Talk is cheap

It’s always easy to talk. It’s a different thing to interpret another one’s experience.

Isn’t that what makes us special? To be able to actively listen to the sounds, the tone, and the context… and then to deductively interpret what is a shared experience?

Excerpt now, more than ever in human history, there is an incomprehensible amount of noise. Which makes it easier than ever to talk.

How do we navigate this? Through our ubiquitous means of communication, or through another pathway? I believe we can find the solution.

Earnest for Change

Earnest is an important habit to practice. We can preach about whatever values or philosophies we want to hold in our society, but without earnest, they don’t translate into anything tangible in the world. We can ask ourselves, whatever our orientation to the universe: did I pursue an aim with earnest today? Simple, but powerful. And those seem to be the most effective mechanisms for change.

Using Time

Our perception of time can be so subjective sometimes: certain days whirl by, and others progress slowly. The fact is, time is a limited resource of which each of us has an indeterminate amount. We don’t know how much we have left. We can only choose to use it in the way we sit fit. Will we waste it away… or will we contribute to the universe… will we change the world?

Adapting Attention

We’re such adaptable creatures, and that applies to the level of the brain. We become accustomed to the amount of stimuli we receive regularly, and when it changes it can be difficult to adjust. This is why it can be hard to remove one’s self from consumption of mass media, because it’s everywhere around us all the time now with our phones and the internet. And this malleability of attention affects how we interact with each other and the world. That is why it’s important to keep our consumption in check, in perspective. So that we can see what truly matters in this world: the life and love that surrounds it.

Return to Hobbies

I’ve realized I’ve fallen away from my hobbies over the years. I’m not sure if it’s the pandemic or something else, but I don’t run or play basketball or play pool as much as I used to. Running has become more routine, despite my transition to minimalist footwear, and it feels great. When we have habitual activities we can retreat to, the world seems saner. Perhaps we should all pursue our hobbies to help everyone, not just ourselves.

Tribe and Transition

I still maintain there’s a fall feeling in the air, despite the heat wave recently. And recently, I’ve spent so much time with my family. Do we enjoy the change of seasons more when we’re comfortable with our tribe? It’s how we’ve always adapted to transition. I feel honored to be a part of it all.

Tribe Contribution

How lucky am I to be able to declare I genuinely love spending time with my family. Perhaps in a lot of the world that’s a foolish statement; that’s a conversation for a different day. But in the world today, where I live, it seems like a too rare thing. We have this one experience, however long it may seem at times. If we spend it with those we love, with those that make us better, we actualize our full potential: to contribute to this universe, to impact all we experience for the betterment of it all. And the fact is: we need each other to do it.

Influence on Others

I went to a wake today of a person I didn’t know that well. He impacted my life in a positive way, and I was moved during the service. Having gone through the very personal and visceral experience earlier this year, I processed how unique every situation can be in such circumstances. What I took away: we exist in circles of connection in this world of billions of people, and our impact on others matters. Our lives appear to be such a long time scale, but time can be funny. Our influence on each other matters, and it carries. This one’s to Don Church.   

Grappling with Time

Gosh time is such a trip. It slips away without notice when we least want it to; and when meditating, it can go on forever. It seems our perception of the concept of “time” is dependent on our ability to be present. Thousands of years ago we were immersed in presence, clawing for survival. Now, in the 21st century, we have stimuli bombarding us constantly. How present are we as a species? How present do we need to be? We can consider such questions, as we try to change the world, and grapple with time.

Life’s Complexity

Life is hard and complicated and unclear. I try to remind myself that no one has it completely figured out, not one person on this planet. Sometimes it’s nice to lose yourself in music while reflecting on the grandness of it all and all its complexity. It can be helpful to exercise it out as well. On a run this afternoon I couldn’t help but marvel at my fortune, to be jogging on a long wide street towards distant golden hills, bright blue sky with flecks of pure white clouds at 5pm. It was bliss, as life sometimes is. It makes the times of uncertainty seem less enveloping. And then there’s your tribe: it’s a lot easier to figure life out with someone, to figure it out together.

Traveling Mother Earth

Booking travel can be exhilarating because you actualize a place you want to visit. It helps that airline and hotel websites plaster their pages with exotic pictures of fantastical destinations. But you can’t deny the world is incredible. There are arctic fjords, tropical beaches, and temperate forests. It may all be mapped, but it’s still waiting to be explored by each person, to bring our union closer to Mother Earth.

