We can change the world.
Looking at something in Zanzibar, November 2019
There are magnificent things to celebrate, every single day and night. I was fortunate enough to experience that today.. how much of what I can write to you is valid then? It changes every single day..
Past ocean and icebergs and glaciers, Antarctica, March 2019
Life goes on, despite what’s happened in the past. I need to tell myself that sometimes, and it also seems we need to learn it as a species. We can always course correct. As they say, we have no obligation to be the people we were five minutes ago. What will we do?
Remnants of an ancient civilization can serve as a reminder and a looking glass, Cambodia, March 2020
And then an invasion happens and puts things in perspective for us. There are many takes to what’s happening in Ukraine right now, much historical context to remember. But at a basic level, we are still tribes of monkeys that try to impose our will on each other through violence. War does not have to happen. The only way out that I see is a recognition that we are not many tribes of conquest but one tribe, on one rock in the ether. May we learn from previous mistakes and make moves towards peace in the future.
Looking out to the Pacific Ocean from Twin Peaks in San Francisco on Monday
The world has become so different so quickly through the pandemic. I worked at my company’s office today for just the third time ever, despite being with them for more than a year.
It’s such a paradox how we are adaptable creatures that also crave routine. We have the power to design the systems of our society to contain both. What kind of world do we want to live in?
A different world up in the city, yesterday, 2022
It’s kind of amazing how different two places can be, even not so far apart. Just 45 minutes away might be a different world. I realized this again, not for the first time, when leaving the city and heading back to the South Bay.
We are regional in our culture. This has been the case for hundreds of thousands of years. The fact we are trying to span larger than that, collectively, is amazing. It’s never been done before. Let’s remember that, as we work towards a better world.
Observing the magic outside the Curran last night in San Francisco
I have this deck of Presidential cards that make it out of the game box every now and then. On one side of each card is the official Presidential portrait, while the other contains brief paragraphs on that person’s life and term.
My family makes fun of me, because I like to play “the Presidents game”—basically badgering others into guessing who each President is, based on facts or portrait. It’s a pretty dorky game.
I enjoy looking at those cards because it reminds me how much a person can change the course of a country. The United States has had some good presidents, and many bad ones, but each left an indelible mark on this country. And each of those people were chosen by the people.
Our political system needs heavy repair, no doubt. But it has also forged a potential path towards a working democracy, provided an opportunity to make the world better for the people, by the people.
We still have the chance to improve. I think about all these things as we observe Presidents’ Day today. Our choices will change the world, of that there is no argument. What’s undecided is how… how will we change the world?
Walking up 4th street this afternoon, San Francisco, California
I grew up visiting San Francisco, and it’s still enthralling to me as an adult. There’s simply so much character here. It looks different during the pandemic, with a visible increase in homelessness and business closings.
But the charm is still here. The wind and the fog and the hills and the history are still here. The City continues to shrug off prestige and beckon possibility. To me, it will always be special.
The Old Red Museum from JFK Memorial Plaza in Dallas, Texas, December 2020
Time is our most precious resource, and I like to use mine to travel. Seeing other parts of our planet makes me feel connected to it, to our species, and to all the amazing life that lives here.
I still wonder how much it would change the course of our world if every human being went up to a space station to view the Earth, as a field trip. Maybe once when you are ten, again when you’re thirty, and a last time when you’re seventy. The numbers are arbitrary, but it would almost serve as a check-in for us.
We’re all part of one complicated, beautiful system. Travel, displacing one’s self from normalcy and comfort, enables you to see that.
Flamingos walking it out in the Bolivian desert, April 2019
I don’t walk the streets outside my neighborhood that often anymore, working from home. Today I got the chance to walk somewhere I haven’t in a while.
There’s something to walking a place—you get a better feel for it than any other kind of transportation. It makes me wonder how much walking affects culture. In many places in the United States we don’t walk very much anymore. Maybe our sense of belonging and togetherness would increase just by walking around more.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day, without thinking about the grand scheme of it all. Maybe that’s what we need to do more, as a society, as a species… is consider the bigger picture. Consider, and think beyond what we’re biologically predisposed to focus on. We can do it right?
