We can change the world.
Local monks enjoying a stroll, Chiang Mai, Thailand, February 2020
There’s always so much to learn, and I feel that’s the most important lesson. Even reducing our experience to the here and now, there’s still so much unknown.
I believe that humbleness is key to our advancement. It’s the recognition that yes, we do live on the shoulders of giants, but yes, there is still so much more to improve.
How we navigate that line of experience with humility…that will determine what options are available. How do we want to proceed?
A dry Yosemite Falls against the forever granite backdrop, Yosemite Valley, July 2021
We live in a world of uncertainty, and the pandemic brings that to the fore. In such a world, can we freely debate ideas and have civil discussion about the best path forward?
Are we capable of changing our minds? After all, it’s highly unlikely that any one of us has ever always been right.
The only way to build, to improve our collective circumstances, is to learn from each other. How much learning have we done lately?
The peaceful, alluring beaches of Fernando de Noronha, February 2019
In the somewhat rare circumstances you get to enjoy far off friends’ company, you recognize what we’ve been missing. This pandemic has been a journey, and as we progress out of it, hopefully, we differ on approach.
I support being outside with your loved ones. I believe we are social creatures, and that we can interact with our tribe in a safe way.
The path forward is unclear, and we have to discuss it in a sensible way. What do we decide, and how shall we decide it?
The deep blue sea near the northeastern coast of Australia, January 2020
We live in a very charged world of opinion now. Listening to other viewpoints can be difficult when high emotions are often involved.
I try to force myself to understand other perspectives, because I recognize I might not always have great empathy for others’ plight. There are so many diverse circumstances, across just my state, not to mention the country or the world.
It is our differences that offer our greatest opportunity to learn and to build. We can create a fortified world with understanding and empathy, if we so choose.
Looking back at the onion domes from the wall in Rostov, Russia, September 2019
We’re at such an interesting point as a species: technology enables great things, yet we still struggle to govern and organize. We have come so far, and yet we have so far to go.
Education at a basic level is ubiquitous across most countries, in which we systemize the passing down of knowledge to children. We also enjoy a relatively safe, peaceful world.
Do we want more? The further we can push ourselves, the more we can cooperate, the more utopian we can make this planet, for all people and all life.
Looking to what’s coming, Botswana, August 2010
The days change, but there’s some semblance of the identify of your tribe. I experienced that today.
I engaged in the standard societal opportunity of what was afforded, and then I spent time with people that matter, to me. This is not available to everyone.
How can we make it so? How can we expand beyond our own prospective sphere?
The ship against the backdrop of mountains and glaciers, Antarctica 2019
There are little miracles to appreciate and small plans to anticipate all the time. To many others in different circumstances, they might not seem so simple at all.
We might feel our lives our routine, but every single day there are options, and choices to make. I never look back with regret, but with utter gratitude at how wonderful this whole thing has been.
Looking forward to reunions with friends, spending time with your tribe.. these are the parts of life that can never be shuddered. Perhaps if we consider this path of empathy, we can create one for all of us.
Snow and solitude in Shenyang, Liaoning, February 2013
I feel like I’ve wanted to write this for a while: life goes on. It’s just a feeling, but in today’s modern world, there is a decent amount of keeping it going, working hard and pushing through for the next period of relaxation.
But that’s where the opportunity lies to find the beautiful in the seemingly mundane. Each day, every moment, is a gift—if we’re able to enable the present.
I’ve been encountering this deep recognition of how wonderful life can be, even if not to an outside observer. It’s there, it’s here…the more we can embrace it, the more magnificent this all can be.
Sunset on Maui near Kihei, February 2021
I’ve spent a mostly quiet weekend cleaning and organizing my residence. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized an orderly environment equals less stress and more mind space.
All across cultures and time, people have done up their living space; it’s a universal commonality of our species. What we deem home, we take care of.
The time is upon us to recognize that the Earth as a whole is our home, and the only one we will ever know. This planet, and all its mystery and wonder, can only be cherished if we treat it with the reverence it deserves.
The salt desert in Bolivia, April 209
There are varying perspectives everywhere. I’ve just had a conversation with someone in which we disagreed about almost everything.
It wasn’t because we are politically misaligned, it was simply a difference in perception. It was refreshing for me, it reinforced the fact I have my own biases.
There is so much possibility out there. We can change the world; we can make it what we want.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge on a smokey morning, January 2020
When you discuss various topics with others, you can gain perspective. It might be the most important thing each of us can do.