Season of Change

Can you feel the season changing? Growing up, Summer was always my favorite season. It meant swimming in the pool, my birthday, and no school. As I’ve gotten older I think my preference has shifted to Autumn. It probably started in Beijing, where I regularly experienced all 4 seasons for the first time. Something about Fall is anticipatory: the holidays are coming, and winter, and the new year. There’s a chill in the air that makes it that more precarious to be out in the elements, which makes you feel a little more alive. It’s a season of change, of transition. It’s a reminder that the world is always changing, and we must change with it. We get to. What will it bring?

Little Things

There are times when I recognize it’s the little things we do that keep it going day after day. The small habits we keep carry us on a positive path. I notice it, when I’m good, in my personal life. It makes me wonder if there are little things we can do as a group to make the world better. Being patient on the road, cleaning up after ourselves in public, treating each other with respect. Maybe it’s just the little things that can change the world.

Interesting Planet

I’m always taken aback by how different the city and the South Bay are. I arrive back down where I’m from today, and it’s a whole different world; a calmer, quieter one. A mere 40 miles separates these two locales, and yet if you removed the time concept from traveling between them, you’d wonder if you crossed the country. The world is a big interesting place. We can so easily become accustomed to the ways of the area in which we reside. But when we get out and explore the planet, we can truly appreciate its vastness and diversity. How lucky we are to inhabit a place so interesting.

Natural Seeking

We’re still a little weird when we’re all in public together, even at a festival in San Francisco. I have to say however: maybe I was in a great mood because I was enjoying the day with my family, but I found people to be relaxed and friendly at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass today. The bottom line is simple in that we’re all embracing the same thing. We seek fulfillment and connectedness and play. When that’s hard to find due to larger societal mechanisms, we can start to become restless in larger groups, these affiliations that exist in modern times that transcend our biological evolution. But I believe in our capability to figure it out. We can build systems that work for us, and when we do, it will enable our better nature to absolutely flourish.

Find the Good

And sometimes you just have to realize how good you have it. When I really see it, I feel ashamed for having ever complained about anything at all. You’re born into a lot of shit in this world; it still dictates too much of your life path chances. But the people you love, the relationships you forge, can be a separating denominator. As social creatures, our company greatly impacts our experience. When you’ve found that tribe, whether born with it or not, it transforms what’s possible. And at that point, there’s nothing to contest, there’s only things to get done, and time to enjoy.

Just Your Mind

Today I was told during lunch that a celebrity died—I didn’t know because of my temporary hiatus. Instead of browsing the web, I’ve thought about the tattoos I want to get and reminisced to myself about good times. I haven’t been perfect in my refrain, as it’s hard. It can be easy to replace a habit with a worse one. I’m trying to choose that wisely. But there’s certainly less negativity in my life; instead of calling myself an idiot when I do something dumb I chuckle, “ha that was silly.” I’m less judgmental of strangers’ acts. There are lots of benefits I probably haven’t even noticed yet. Abstaining from mass media permanently isn’t a viable long term strategy (probably), but I can use the experience to better inform how I want to approach information in the future. It’s a ride when you just have your mind.

Pushing Through It

Sometimes you just have to push through. I think about all the times that were difficult in my life, and at some point, even if it seemed like forever, things became better. We have to believe in that light, for ourselves, and for the world. We are a part of the universe, and we can influence its path. Sometimes we just have to push through it.

Connectivity Paradox

It can be incredibly hard to be bored in the modern world. There is distraction everywhere, opportunities for neural connections to form and strengthen. I’ve found this to be true in villages on dirt roads in Africa, or on jungle border towns in South America. Our world is connected, which in general can be construed as a really good thing. However creativity and muse and wondering and wandering happen when not hyper-connected. Balance as we move forward in the future will help us effect the most impactful change.

Starting Small

Mass media can be difficult to escape in today’s world. I’m starting to think a cyclical hiatus is the best strategy for finding balance. It’s important to stay informed with what’s happening in the world, but I’ve found it easy to get lost in extraneous concerns far outside one’s circle of influence. We can only control so much, and that all starts with our internal environment. When we’re centered in our disposition, it is then we can effect change in our smaller circle. And that can change the world.