The Year in Photos

I think I've written before about the benefits of revisiting photos. I did just that today, looking back on the photos from this past year. It was emotional, seeing all those I love, reliving all the fun happy times of 2023. Because photography captures a moment and feeling in time, it can transport you somewhere else. I felt myself leave the room, enraptured. It's become a New Year's tradition for me, to look back on the year in photos. Just one more way to reflect on my fortune, to be here in this big beautiful amazing world, in this moment of time, with my tribe and all those I love.

I would posit everyone likely sees the same thing in their photos: love. And if we could all understand we each see the same thing, it might lower our walls and raise our consciousness. We are more similar than we are different, and we share this incredible experience in this spot of the universe, right now in this time, together. Rejoice in our photos and in our collective fate of being together with an opportunity to emanate love.

Lessons and Love from the Caribbean

So it started with the song "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti & Spearhead, Cherine Tanya Anderson. That song was on the "Caribbean Beach Party" playlist I found on Spotify during our Virgin Islands trip. It's a phenomenal playlist--we listened to it for the entire 9 days of our trip. I had heard the song before, but it resonated with me deeply all week, while on the beach, in the car, on the ferry. The song is about love between 2 people while admiring the beauty of life. Consider the lines:

"It seems like everywhere I go, the more I see, the less I know"

"But I know one thing, that I love you"

The song brought intense emotions about my beautiful wife, the goddess I met across these stars, who has become an inextricable part of my life. But it also made me think about love in general. There's a part in the song that repeats "I love you" 12 times in a row, and it captured my heart, because it reinforced what we all know deep down upon birth: that life is about love. That our purpose in this universe is love.

Somehow, a few days after listening to that song, I was admiring the view of several beautiful islands, and I thought about a quote I came across from back in my Reddit days. I think it was from one of those typical Ask Reddit threads, "what's the best advice you've ever received, or a quote you've heard that still deeply resonates with you?" I remembered reading someone's answer (I was always only ever a lurker), "if the whole world acted the way you do, what would the world be like?" It must have resonated with me upon reading, because I came upon it again in the hills of Jost Van Dyke, reflecting on my own attitude and behavior. If we want to enjoy a considerate, peaceful journey in life, then we have to do our part.

Through that reggae playlist, and the songs about love, I felt I was embodying a wanderer full of love for the world and anyone I ran across. I felt confident, and proud, that in some small way I was contributing through a personality of politeness and friendliness with all my interactions, both with locals and other tourists. The people of the Caribbean are beautiful, and I'll treasure the trip forever.

And then today, on my first run since Christmas Eve, I finished the last 20 minutes of episode #2706 of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, featuring a discussion about the implications of AI with Aza Raskin and Tristan Harris. It's a fantastic episode that I highly recommend to anyone intrigued by how our world may change with the advent of artificial general intelligence. Aza Raskin, towards the end of the episode, explains his disapproval with the common question, 'are you an optimist or a pessimist?' He posits that both paradigms are flawed because they seek their own confirmation bias, no matter positive or negative, and thus enable one to absolve themselves of responsibility or agency.

I've felt the malaise in the world the past few months, even few years. I've succumbed to helplessness or indifference at times. But hearing Raskin's words jolted me back to my old conviction of hope, that we can inspire change--agency and responsibility--in others, that we can change the world.

I finished the episode before I finished my run. So I switched back to the Caribbean Beach Party playlist for the last few minutes. The first song that played was "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I relished my good fortune. And I came across the poignant line, "I hear babies cry and I watch them grow, they'll learn much more than we'll know. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world."

What a beautiful thought, that our children will be better than us, will accomplish more than us, live longer than us, enjoy a better life than us. Because it's not about us, it's about love. It's about developing a deep conviction in our agency and our responsibility to contribute to the universe. To change the world... to change it for those after us, to plant trees of which we will never enjoy their shade.

And then "Say Hey (I Love You)" followed. I couldn't believe it, and nearly started crying on my run. It had come full circle--all these epiphanies and reflections and deep feelings returned back to where they originated last week--with a song about love. A love song not 'for the world,' but 'a song about a boy and a girl.'

I think it's all interconnected. We find those we love, those star crossed people we 'bump into in the middle of the road' and we make a beautiful life full of love with them. And that in turn provides us the context to envision a better world, the conviction to change the world and contribute to the universe with our own agency and responsibility, together. That's exactly what I'm going to do, and I hope you do too. I'll be goin' now, but I'll be back home around the way.

Seeing the Rainbow

It's incredible how quickly and strongly your deepest desires change when you become sick. When sick, all we absolutely want is to be healthy--we'd give anything to be healthy. Previous higher aspirations disappear or fade deeply into the background.

I've felt that this week, and feel the timeliness of it to be serendipitous. With Christmas fast approaching, a time to be thankful and rejoice in gift of family and friends; and New Year's, when everyone reflects on their year and how to be even better for the upcoming one; being sick this week has spurred reconsideration of the big picture.

