmy Carter's 'Crisis of Confidence' in the American people who he accurately diagnosed to be "worship(ing) self-indulgence and consumption." That was forty years ago. We are much farther along that path because of technological progress and the national prosperity.

I ran into a friend who was stressed and anxious about the political orientation of our country. I was anxious too and empathized. I asked my friend if he would ever talk with someone from "the other side" about why they believe the things they do. He would not.

We have to get outside ourselves and our privileged echo chambers to un-sequestered ground for conversations. With polarization and partisanship deeply rooted, there is no limit to the examination and uprooting our practices and beliefs should undergo.

For restoration, we can look to a native mindset-
"If all the world is a commodity, how poor we grow."

Perpetual reciprocity of the gift spirit expects that when a gift is given, it will continually pass on to sustain the life of generosity in a community. Lewis Hyde writes about this and its connection to the creation of art and its personality and intentionality towards the recipient of gifts (producing another benefit in this system- the encouragement of artists!!).

Imagine giving the gift of paint made from seashells and then receiving on the recipients birthday a painting endowed with the same love you poured out in grinding the shells, and more! Imagine giving a book that changed you and does the same soul work in another, or giving a hand-made instrument that ignites a flame of future balads to be shared!

The spirit of an artist's gift can wake our own.

The Gift

It might require more thought and work, but I believe that right now, in the middle of a pandemic and after, we will have to give more effort and love than ever before.

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Every practice requires intentionality. How we do birthdays now can be good and beautiful as we appreciate those who are in our lives.

I don't believe we can do away with this tried tradition.

I do believe that we can practice Tolkien's reversal in small ways- even in our own families. I can't help but dream of a celebration to give and celebrate giving in spite of ourselves.

The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him- it cannot fail...

Walt Whitman

Originally, I wondered about societal implications, now, I see only familial thriving.

While not perfect, played out in certain groups, ultimately, this reversal is better than our current system. If your argument is about tradition, implementation, or idealism, please comment below holes, fallacies, alternatives, and arguments you have against this idea.

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Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Lewis Hyde, The Gift

J.R.R Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring