Category: Thoughts

It’s been a couple of weeks since I shared some items for you to check out. I suppose that I’ve been trying to reclaim my routines. Some of them have gotten away from me.

Quote that’s been giving me a hard time: What gets measured gets managed. This gem from Peter Drucker has left me wondering about certain things in my personal life, as well as the way we interact with tracking apps and apps that give achievement progress in terms of streaks – how many days in a row you’ve used the app.

For instance, I wake up every morning a write. There’s no app, no tracking (other than notebooks filled with pages and dated, so I guess that counts), and nothing to be accountable to – save for myself. I suppose that being accountable to a device in a way feels like I’m missing the point. It’s something I’ll spend more time considering.

What I’m reading this week: Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier. Recommended by someone, I checked it out at the library and gave it a a pretty quick read. It’s only about three-hundred pages, not offering much in the way of new information, and it includes spreadsheets and graphs. What it does do well, though, is give you a call to action. Every chapter is a workable suggestion for how to make more money, save more money, and, in some cases, spend less money. Most of what I spend my time thinking about anyway.

Some stories that I found interesting:

• On Shadow Work. Assume for a moment that the old adage is true: within each of us are two wolves, one light and one dark. The grow in size depending on our actions, our thoughts, and our intents. The light wolf encompasses the positive aspects of us: the good, the kind, the charitable. The dark wolf indulges in all the negative emotions and bad actions that we commit. Which one grows? Whichever one we feed. This binary way of looking at self can prevent us from understanding that negative emotions are a part of us. Fundamentally. Shadow work delves into attempting to reconcile that understanding.
• How a generation grew up thinking about the internet thanks to the film Hackers.
• How C.S. Lewis conned children into asking for Turkish Delights.
• Emmy Award Show this weekend, trying to stay interesting amid pandemic weirdness.

And, finally, a thought about Halloween. October is often my favorite, most busy month of the year. This year, however… Well, my hopes aren’t high. I’m reminded, though, of a tv special I watched as a kid. And I wanted to share it here. The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t.

It seems that I just wrote about the country being a blending place for people of all types, and then I come across something that I like maybe a tad bit more. Clothing designer Ougi Theodore, owner of The Brooklyn Circus, a haberdashery located in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, was interviewed recently by fellow designer and clothing curator Todd Snyder.

Here’s what Mr. Theodore had to say about melting pots:

“I’m not a fan of the melting pot, more the mosaic. Because the melting pot turns the outsider into part of the mainstream rather than celebrating and supporting his or her individuality. … So, at what point is he no longer himself?”

We don’t weight the risks of losing identity when we preach acclimation. Maybe we assume that being acclimated is a true identity. But it’s important to stay authentic.

While we may seek order in chaos, there’s beauty in the world that can only come from nonuniformity.

We all have a drive behind us. Something that pushes us to produce, to create, to work, and to, hopefully, thrive. It’s different for each of us. The little voice that tells us what our best life is, and how to live it.

Often times, we ignore that voice.

You see, it’s difficult for the world as it is to remain as it is if everyone strives to live their best life. The system doesn’t work if everyone pursues their own goals.

To keep the system afloat, we must compromise. A bit of our best possible life to promote overall happiness, health, and well-being. To what extent, though? That’s the question.

Apple’s event today promises to usher in new Apple watches, and perhaps a new iPad. We’ll have to wait for the phone.

I’ve been thinking about watches lately. From this story of a collector who sells vintage watch ads, to this retired Air Force veteran auctioning off his Rolex he purchased in the service, to this quirky piece about how watch-wearing people are superior.

I was a bit of an amateur horologist prior to receiving my Apple Watch. I’ve gotten a few wristwatches since then, mostly as gifts. The thing about the Apple Watch is, you don’t really wear a traditional watch. I imagine it’s true for any smart watch on the market.

You condition yourself to looking at the watch for notifications. Even the phantom vibration syndrome, usually associated with the cell phone, now is applicable to watches. I can be using my digital watch, think I’m recieving a notification, and look down to find it’s not the smart watch. Just my Casio.

Yes, Apple Watches and other brands give more people reason to wear watches than before. And yes, younger people are now predominantly decorated upon on their wrists.

But there’s a kind of cool satisfaction with wearing a watch that will only tell you the time, and that will never go out of style.

I haven’t submitted very much of my writing, and most of the long form I’ve done either hasn’t been seen, or it’s not yet completed. To wit, I’ve pieces from at least as far back as 2012 that haven’t been fully realized.

Authors of all shades tend to have pieces in drawers and on their computers, all in varying states of completion.

It’s part of the reason I started posting here – to get me more apt to share the work I have finished, or at least maintain a writing practice beyond the morning pages.

About six years ago I shared some writing with someone, and she said I wrote in a flowery way. Conversely, I’d read her essays she was submitting and they were very forward and straight to the point.

There’s value in both methods of writing, and neither one of us (I believe) was issuing a criticism. But it’s something that I’ve remembered, and perhaps it does actually color my writing.

Now, when I’m not writing for the blog, it generally is longer. With fiction I include a lot of descriptive words. I tend to get mired in the descriptions. Working my way out through the weeds can be tricky.

No matter what you’re writing, though, it’s important to find your voice. Your authentic voice. Whether it be flowery, straight-forward, or somewhere in-between.

Fortunes were made in the past with less than you can purchase over at Best Buy for about a thousand dollars. The novelty of new creative devices has leveled out, and the equality is spread far enough now that fortunes are more difficult to make in the traditional ways.

Everyone is looking for something of meaning in their life. Something of value. Everyone wants to contribute.

When my brother pointed out to me the fictitiousness of certain cop procedurals on the television, we started talking about how boring actual police work can be.

The same is true for most onscreen depictions. Life, when exposed in two hour increments, or less, is often quite dull. Yes, there are those moments of excitement, but in general they don’t come all that often.

That said, we should embrace the quirks of our own lives. In Lois Roelofs’s Write Along With Me, she states, “No one wants to read boring stuff, so look for those things that make you unique. None of us is the same, so capitalize on it.”

This advice goes to writing by using yourself as character, but it’s also a reminder that while we entertain ourselves with stories of truly remarkable circumstances, there’s plenty in our own lives to keep us interested and engaged.