Born to Run

I’ve found it difficult to get back to reading this year, and that’s why Born to Run by Christopher McDougall was a great entry point. It’s a quick read that’s easy to follow. Although McDougall can be hyperbolic throughout the story, and the plot does bounce around, the book flows quickly and inspires one to give running a fair shot. For me, having grown up running but healing from a serious ankle injury, it was great material. The anthropological sections were my favorite; even if it was only anecdotal evidence for the running man theory, it’s still interesting to consider the origins of our species’ evolution, and McDougall’s writing provides such an opportunity. For anyone with any inkling of interest in running, I’d give the book a solid three out of five stars. Running certainly provides me solace. Perhaps we are born to run. 

Global Consciousness Imperative

Global Consciousness is a term I use to describe humanity’s collective world view and planetary culture. It’s not inherently mystical, nor rooted in any accumulated scientific data. It’s kind of just common ecological sense: we inhabit a singular space, share it together, and interact with the same matter. Not to definitively call the Earth a closed system, but as of right now, we’re stuck here. Every single human being that has ever existed on this planet has died here. The totality of our species has subsisted on this ordinary heap of rock floating in the void. 

So why do we separate ourselves into distinct groups? Why do we draw imaginary lines and create superfluous barriers between ourselves? Sure, we possess tribal biology and that dictates our behavior to a large degree, but if we’re capable of conceiving these thoughts... why don’t we aspire to develop our global consciousness? It is the vehicle which will unlock the scale of problem solving necessary for the continuing of our civilization.

Petty differences do not contribute to the fate of our species. It is time for us to awaken, to synergize as one group of primates who all desire the same things: life, fulfillment, prosperity. If we view the world from such a vantage point, we can change the world, for all. 

Realm of Nature

It can be difficult to make it through the psychological dread of pandemic infinity. I can only imagine how much harder it must be in colder environments. It’s easier to reach the antidote in California: nature. When we reconnect with the Earth, with where we came from, we can weather whatever storms which come. After all, the pandemic arose from the Earth as well. It is now part of this ecosystem of which we are a part. We can only thrive through a better understanding of nature. 

Unattributed Informants

Perhaps the next evolution in the news cycle is to have an app that collects stories about issues you care about and compiles them from opposite ends of the political spectrum—sound familiar? Except there’s no ads dispersed throughout the screen, and you don’t know the author or news outlet of the piece. It forces you to process and evaluate the information based on the merits of the arguments and the prevalence of evidence. Because how often do we judge incoming reports based upon the sender? We just might surprise ourselves, with how left or right we may actually be. Look, politics matter. The sooner we can actually focus on public policy, not the political actors and their rhetoric, the sooner we can create a more equal, more just, and more free society. 

Commercial Awareness

I don’t begrudge the questioning of holding a football game during a once-in-a-century pandemic, but something stood out to me while I watched it today. There were a lot of commercials that centered around sustainability—either referencing climate change or nodding to the powerful polarity within our society. I don’t ever remember a Super Bowl featuring such somber commercials. It was good to see that, not that it was happy or fun, but that it shows our society gets it, that people get it. I believe most people are good, that they want good things for themselves and their family, and that they wish good for others and the world. For how messed up some of our institutions within society are right now, there’s solace in the fact that most people do in fact get it. If we remember that, we will emerge from these hard times not only kinder, but wiser, and eventually, in a better world. We can do this. We can create a better world for our children and grandchildren. Time to play ball. 

Dem Political Discussions

I participated in a somewhat contentious conversation about politics today, and I feel I’ve come out better from it. The discussion was cordial and thoughtful, and although no concrete resolution resulted, everyone seemed to have learned something, especially myself. Such discourse is vital to the progression of our communities, our society, our species. Complicated problems are not solved in one conversation, but they are chipped away at. They are sighted, and cornered, and tussled with. Like a wild beast understood after many weeks of expedition, our political discussions provide a mechanism to better decide a more conscientious path forward. After all, politics affects everything. Shall we not engage in the complex determination of the evolution of our civilization?

Global Consciousness Act

The world’s biggest problems are pervasive, urgent, and complicated. Climate change, massive social, economic, and political inequality, and our global, institutionalized tribal complexes are not going away on their own.

In order for us to solve them, we first need to be aware of them. How many of the masses consider such things on a regular basis? Even well-meaning, well-off people who want to remain abreast of what’s happening in the world get lost in the greedy, unethical web of technology companies and the corporate media news cycle. Our taps and clicks become data and that data is used against us.

So how can we achieve awareness, the first prerequisite to solving the biggest baddest problems? Figuring that out will be one of the most important deeds of our time, perhaps even our species’ history. Let’s get started. 

