Life is always zooming ahead. My promise to you (which, stems from a promise to myself), is to linger in the tiniest moments. Like your face when lightly-sweetened chocolate cake delights you unexpectedly, or you gaze at mushrooms lovingly and celebrate (again) that they are, in fact, not contaminated with radiation*, or when you smile […]
“Building a legacy is an illusion, and is really a selfish endeavor. Happiness through acquisition is an illusion. You don’t ‘own’ anything.” Rick Georges Lin-Manuel Miranda himself would agree: Alexander Hamilton was a freak of nature, “Accomplishing what would take a normal person three lifetimes“. Modern day scholars and clinicians offer conflicting descriptions… Intensely gifted? […]
Hi Jay, I am writing you at 3am. I have been reading words on your site for perhaps 20 minutes (longer, shorter, difficult to say these days). In the beginning, and with some existential dread, I thought you might be an AI or a bot programmed to bring human wisdom to a worldly population buried […]
Be well. Sincerely wishing you some calm and gratitude during these final days of the year.
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[60 minutes into the sunlight dose] Definitely feel “the glow”. I’ve done this enough to know varying shades of potency, due to variables such as: time of day, empty stomach, mushroom batch, etc. The glow [in this moment] is completely obvious. Feeling the familiar characteristics – the undeniable wordless feeling that everything is fine (always […]
Today’s internet underrepresents the best of human values and behaviors. For all daily circumstances that haunt us, the world is equally if not more beautiful, and full of people who quietly recognize this. As a global community, we can do a better job appreciating this. Moved: This project has moved to a new home: civilinternet.org
Hi friend. Please – this is not something to passively read. This is me speaking directly TO you, and I’d love to hear a response. When you get to the end, please leave a comment or contact me, even if only a few words. I see many of random visitors here, but 100 or so […]
“When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I’ve learned to survive through everything.”– Waymond Wang What is life? Any attempt to distill it will fall short. Here goes one, anyway: Life is grappling with the idea of infinite potential realities for […]
I can’t shake the feeling that writing on medium (or the internet broadly) is like believing I am crafting a meal that optimizes nutrition, but then trying to sell it in a store where most people love junk food. Short click-baiting titles, high doses of opinion, unclear ties to objective facts, and optimizing the capture […]
From Luke: I’ve been enjoying the challenge of reminding myself to live in the moment. The constant tug o war between old habits and new goes on, but I’ve become better at taking the “now” as it comes. As always, journaling as been my escape into those deeper flows of introspection and much needed calm. […]
Two major things colored the 1930’s. 1) the immediate wake of the industrial revolution, and 2) the great depression. In short – wild efficiency plus a jobs-shortage inspired Kellogg’s to drop their workday to 6 hours-day, 30 hours-week. This was a win-win: happier employees and providing more struggling people with paying jobs.
Check back in five years – but as it stands, this is one of the most important books I’ve come across. What started as a study on “work” quickly turned into one on human nature. It took me two decades (emphasis: TWENTY – years!) to pause and think critically about work. Culture is one hell […]
“Oh the joy of missing out. When the world begins to shout And rush towards that shining thing; The latest bit of mental bling– Trying to have it, see it, do it, You simply know you won’t go through it; The anxious clamoring and need This restless hungry thing to feed. Instead, you feel the loveliness; The […]
[Note to a friend] Never let the wrong things influence your sense of worth, either as an artist or a person. Unfortunately… perception is part of life, and perception is way more often wrong than it is right, including our own perception of ourselves. Your worth is a pearl to be protected – make sure […]
“The false needs time and what needs time is false. If you need time to achieve something, it must be false. You need not wait to be what you are. You must not allow your mind to go out of yourself in search.”– Nisargadatta Maharaj What is home? I don’t want to die tomorrow. But […]
Wow – finally – the trip of a lifetime was happening. And also… FLYING!?!? Like in a plane? Boy oh boy. Talk about wishes coming true. Yes that’s right – after years of watching Disney animated classics with my sibs, laced with overt and covert come-hither invitations to see the actual kingdom in person, we […]
My life has unquestionably changed over two years, leaving me simultaneously comforted and puzzled. Familiar desires, goals, and sense of identity, have melted away. While trying to explain this shift, I found Buddhism. I don’t mean becoming a Buddhist – I mean – discovering my own epiphanies apparently already laid-out in Buddhist precepts. “How bizarre.” […]
From Anonymous: I’ve been thinking a lot about why I might be the way I am. And to be honest. When my parents got divorced it felt like the world ended. I know it was hard for all of us. But my mom didn’t even acknowledge me and my dad was too sad to spend […]
The truth is, foxes aren’t the only enemy here. Acorns are too. And there are systemic reasons that foxes and acorns have been colluding to keep “us” from ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING to protect against falling skies. Foxes and acorns cannot be reasoned with – they are simply different and the ONLY way to protect ourselves is exploiting every possible opportunity to point out what idiots they are – and make our irreconcilable differences abundantly clear.
The future is rad and all, but it’s never here, so if we can’t be cool now, why defer? Our Future Fetish Just wait, until we land on the moon. How great everything will be! [producer whispers… off camera] Oh fuck me, sorry folks. I’m being told — we’ve done that. And it was indeed…
To anyone with pronounced empathy, I suspect observing humanity causes great pain? Which you are either living with — or — you developed a strategy to insulate yourself from. Put another way: Being alive begets knowing the majority of the human population is suffering. Further, it may (or may not), lead one to question the…
My optimism:pessimism ratio is solid 9:1. Hence why my editor finds this essay abhorrent. Very off-brand. It may beget our undoing… I’m publishing this while they’re on holiday. As pioneer Grace Hopper once imparted: ’tis easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. What’s the problem? Me concluding – with suspiciously unshakable certainty -…
“The psychedelic ‘hook’ goes in way deeper than anything merely addictive. It’s a ‘conversionary’ stimulus of overwhelming personal ‘inspiration’ induced in many (not all) that ‘changes everything’ for those now exalted as ‘touched’ by that ‘angel’ – igniting a compulsion every bit as consuming and destructive as any addiction. But where an addict is driven…
“[Life] sums itself up for me as a lucid invitation to live and to create, in the very midst of the desert.” Albert Camus What does it mean to embody freedom? An interview with no self, for the sake of no self. Dear self, you are hard to pin. When I think I’ve found you,…
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