Tribe Building

There is so much to experience in the world. And I’ve realized it’s better to navigate this journey with others. It makes us feel better, less alone, but it also increases the enjoyment. I’m satisfied with the relationships in my tribe, my close family and closest friends. Yet I recognize that a tribe can encompass more: it can be the gym you go to, the game group you play with, or the music fanbase with which you associate. We can build a tribe with people who aren’t our family or friends, through any regular, fulfilling activity. It’s how we form organized groups harboring the same mission and values. In the 21st century, we are tasked with organizing around a singular global vision. We are at the precipice of a united world, one human tribe. Are you in?

Changing on GroundHog Day

I marvel at the passage of time and how different we can become over a matter of days. Poor diet and lack of sleep last week had me feeling like dirt. Less than a week later, back to exercising and eating better, and I’m a new man. They say the key is stringing the good things together, and that seems to have merit. Just look at the movie GroundHog Day.

Entering Other Worlds

We are the only animals we know of that can disappear into other worlds within our minds. I’m always amazed when I return back to reality after pulling out of a good book or an engrossing game or enthralling film. We can enter these other worlds proactively as well, through daydreams and creative writing and illustration. How lucky we are to have the ability to enter these alternate dimensions. Even such a simple thing can become precious, if viewing the world with gratitude.

Group Resolutions

We’re one month into this new year, do we feel changed? Are we off to the right track? While I prefer to make resolutions on my birthday each year, maybe our New Year’s resolutions can be communal. Maybe at the turn of each month, we check on how we’re doing as a society, look ahead to the exciting things upcoming for our community, and prepare for the difficult challenges we might face together. Maybe we can focus a bit more on group improvement. And if all starts with raising global consciousness and uniting humanity. We are one species. Let’s see ourselves as that and move forward together.

Adaptable Perspective

We are so incredibly adaptable. It’s an incredible strength, but it’s also a limitation we cannot escape. We are only capable of understanding what experience we have lived. All the possibilities of perspective we have can only come from our experience. Can we reach beyond that to consider someone else’s? Because that’s the next evolution for our species.

Apply to the Future

There is a social element to “the football games” I guess. We watch it together and get worked up. And then I remind myself that it’s just a football game. There is much more we can accomplish together. Considering the production of a football game, can we apply to our future?

One Big Tribe

Family time. I’ve written about it before, but as time goes on I recognize how consequential it is. We spend our most significant moments with our tribe. Do we realize it? Do we act accordingly?

Supposed to Wonder

You start to evaluate what matters, and what conversations matter. It can certainly be tricky sometimes. Maybe with our larger brains in this timeline we’re supposed to wonder.

Tribal Evaluation

It’s an honest look when you consider the tribal members in your life. If something happens to the key people in your life, then what? What happens? Even if painful, this thought exercise can be powerful, and reinforce who we love. Maybe all this is inherent when you live in small tribal groups in 2000 BC. But now it’s less obvious. Is there value in returning there, in considering what tribe means?

Little Life Things

Life will continue to throw things at you forever. I feel it just feeds off complacency. Think your life is too boring? The universe can handle that.

Perhaps it’s just the little things I’m noticing: the route to work might change, or a neighborhood dog isn’t there any more, or you decide to walk at a different time each morning. Those little things are there all the time if we notice them, and they add up to a lot, our general current life experience. Sometimes you just gotta sit with it.

Walking and Consideration

It can be challenging to keep perspective sometimes when cooped up in the house all day. Even when I work remotely, I try to at least go outside for a twenty minute walk. The low intensity exercise, the exposure to the sun and air, and the simple nature of exploring my surroundings… it’s all invigorating. We’re designed to walk around. We’ve made our lives so easy and convenient that walking is no longer a given part of daily life. We can be proud of the significant accomplishments our species has thus far achieved, but we can also be mindful of our current reality, and any of its potential limitations. We can adopt a critical eye for trade offs. Such awareness is the task ahead of this generation. Can we see it?