The Path of Small Pleasures

I see the colors of a sunrise or sunset, and I am grateful for the vision. As the days grow longer, I am appreciative of the seasons and their change. The few interactions I have with my tribe these days feel all the more meaningful, because they are few, and because they are with my tribe. As my ankle heals, I am thankful for being able to run, for my walks each day. The clean air of February reminds me how even breathing can become uncomfortable from fire or pollution, and I am grateful it is not so currently. Even in a pandemic, with all its strife and suffering, there is much fortune. If we approach each day as a gift, if we recognize all the small pleasures of existence, there is no need to evade our problems. Be they serious or many, we can solve them. We can come together through the common threads of our experience of life on this beautiful planet, and we can change the world. 

Education Ho!

Education is our path forward, and the pandemic has provided an assessment on our current learning aptitude. How much have we learned about the virus during the past year? How well have we disseminated the information to the masses? Would we deem most people informed, regardless of class or education level? Are we even asking ourselves these questions? We have the technology to embrace rapid and continuous learning at scale; our institutions and maturity just need to catch up. The past 12 months have shown us the importance of education, and how it must be our focus moving forward. Education is the answer. 

Groundhog Day Time

Like countless others, Groundhog Day has maintained a special place in my heart. There’s some classic universal relation within. It provides as much philosophical depth as you’d like—particularly with time. 

We only have so much afforded to us, as far as we know. What will we choose to enact during this existence? Strangely enough, the second of February might be good as any time to ask such questions.

When genuinely considered, the movie and the traditional cultural implications of this date beg us to to consider our intentions. The passing or continuation of winter solely serves as a marker within our collective conceptions.

We make of this world what we wish. With regards to our own lives, but also collectively, to our planet. With such a peculiar view of time on this day, what will we decide as fun, as necessary, as meaningful?

Monday Perspective

Monday’s can be hard, and it’s an interesting phenomenon because it’s simply psychological. Today in Northern California it was sunny and bright, a very pleasant February day. We might feel the weight of the rest of the week ahead, but it’s just an illusion. 

If we refocus our mental positioning to the real world, it can be liberating. Another day alive, another day above ground. Those of us lucky enough to be working right now get to earn a living; we are not starving or slaves. Just the nature of dreading a Monday means you enjoy a weekend, after all. Is our plight so bad?

If we can remember how good we have it, we can enjoy the little things throughout the days afforded to us, and more easily strive toward the things that truly matter. 

Defeating Hardship

I went on an unexpectedly long walk today, and it was refreshing. By the end my legs were hurting and I was dehydrated and hungry, but even that felt kind of good in a way. It was nice to be outside, away from anyone else, for such a prolonged period of time. The experience wasn’t entirely blissful the whole time, and that’s the point. Life isn’t rosy 24-7. We’ve become accustomed to convenience, to things being easy. The pandemic has shown us what many humans have faced throughout history, and what many of our contemporaries experience on a daily basis: hardship. Defeating hardship requires grit and determination, and I believe we’re developing it as a species right now. It’s painful, and it’s definitely not easy; but it is necessary. We can do this. We just have to assume tunnel vision on the future we want to achieve together. 

Love is the Way

Sometimes seeing family can mean it all. There is no perch here—we’re all equal. We are animals, and we crave social interaction. It’s fundamental to our survival. The pandemic has circumvented normalcy, but as we always have, we’ll find a way. In whatever manner we can, with this virus running rampant throughout our civilization, we must find a way to return to love. We can build a future of interrelated tribes all attuned to one purpose: achieving a world of equality for all. Let’s let love guide the way. 

The Other Side of the Street

I go on walks every day during lunch time--it helps me let go and ground myself between big chunks of work (and the day). I do a lot of the same routes, day after day, week after week. It can be monotonous at times, but it removes one more thing to think about, and enables me to disappear in music or a podcast, or just become immersed with the environment. 

Today was slightly different. I did the same walk I've been doing all week, but I walked on the opposite side of the street for most of it. Insignificant detail right?

I realized that  just walking on the other side of the street can provide a vastly different perspective: you see buildings in a different way, you appreciate the lay of the land from an alternative vantage point, and you notice small details in the microenvironment around you that would otherwise go unnoticed. I experienced distinct views of the eastern foothills I've never seen before. I observed the neighborhood surrounding my home with new vision.

It's profound how something so simple can change one's experience so drastically. Repeating the same thing, just moving 40 feet away while doing it, can dramatically change how you see the world. It opens up other possibilities and other avenues, literally. It fundamentally changes your perspective.

The old advice is to try walking in someone else's shoes, and that can certainly be helpful. Perhaps no less impactful: walking on the other side of the street.

The Organization Generation

It probably seems this way to every generation, but it feels like big things are really happening. With the progression of technology, it’s truly become a glocal world. 

