Category: Writing

It amazes me that I’ve been keeping this blog (albeit with somewhat inconsistent postings) for as long as I have been. Admittedly, some days it’s hard to come up with things to write. Occasionally, it’s a matter of budgeting my time. 

But, really, in the end, you spend time on what you want to spend time on. What you build your processes around. We all have these interests that stir us. If we build them into our daily routines, we’ll spend the time on them that we want. 

And once that time block installed, guard it fervently.

We collect thoughts everywhere. There’s rarely a perfect system for getting it down. Take myself, for instance. I use notes on my phone, google docs, Word, Pages, as well as written notes in notebooks, memo pads, sticky notes… the list goes on.

When thoughts come to us faster than we can process, it’s hard to stay on top of them. It becomes more about managing the output of our thoughts rather than shaping them into proper ideas.

So, the task this week – take a thought, incubate it to full-fledged idea, and plan to execute it. Just to see what happens.

There is no limit to the amount of information available out there. Information on every subject, from every point of view, in every tone of voice. Looking through it all would take hundreds of lifetimes, and, let’s be honest, there’s just no way to suss out what’s good vs. what’s not – not in its abundance.

So we turn to trusted sources. We rely on the tried and true. We sometimes limit our own viewpoints by adhering to only one or two sources. Is that for the best? No, probably not. It can inevitably lead to blind spots.

It’s hard to imagine that abundance of information could actually cause a lessening of understanding, but certainly, that happens among many of us. 

The trick is to recognize your blindspots, and work to enlighten them.

It’s been quite a while since I found myself in California. I nearly said west coast, but it was only last year that I was living in Alaska. It’s amazing how much can change in a year.

Of course, I was saying that exact same thing last year.

All to say, sometimes it’s important to go with the flow. You can’t always know where you’ll end up, but chances are you’ll end up somewhere.

We take certain things for granted. In this example, consider the river. Any river, but think of it. It has a name. You can call it by its name, and others will know what you’re talking about.

At the same time, the river is just a pathway through which running water flows. The water that makes up the river is never the same water. Ever. Once the water passes along its way, it moves elsewhere. The river is called by a name, but that name will always fail to describe the river.

Isn’t it possible that everything, and every one, is like that river?

There are many reasons to do something creative. They range from feeling good to feeling difficult but rewarding. You may not be able to let the creative flow go, or you may struggle to find yourself in the zone. 

At the end of the day, however, it’s a completely personal experience to create. And that’s not only about the process, but what you’re left with. 

So make something. Draw, paint, dance, or write. Just make it completely, and wholly, your own.

Sometimes I wonder at the nature of astrology. What’s derided as a pseudoscience seems to have little bearing on how we actually live out our lives. At the same time, the possibility that universal and heavenly forces may indeed effect people in various ways depending on their distance and exposure to them shouldn’t seem that far out of left field. 

Is there any serious study into this? Probably not. Doubtful it’s even possible. At the same time, the world could do with a fair bit more mystery, in my humble opinion.

There’s a book I turn to time and again. Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts. I wish I would have heeded the call when I first came into possession of its advice. Alas, I was mostly sedentary for several years after.

There’s a beauty in exploration. And I greatly admire the modern-day adventurers, exploring and attempting to better the world through learning and understanding. 

And vagabonding is an amateur’s embracing of exploration. Getting out and seeing the world. 

The quote in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is this:“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life. … Walter Mitty: To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”

What the past year and a half have made people realize is that, there are things you can live without. That looks different for everyone, but there are certainly nonessential choices that you opted to forego over this pandemical period.

And while some choices were opted out of, others we doubled down on.

We’re all learning new ways to handle the world. Adjusting. And if we can function in the absence of some thing, it likely wasn’t necessary to begin with.

A phrase being bandied about (I like that word – bandied) is “the new normal”. Normalcy refers to the commonplace. The most familiar and typical – what’s expected. In that way, normality is a function of exposure. The more masks people see others wearing, the more normal that becomes. Distancing socially, while it’s likely to remain common for a while, it won’t be normal. Most people in this country crave physical contact, and the distance creates a longing that will find its way to being sated… eventually.

In all of it, though, it mostly refers to habits. Habits that have been created over the course of a very long pandemic. And even public health crises, if viewed through the scope of a long historical lens, recurs enough that each individual outbreak is enough to be normal. So maybe all this newness refers less to the crisis, any crisis, and more to our understanding of it and response to it.