Getting Healthy

There are cycles in life. One of the most powerful feelings is health and vitality; getting into shape feels completely different than falling out of it. When we’re becoming stronger and faster and more metabolically and neurologically fit, we experience a different life. When we’re sick and unhealthy, all we want is to become healthy again. It’s difficult not to take it for granted. We just have to be grateful for the human experience.

The Power of Family

As I progress on this journey, I recognize more that this all requires a group effort. Our species didn’t evolve to dominate the environment with single individuals. Humans progressed because we work together to increase our chances of survival. I’m so incredibly thankful about how much I get to share my life with my parents. We are a tribe, and we navigate this world together. Our timing in this century doesn’t water; it would be the same a thousand years in either direction. And I believe if we recognize that many people around the world experience the same sentiment, we can effect real change. We’re all in this together.

Funny Alignment

It’s a funny world we live in. Even in the area I’m from, there are so many diverse perspectives and courses of life to take. I enjoy learning about different journeys from very different people. Do we have a common thread or belief? Can we unite around a single purpose? I can’t prove it, but I think a vast majority of the human species would say yes. Together, we can change the world.

The Nature of Hard Work

And sometimes, you just have to immerse yourself in your work and work hard. Entering the flow state of getting shit done helps melt away a lot of the extra bullshit. And it feels good to work hard. Often your brain doesn’t want to believe it at the outset, but it’s almost always true in the end. It’s almost like you have to trick yourself into it, into just starting. Because once you’re in it, you won’t want to stop; your focus will be consumed by the task at hand.

Remembering these simple truths can provide encouragement for the future, for the world. We can accomplish so much when we work hard. Imagine what we can achieve working hard together.

Combating Negativity

So how do you avert negativity? When it unintentionally, unconsciously, consumes part of your life, how do you pull back?

I’m trying to figure that out. Part of it seems to simply be a relinquishing of the importance of life: what is a life well lived if we don’t enjoy it? If we don’t have fun? Part of living is purely hedonistic.

Another theory I’ve considered: gratitude. Perhaps negativity is the absence of gratitude, and maybe if we reach back out to the universe with our hearts, with genuine thankfulness for all that is, not what could be, we can transcend that negativity.

As I pursue both these avenues, I remind myself how life is hard. This is a journey after all, and journeys are not composed of short easy ventures.

40 year investment

I wonder sometimes when we’ll recognize the significance of a 40 year investment. That is what it takes for us to see the dividends of a child today. Their education at five years old changed the landscape of what’s possible, in 40 years. Solid consistent build up of high expectations, critical thinking skills, and elevated literacy and numeracy… what could that do for the world in 40 years, at scale? Can we collectively decide the investment would pay for itself?

On to 88

My grandma turned 88 years old today, and she’s still going strong. You begin to cherish your time with grandparents more and more as you get older. Even though we’re still 750 miles away, every trip, every visit, is worth it. I can only wonder what it’s like to sit down to a meal surrounded by the large family you’ve created with your partner. I hope it’s as magical as it seems, because my grandma deserves it. Thank you for your intriguing stories, timeless simple wisdom, and carefree positivity. I will do my best to live up to those habits and pass it on to others. Happy birthday Grandma.

MLK Day, not any other

I’m not sure MLK Day gets enough credence. It’s nice to see his name and legacy presented on sports television, but it’s not simply another day off. His impact, and his principles, are as American as anything else: the strength of this country is its diversity. Let us not allow it to also become our weakness. Thank you Martin Luther King Jr., for all you have given the world.

Phoenix Love

Flying again, and arriving in Phoenix. Getting picked up by my dad, and arriving at my grandparents’ facility. Then relatives, near and distant, are showing up, greeting each other, spending quality time. All for my grandma. A woman soon to turn eighty-eight years old, a woman of character… and she can tell some stories. I admire her today with respect, for the progeny that traveled and then gathered around her. What else more can you ask for at eighty-eight? Health and love were reinforced today. I love you Grandma.