There are billions more people than mere decades ago, and these people are more aware of the zeitgeist tide than ever before; because of the institutionalized communication systems we’ve developed, the realities of modern transportation, and the interconnected global economy. The average person can learn infinitely more than someone 100 years ago, 500 years ago, 1000 years ago. 

The internet has significantly democratized knowledge. There are rural Africans making less than a dollar a day who know much more about social media than I’ll ever know. Laotians in the UXO-filled countryside can learn political and economic theory from their smartphones. 

But as this technological capability has fundamentally changed what’s possible for the human race, our organization hasn’t caught up. All around the world we still adhere to archaic laws, we still put ourselves into distinct groups, and massive inequality still abounds.

Can we catch up to our technology? Is it enabling us to restructure society, or simply incentivizing a dilapidated system? Can we utilize the enormous technological power now available to us all to create a more free, a more just, and a more equal global civilization? 

More than any generation before, it’s up to this one. 

Move and Play

I’ve been told February is the worst month, because it’s still bitterly cold and dark, without the major holidays to tide you over. I don’t know if that’s true, and apologies to February fans, but it seems much of this Covid winter has been that way.

What’s helped me recently? Exercise. It might not be the most convenient with the restrictions and weather, but moving keeps the spirits going too. Thinking back to the base of the basics, sleep, diet and movement are the core components of health.

We were born to move, have evolved to run and jump and climb and swim and sprint. We have one of the most advanced circulatory systems on the planet. We can build incredible strength and endurance. We might move from box to box now in our societies, but sweat and breath and movement is who we truly are. 

We are animals, irrational, emotional beings that naturally want to play. True enjoyment derived from these basic things. Let’s rediscover that sense of play and excitement through movement. It could be the difference as we hold back the tide. 

Figuring it Out

“I have a feeling you’ll figure it out.” 

That quiet consolation of feeling, knowing, deep down, that you’ll figure it out. That we’ll figure it out. 

Times are undoubtedly tough. We’re going to get through it. We have to make serious and deliberate changes to the way we do things, and it will take everything we’ve got, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. 

It seems anything worthwhile requires all of you, all that you are and all that you have, but if you surrender yourself and relinquish all else, the worthwhile is attainable.

Do we want it bad enough?

Joy of Life

When I was walking at lunch today I looked in the distance and saw snow on the very tops of the foothills. For some irrational reason it made me really happy. See California does have all four seasons! 

It hearkened me back to growing up in East San Jose: when driving east on 280, just before the 101 junction where the freeway becomes 680, there's about a 2 mile stretch on elevated ground. On a clear day you're treated to a glorious, if fleeting, view of the foothills in all their majesty. 

It was sublime, and I would fill up with joy. Come to think of it, if I had to verbalize a sensation of "home," that might be it. Seeing the Golden Hills of California on a happy sunny day--there's not much that can beat that.

And that's the point. It's the little things, the free things, that make us happy. If we stop and notice them, we'll recognize that simply being a part of this incredible world is joyous enough. What a thrill, what a pleasure, it is to be alive. 

Reality Awe

While languishing through Dry January these past few weeks, I’ve kept coming back to two thoughts: how incredibly fortunate I am, and how amazing this world is.

Anything I dare to complain about becomes laughable when compared to the strife others are facing. What did I do to deserve such an inheritance of circumstances? By luck of the draw, I was born into an American middle class family and enjoy near the height of luxury and convenience. A different continent of birth and my situation would be unknowable. 

Because I enjoy such good fortune, it’s easier for me to see the multivariate aspects of life on this planet. I know nothing of life in Japan or Ghana or Paraguay. The finer distinctions of European law elude me. I’m not privy to the magnitude of work it takes to broadcast an American football game. It’s just such an extremely diverse world... the history that’s brought our civilization to this point, the sheer amount of biodiversity on this planet, the wondrous geological features on its surface.

There is so much to explore, so much to experience. Privilege affords a peek into the depths of it all, but not the first-hand understanding.  It is imperative to appreciate the surrealism of existence in order to fully exist. Consider me in awe with reality. 

Whole New World

At least in the Bay Area, the trees and plants have no idea what season it is. I have several friends whose allergies are off the charts...in January.

I think about the hundreds of companies in Silicon Valley that are now fully remote but intend to go back to the office, whenever they are able to do so. 

It just seems like a whole new world now. Can you imagine 'back to normal,' whenever the pandemic has subsided? Can you foresee how climate change will change our daily lives?

Perhaps we didn't choose this, but we certainly have to deal with it, one way or another. It's the world we're living in. So what will it be?

I believe we can collectively work towards solutions to our problems. I believe we can coexist, despite our perceived differences. And I believe we can all find fulfillment during our time here, each in our own way.

We just have to see it all laid out in front of us, for what it truly is. We are a part of something greater, something synergistic, something that has been building for millennia. How will we contribute?