Category: Thoughts

Every day, it’s a constant push to be doing something. New devices come along promising more productivity, smarter engagement, and connected resources.

Rarely do we stop and ask ourselves, “Do I need this?”

In Walking on Water, Madeline L’Engle’s meditations on faith and art, she writes, “I sit on my favourite rock, looking over the brook, to take time away from busyness, time to be. I’ve long since stopped feeling guilty about taking being time; it’s something we all need for our spiritual health, and often we don’t take enough of it.”

I’m just as guilty, trying to maximize benefit through whatever time I have – walking through the park listening to an audiobook, or reading with the tendency to deviate to some screen or other. There’s just so much temptation in what is happening now.

Everything that needs to be done will still be there after.

Someone once spoke about distortion fields, perhaps as it related to physics. Maybe also I heard about it discussed in relation to personalities – possibly in the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. But, regardless, there are these fields through which fact can be misconstrued.

Noam Chomsky, circa the 1970s, said, “With a little industry and application, anyone who is willing to extricate himself from the system of shared ideology and propaganda will readily see through the modes of distortion developed by substantial segments of the intelligentsia [here meaning “social class, which includes historians and other scholars, journalists, political commentators, and so on…”].”

He continues on to say, “social and political analysis is produced to defend special interests rather than to account for the actual events.”

And, while possibly true fifty years ago, how amazingly poignant it seems in this day and age.

Maybe unconsciously, we rely on the media we consume to inform our perceptions of the world and our lives. Study after study has showed that which media outlet you consistently turn to will eschew the results of questions regarding safety and national defense; the economy; problems and solutions to crises; etc.

Chomsky suggested that it was easy to see through such propaganda. Again, fifty years ago, disinformation was perhaps not as rampant as it is today. And at the time, it’s doubtful he could have imagined the amazing influence of the internet on societal discernment. 

But we are living in interesting times, and it seems that there are those who can be easily swayed by such distortion fields. It’s important to find trustworthy news sources, to keep with reliable information, and to ask the question, Is there a reason this information is being presented like this?

Routines can sometimes be the hardest reminders of what we gave up this year. The daily rituals of waking, tea or coffee, commute, work. All of it now blends together.

And while we’re making progress in this most unusual of years, building routines can still be problematic.

As the year end apporaches, and I work on my Year in Review, I’m… Well, I’m flabbergasted. What a year.

But first and foremost, a need for daily routine is essential. Without it, everything can just become noise.

Adam Grant: “Articles fade after a week; people keep books.”

Articles may fade after a week, but what about tweets? Or videos? These things, though ephemeral, are also nearly permanent in their housing on the web.

Books are an easy reference, visible and tangible. The internet creates a unique storehouse. It is both intangible and yet infinite.

For me, books are easy. I can hold it in my hands, see the written word.

I was recently met with the difference between ‘dispatch’ and ‘despatch’, so perhaps that’s why the word stuck out to me. Regardless, here are some items that I’ve found worth telling people about from over the past week:

1. Does the Warner Bros. move to stream first run movies signal an end to movie theaters?
2. Of course, this question was asked back in 2014 as well.
3. And 2016.
4. Then again, television also played into how Hollywood was creating and distributing movies back in the forties and fifties.
5. How 2020 affected the publishing industry, and the outlook of books.
6. And, how to fix your sleep schedule. This one has been of particular interest to me…

The last word: “The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” – Patrick Rothfuss

Okay, so in spite of all protests to the contrary, you know everything. Nothing anyone else says will make you doubt your belief in how much you know – how much more informed, intuitive, and perceptive you are than everyone else.

On the off chance that’s true (and maybe for one person out there, it actually is – but the numbers would suggest one person only), then imagine how boring it is. There’s no surprise. There’s no need to better yourself. There’s no search for the unknown. Because there is no unknown.

And when there is no unknown, everything just seems the same.

It’s  easy to get distracted by life. You start out with intention, but along the way you get side tracked. Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” 

And that’s it. Sometime’s life punches you in the mouth. The point is to get up, wipe yourself off, and keep going. Remember:

You can’t win them all. Failing can be a good thing. It’s good to have goals, but don’t be discouraged if you fall short from time to time.

I’ve written before about the importance of being in alignment. When the alignment is off, even the smallest misstep can throw the system out of whack.

A system that is working is often ignored. This can be anything throughout the day that operates exactly as it’s supposed to, or as it has been doing constantly over time.

We notice when it breaks, though. That computer that suddenly won’t power on. The cellphone that doesn’t hold a charge. The warm and tepid contents of the refrigerator.

Were there warning signs? Probably. Did we pay enough attention to notice? Now that is a good question.

Sometimes it feels like our personal beliefs are being assaulted. We get that gut reaction that, this person we’re talking to, their so different from me, in the way they think, what they believe, what they want – either for themself or for the country/world/whatever – that not only are we on different footing, but if this person’s footing is to stay strong, mine will be weakened as a result.

Thus, we become combative.

It happens time and again, that from the viewpoint of maintaining our beliefs, we need to put down the beliefs of others.

But, like so many things in life, it’s not that simple. Putting down one’s beliefs won’t change them, just as someone putting down my beliefs won’t affect the way I think. There’s common ground to be found among some things, and disparate views that must be accepted if a conversation is to start.

Being understanding, even in the face of uncertain results, is what is important when communicating. But communication is necessary and, in these turbulent times, more important than ever.

“With the internet, it’s like a road map,” says Hackett. “You know exactly what you’re looking for and you go there. Whereas with books – and this is true of cookbooks, too – they’re alive.” – Kathleen Hackett, from the book Bibliostyle。