Hard Question

On Memorial Day today I think about liberty and justice for all. Do we experience that?

Working it in the City

Everything is beautiful. Isn’t it? Maybe I just don’t experience that urban environment often. We are working together in this world, and if you look carefully, you see that in the city.

Walking in the City

I really enjoy walking around the city. The skyscrapers everywhere make the world feel larger. The unique architecture and history make it feel like part of a story. The people are full of life, exploring for an experience beyond the space available. It’s a street photographer’s dream. San Francisco is a special place.

Wanting More

Reminiscing is fun and useful. When you discuss old times with your tribe you strengthen it. Looking forward to the future can also prove important. Where are we going? Will we grow and pursue new ventures? Survival is fundamental to being human, but so is our capacity for more. What more do we want?

A Good Birthday

It’s hard to believe, today is my younger sister’s 32nd birthday. Time just passes on I guess. My sister is a special person; she always seems to have something going on in her head, even if I can’t quite understand it or reach it. She’s “living her best life,” as they say. I worry she might feel alone sometimes, and my family tries to mitigate that as much as possible. Today my beautiful younger sister had a good day, and that is reason to celebrate. Our time with our tribe is the most important experience in this life. Today was special; today was a good day.

Present Moments

I always get caught up with the realization that life simply goes on. We always know the present the best, and it’s difficult to reach back toward the past to remember, to understand, to put together with what we experience now. Likewise the future will always be slightly out of grasp. And in this case, why don’t we embrace it, and make the absolute best out of this moment together that we can.

Month of May Momentum

I used to consider The Month of May to be special when I was in high school. May brought warmer temperatures, and the prospect of the summer, which back then equated to freedom. It became a thing with my friends, serving as a month-long crescendo towards the promise of fun.

I can once again feel it in the air. Even though Covid cases have been on the rise, it seems we’re pulling further and further from the initial horror of the pandemic. People are excited about the summer, about the future in general.

And we should be. Things can be much better, and we’ll need to work toward them, but it could also be much worse. We can be grateful for where we are now, and hold hope for the future being brighter. Summer is coming. Our world is healing. We can continue to make it better, and there’s so much for us to experience.

Life Enjoyment

I’ve always put pressure on myself to do well, to be the best I feel I should be. It can be an asset in many ways, but it can also be a source of stress and anxiety. I try to remind myself often that everything will be alright. Forget the end of the day: at the end of our lives, we will look back on our fond memories because we enjoyed them, not because they were accomplishments. It’s up to us to love and live to the fullest extent possible in our limited time. And for all of that I am grateful. We can change the world yes, but we can also live.

Love Songs

After listening to a lot of music recently, I thought about something the other day: the most common subject of songs, by far, is love. Humans write about it constantly, the woes and the waves. We are social beings that long to love, to from bonds with our fellows in order to better navigate the universe. And that gives me hope. We can change the world.

Democratic Participation

It took me well over an hour to vote tonight for the upcoming California primary election next month. There were a lot of positions up for election, and many candidates for each one. I used candidates’ campaign websites, their Twitter accounts if applicable, and third party graders to evaluate them on the issues important to me. But so much of it seems to be determined by perceived conception of someone. Are they honest, do they have integrity? Will they actually do what they say they will do? For those without any political record, it can be especially difficult to gauge their stance on any given issue, as well as hierarchically how important that issue is to them. Yes, democracy is slow and inefficient and has its own myriad share of pitfalls. My participation in it tonight forced me to consider first principles. We certainly have made major strides as a civilization; we are happier, more prosperous, and more peaceful than ever before, despite what the news might tell you. But we still have a long way to go. We are in the driver seat.

What’s Within

There’s enough in this world for us all to have our basic needs met and be happy. It’s the crux of all our problems in the world. It might be foolish, but I believe we can make progress quickly. We have the power to change the world, and it only takes what’s within us.

Buzzword Disambiguation

I think there’s a misconception around the word sustainability. We seem to make it synonymous with the word effortless. When something is sustainable, it’s not (necessarily) automated; those are two separate characteristics. A rockstar’s concert tour might be sustainable, but it’s not automatic—they still have to put in the work, keep performing at events.

