Category: Thoughts

After twelve months in Los Angeles, I’m still discovering much. There is no shortcut to becoming permanent in a place – to making it home. It’s a process. It’s about the people, and the lifestyle, and how you feel.

I love it in LA. Much of my journey has been leading me here, and I’m happy that I was able to finally realize it.

That isn’t to say it hasn’t been without its challenges. But everything worthwhile may come with a setback or three. I suppose you can’t let it deter you. Just hold on, and have faith that you made the right decision.

Time is such a finite resource. You don’t always consider it, but it’s always there: moving along in the background, ticking down the seconds, watching each and every life move from start to finish.

And the world, ever-connected, now has means to keep us plugged in and engaged among numerous fields of interests – fashion, arts, science, technology, politics, etc. We build these bubbles around us, which pulls in information we may find useful, and filters out that which the algorithm intuits we wouldn’t use anyway. 

Ever-connected, yet more disparate.

And still, how can we keep up with even everything we want to see? Everything we want to experience?

The fact is, we can’t. There just isn’t enough time. The best we can do is stay present, experience each moment, and attempt to live life with an authenticity that will not leave us disappointed in our final moments.

In a way that can make sense to those who think about it, doing something creative will lead to even more creative output. Cleaning a small area of the house will lead to a determination to clean more. Volunteering your time does tend to make you want to volunteer more.

It isn’t till you start doing something, realizing it fills a need, that you set intentions to do more of it. 

The key, then, is to start.

I invite few people into my home anymore. There wasw a time when it was party every weekend, always entertaining. I can’t blame it on the pandemic, because it started long before then. 

That isn’t to say that I don’t like guests or company. Maybe it’s just the sense of wanting that space to be perfect.

I’ve been at this for a while. I’m not always good at it. A lot of the time, I struggle to figure out what to say – what to talk about.

Do I talk about myself? Or the broad strokes of something else?

Do I try and dispense wisdom; things I’ve learned over the years, or the failures that have led me to where I’m at.

My likes – books, movies and television, travel. Also, oddly enough, toys in the likeness of the classic Japanese kaiju, Godzilla. (That’s a topic for another time, though).

I’ve been very fortunate to have such varied experiences. Sometimes I’m a little sad about missed opportunities. Life has a way of buouying us up and dropping us down, sometimes multiple trips in a single day.

So what do I say? If I try, if I really try, maybe I’ll be able to stick with it. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll come up with something worth reading. 

Not today, of course, but maybe tomorrow.

Not all dream equally, to paraphrase T.E. Lawrence. But all do. Don’t we?

And what of those dreams? Do they delight, astonish, and bring joy?

Do they terrify, or cause us to shiver in the night?

Do we dream in the light of day, seeing the possible where others see only impossible?

Dreams, my friend, are the building blocks of the miraculous.

There is no limit to what we can achieve. This is something we’re told. Maybe we believe it, maybe we don’t. And, whether or not we believe can actually affect how true it is…

We have limiting beliefs. We have beliefs that get us through our days; through the difficult times and even the good. And when it comes to our potential, it’s a matter of what we believe we can handle, and are we accepting the fear and moving forward anyway.

Do we dare to go for it.

Sure. We will fall. It’s inevitable. But do we get back up? Do we dare to keep going?

We are a searching people. From the earliest days, we’ve been trying to find our way into the light. To safety. To companionship, to community, and to the unknown. 

Will we ever find what we are looking for? Do any of us know what it is we actually want?

At the end of the day, the only one who can answer that is yourself.

There was a piece in my news app this weekend about an Amazon delivery driver asking a FedEx driver to borrow two bucks to buy an iced tea. Turns out, the pay that this Amazon driver received wasn’t enough for unaccounted for spending, like a drink on his route. A lot apparently went to gas, as the driver had to travel to report to work.

Of course, Amazon reported a net income of 33.36 Billion USD last year. These profits come from huge market share and cutting overhead costs wherever possible, including in the driver salary area. Not that they receive a salary, as I believe all their last-mile drivers are private contractors. 

So, what does that discount actually cost? It’s hard to say. But if all we do is log in and shop, without considering how the process works, we remain ignorant to serious issues that may arise, such as income inequality.

I’ve been hanging out with a lot of writers. Or, those who want to be writers. As a somewhat-writer myself, I understand. The process takes time, the navigating making it a career, and in this, LA and the film industry, just about everyone has a screenplay. So I’ve been told. No one ever lets me read them.

But, the goal shouldn’t be to sell a screenplay. To sell anything. Yes, that is great ambition, and honestly, it’s going to be the thing that most people will say is their goal.

You know what, though? The goal is writing. Just writing. Or just acting. Or just showing up, doing your best, whether or not it even gets noticed. 

You hope it does. And I hope it does. I hope that for me, and for you, and for everyone trying to do their best out there. Because just doing it, just showing up. That’s the most important thing. Everything else is just icing on the cake.