We live in this vast, complex societal world, on an expansive, diverse planet. Our ability to thrive as a species is determined by each individual’s glocal aptitude.
We’re past the point of existing on a small tribal level. We share our home, this planet with everyone here—can we adapt?
Looking out at Prague atop a hill, September 2019
Sometimes I recognize how different my perception might be from someone else’s. We all have our own individual experience across space and time.
Disagreements and misunderstandings will naturally arise within this reality. And yet we still form coalitions and alliances, still share communal memories and affiliations.
We are our own islands in this universe, but also interconnected to every single other thing. How well we accept these circumstances, and interpret their significance, determines what’s possible.
The fastest mammal on the planet laying around, Maasai Mara, October 2019
It seems there’s a balance between turning our awareness to the inner and outer world. Perhaps that’s what true mastery in life entails.
There are moments in which it’s important to do one or the other. We must support our fellow humans in times of emergency or disaster.
But it’s also a whole wide world out there, always a crisis occurring in some part of the world. That balance is what enables us to rejuvenate our health and spirit when necessary, and to extend help when we can.
Gliding through the Beagle Channel at the bottom of the world, March 2019
Meanwhile others are having a different experience all around the globe. Many Americans only catch a glimpse of it on cable news’ triggering coverage of a disaster somewhere far away.
We now have the technology to bind together as one people: the common people, those who live normal lives in an abnormal world. The majority isn’t necessarily always right, but shouldn’t life conditions suite the masses that experience them?
If we recognize each other, regardless of our location or origin, we can enact true powerful change. If we look up from our keyboards and screens, we can effect change that’s beneficial for all.
Sunrise over Wudangshan in western Hubei province, September 2012
I enjoyed dinner outside today with my wife, sitting amongst the trees on our balcony. A thought occurred to me in that moment, that there was nothing I could ask for more.
We have faced many horrors as a society over the past 18 months, but some of us, the fortunate ones, can focus on the greatest things life can offer. Spending time with our tribe, enjoying nature, and appreciating the simple things in life.
How ungrateful, and wasteful, we would be to not embrace gratitude for our fortunes. Only from this vantage point can we then reach out to others and expand our tribe.
The entrance to the Wave, the epitome of Earth’s natural beauty, April 2021
When I talk with friends now, we almost always discuss sustainability. With climate change and the economy worsening, it’s hard to stay away from the topic.
Where do we go from here as a civilization? How do we retain and spread hope?
We can start with observation of the tremendous beauty that is our planet. When we witness and truly see how wonderful its existence is, we can find the drive to protect it.
There are some places that enable you to forget how feeble judgement can be, February 2019
It’s a curious thing, how we get so wrapped up in our own individual lives. After all, someone not that different could be experiencing something completely different.
I find myself judging others’ actions sometimes, and in those instances, are their actions so consequential? Probably not; in a community setting, it’s probably simply easier to work something out.
This is all to say, how do we build a global community that functions on such a scale? There are perhaps many engineering feats necessary, but it all starts with consideration.
The sails of the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, January 2020
The world is so incredibly diverse and beautiful. I’m fortunate enough not to live in a war torn area, not to be threatened daily.
I inhabited a social structure absent of such things, while many others face far different circumstances. I enjoy the chance to consider nature, and ponder the Earth, all within a safe environment.
Perhaps if we enable the masses to subsist with basic quality of life elsewhere established, we can reach a tipping point of nature. One in which we recognize how special and precious this rock is, what all, regardless of any perceived differences, call home.
Walking the streets of Sevilla and admiring the cathedral, August 2019
I am still much less social than I was before the pandemic, and I still wonder it’s effect. We are social animals, and many of us simply do not interact with as many people anymore.
As technology enables communication at great speed and distances, we seem to become more and more detached from the ancient social conventions developed over millennia. Can we adapt to these elements of modern living, with billions of us alive simultaneously, before our biological tribalism collapses the system?
These factors are all interconnected, and I’ve learned during this pandemic that physiology and biology dictates more than we give credit. In reestablishing our communities and constructing a global one, we can unlock much of the impossible.
Magnificent plants abound in Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, 2011
Change continually comes, and life adapts. How well are adjusting to the circumstances we face?
It can be hard to maintain a sense of agency in this big crazy wild world. But the wildness is also a beauty, from a certain perspective, and we are alive to adapt.
We are stronger than we believe. The universe, and our time in it, is for us to live.