This might seem silly, but I think it’s an important distinction for us as we navigate this century while juggling this buzzword. We want to strive toward sustainable energy, but that doesn’t mean set it and forget it. It will require maintenance and updates and continued effort. We want to build sustainable systems and institutions, but they won’t exist indefinitely: they will require constant diligence.

At the end of the day, there’s no getting around thermodynamics. As far as we know, we live in a zero-sum universe. Let’s pursue sustainability, but with realistic expectations.

Feelings of Optimism

I’ve written about the importance of gratitude many times before, and it’s indeed life-changing. Optimism is another great practice that improves quality of life, and it can stem directly from gratitude.

Things might not always be optimal, but we can always be grateful for how good they are (or how “not bad” they are), and that can lead to a belief that conditions will be better, that we can affect our future conditions. We cannot control or influence everything throughout our experience, but we can influence or control a great deal, including the most important thing: ourselves.

It is fully within our power to determine our attitude, our internal environment, our reactions to the outside world’s events. I find this incredibly uplifting, a natural precursor to feeling optimistic about the future.

The truth is we can change the world. It may be slow, it may be difficult, but it is possible. To me, that alone is a cause for optimism.

Peering into the Deep

I think it’s severely uncomfortable to take a deep, longitudinal look at our lives, which is why it can be so difficult and why so few people regularly do it.

When we ask ourselves things like “why am I here” or “what’s the meaning of all this,” it surfaces our greatest fear: the unknown. Our brains, while possessing the ability to ponder such questions, evolved to be capable of reasoning—it was a path toward sustained survival. We struggle with things that are seemingly unknowable.

It’s also a deeply personal experience, muddled by our individual psychologies. But if we are to pursue a better future together, we must face it. We must face it both individually and together, because when we communicate with each other about these most important of things, we’ll realize that we’re all the same. And that the universe is magical, something to be explored and experienced. Shall we do it together?

Different at Home

There’s always a reset when coming back home. It can be difficult every time, but it also presents another opportunity to build new habits, and reaffirm foundations. I always enjoy the stillness in keeping company with my tribe, even if I was just traveling with them. Somehow it’s different when you’re home.

Exploration Return

It was a very successful trip to Nashville, but it’s always good to be home. After hot fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, and good ole’ Tennessee whiskey, it’s time to rest at home. It was my first visit to the state of Tennessee, and it was fascinating to experience the differences from California. The United States is a huge diverse country, and I’m grateful I had the chance to explore one part of it.

Progress will happen

I told my wife today that things will continue to get better. I believe most people are good. Altogether I believe people are reasonable, that we all want the same basic things for the same reasons. It might not always be pretty, and it might feel much too slow, but progress will be made. It requires tremendous effort, some togetherness, and a lot of outreach and organization. It will never be guaranteed and must always be fought for and protected. That’s the nature of the universe. Can we stare it down in the face and accept that it will require our consistent vigilance, but that it will also happen?

Diverse Nashville

Tourism is certainly a major industry in Nashville, and for a reason: they do a good job here. It’s fun to eat and drink your way through town. But there’s also a ton of history in this city, and this area of the country. I’ve realized during my visit just how big and diverse it is in the United States. We all may eat and live differently, but we’re also all the same. We all breathe, we all laugh and smile and cry for the same reasons, and we’re all human.

Music City Muse

Music City certainly has lots of music, as well as lots of good food. There’s a charge in the air when walking around downtown; the people here are upbeat and happy. Lots is happening constantly, and the energy permeates out from the cool confines of the AC into the hot streets. Tourists like myself abound everywhere around Broadway, and the honky tonks reverberate with sound. Nashville is indeed a place of action. Swaller n holler, and get to dancing, because in Tennessee’s capital life is good.

Off to Nashville

I was asked a couple times what I was most excited about in visiting Nashville for the first time. Music and food is obviously a priority, but my answer was always the same: I’m eager to explore a new place with an open mind, to learn what it’s all about. Nashville will undoubtedly be very different from the Bay Area, and I’m excited to experience it. Our diversity in culture is part of what makes us American, and part of being human. When we develop an understanding of our differences, we can better work together through all the important common traits we all share. Welcome to Tennessee.