Hiking above Vernazza, from a dream, August 2019
What is really living? Different people would say a lot of different things: that’s what I’ve learned so far at least—no one life seems to be the same as any other.
Messaging about what livin’ good looks like bombards us from all different sources and directions, all the time. That’s what effervescence is.
How we navigate this experience is up to each of us. We could even do it together.
A lazy male lion enjoying the light of sunset in the Mara, October 2019
Recently I’ve found a new antidote to my rising cynicism of institutions and corporations. For starters, it’s a luxury for me to even feel any resentment; I could have been born a peasant 900 years ago and be fighting starvation each moon cycle. But I also have found meaning in the challenges we face in our world today. Light will conquer the darkness, it must. Just how life has conquered the impossibility of its existence in this universe, on this planet. Everything will be okay. We have to allow ourselves to thrive.
The approach towards Antarctica, March 2019
On Valentine’s Day the tradition is to have a fancy dinner with your date. There is something magical about having a meal with a loved one, light dancing off the walls and conversation carrying the night away. A special day like today reinforces this simple truth. There is so much love in the world… we just have to embrace it.
Just an ordinary look at a magnificent temple in Laos, February 2020
One thing the pandemic has granted is an expanded perspective on life and meaning. Moments with family, loved ones, and friends are precious. Developing our tribe is paramount, and we need to do it at a global scale. We can, because we can do anything.
A momentary glimpse of Zion National Park, while pursuing a different journey, February 2021
I deeply enjoyed much talk about travel tonight, and it invigorated my sense of adventure. The world is vast, and grand, and diverse… and beautiful and mesmerizing and incredible. There is so much to explore.
How lucky I am, in so many ways, to even fathom the pursuit of exploring some of it.
None of us will ever truly fully explore the planet, and that’s part of what makes it magical. We can pursue adventure in our limited lifetime, choosing which corners of the globe to discover.
Our time is limited, and that’s part of what makes it meaningful. The Earth it seems, in my limited understanding, is not limited; and I’m grateful it’s my home.
Enjoying Zion National Park with my tribal core, February 2021
And all of a sudden it can slip away within a few hours. Time indeed can be of the essence, but it’s your relationships that move you through the world. It becomes abundantly clear when there’s water entering your dwelling.
Do we recognize the importance of our tribe? Do we see that we’re in fact one big global tribe?
Looking out on the city of Quito in May of 2019
Time really is a fickle thing. I remember my dad telling me when I was young, “the pages of time turn faster as you get older.” It certainly appears to be true.
But it can also slow down in the space of an hour, even if the past year has gone by in a blur. Taming the mistress of time is one of life’s eternal journeys.
The pandemic has made it that much more difficult for our generation, those of us going through it with the rest of our lives ahead. What are we going to do?
People watching from the Sydney Opera House, January 2020
I’ve been pushing back against creeping cynicism for a while now. A lot of it is probably pandemic fatigue. But it’s obvious we need to make changes in our society. Can we do it democratically? Can we engage long enough to demand change? Even if we feel hopeless about it, some person some day will rise up to effect change. Why can’t it be us?
Searching for stories in sublime Cinque Terre, August 2019
Today I listened to my grandmother tell stories about my grandfather’s family. Decisions they made according to the times, where they chose to live and why, that sort of thing.
I wondered to myself, did my grandpa ever imagine he would have three daughters and six grandchildren when he was “all grown up?” Surely not right?
We inherit so much from our family, and we owe them what can never be paid back. Our parents who create and raise us; we will always be in their debt. Those from long before; they made sacrifices, many of which we’ll never know, that enable us to enjoy our present circumstances.
We are the product of our family. And all these families, all around the world, are just trying to do the best for themselves and for their children.
I enjoyed hearing those stories today, because it connected me to those I barely or never knew, and it allowed me to view my existence in a different light.
Watching a sunrise at low tide, Zanzibar, November 2019
No matter one’s political affiliation, an erosion of trust has occurred. We don’t feel our institutions work in our best interests, those of the common people. To secure that power, we must take it back. It’s the only way to ensure our rights and voices are heard. To enjoy a true democracy, the people must own the power of government. It’s time for us to seize it.