This consideration is connected to my recent musings around living slow and doing less. I haven't been able to do much this week, either around the house or outside it, and that's meant I've done less, and lived slowly. It felt deadening at first. But as I sat with it, I realized how I had become caught up in consumption again, how I was no longer mindful while eating or completing daily tasks, how quick-tempered and impatient and simply limited I had become.

There are ebbs and flows in life. We feel motivation come and go, and our habits shift over time. But basic discipline enables us to build, slowly, even 1% more at a time, each day. Maintaining discipline can be difficult, and I've certainly lost it recently in many ways. Being sick has granted me access to the larger perspective that discipline enables me to be the best I can, which translates into less consumption and more production, more contribution, for the world.

I believe we're all capable of contributing to the betterment of the universe in our own unique way. That Confucius was right: we must cultivate some discipline, and the best of ourselves, before we can outwardly contribute to the world. Sickness can potentially act as a purge of our decaying listlessness and routine. It's been the case for me this week, and I feel more invigorated than ever to be the best human possible. So that I can, in some small way, help contribute to changing the world. Sometimes it just requires a little rain to see the rainbow.

Maintaining Hope

While talking to a coworker recently I compared the current state of the world to the first law of thermodynamics: in physics, when you heat up a closed system, the molecules bounce around faster (because energy can't be created or destroyed, it can only transfer to a different form). It just seems as the Earth warms with climate change, and our tempers flare by "the other side" on social media, our collective energy speeds up. It feels like large groups of the population are incensed with each other, about Gaza-Israel, about Ukraine-Russia, about the economy, about Covid. This is only my interpretation of current events of course. But negativity seems to abound around the world.

It's understandable, as we're more connected now than ever before, and are thus more easily made aware of hardships or atrocities elsewhere on the planet. Large corporations feed us this negativity, because it results in more clicks, more engagement, and thus more profit.

But I reject the notion that all is lost. That our civilization, our species, and our planet are in decline. Even if some or all of that were true, wallowing has never yielded change. We are an imperfect species within a flawed civilization. Earth has significant problems. But we are also a powerful species, a species I believe to be inherently good, not evil. We've built up a civilization that has empowered billions. And our planet is the most wondrous known thing in the universe, capable of weathering significant storms. We can work towards a collective global consciousness, a united species, one that remains inspired to effect change. I vehemently believe, still to this day, that we can change the world.

Going Outside

I've been pondering how often we spend time outside, especially in the context of my own life. I listened to a podcast that talked about grounding, something I was never sure was scientifically valid, and I did some further reading. The concept of grounding is definitely under-researched, but here's the gist: grounding electrically resets the body and restores our pH balance, potentially helping to reduce inflammation and autoimmune response and/or stimulating healthy cellular function. Perhaps it's placebo, but I've felt better after walking barefoot around the grassy area outside my front door consistently this week.

The fact remains: we evolved to be outside. Our ancestors, born naked in caves and thrust into the world with no tools, had to scavenge for any food or shelter. It was a harsh existence. Those whose biology suited survival in the elements passed their genes onward. Thus slowly over time our biology adapted to make use of energy from the sun, chemical compounds in the Earth, prevalent bacteria, and so on.

Compare this to the modern person in 2023. How many minutes a day do we spend outside? Five? Accumulated through the brief moments we spend between our box house, box car, box work or box school, and any other enclosed spaces we visit? Even then, we're wearing shoes, usually pounding hard surfaces such as concrete, asphalt, or stone.  How often do we walk barefoot on the Earth? It wasn't until I started walking barefoot this week that I realized it had been weeks, if not months, since I last made direct contact with the Earth.

I'm starting to think about what I want 2024 to look like for me. Reflecting on how I spend my time, I'm resolved next year will feature more moments in nature. I'm going to prioritize touching the Earth as often as I can. The Earth is our birthplace, our nurturing ground, where we learn to run and play and love and live, and our final resting place. It's part of what makes us human. We are not simply living on the surface of the Earth, we are a part of it.

Across the World Friends

I have a recurring todo on my Things app to "Reach out to Across the World friends." It's set to pop up every 2 weeks. Its purpose? Serve as a reminder to keep my friendships kindled. I've been lucky to meet some amazing people in my life, many who live in different countries. Perks of living in the 21st century--we can not only stay in contact but remain friends with people across the globe. And all it takes is a short message or a quick call to connect.

In talking to people living in a completely different environment, we can maintain exposure to unique perspectives that would normally be impossible without living those experiences firsthand. Even talking to an American living in another state can widen our point of view or change our attitude. Modern technology makes possible something simple yet profound.

We might not be having reality-defying conversations with people in other locations in the Metaverse yet, as Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg recently did. I'm sure the ramifications of the proliferation of such technology will bring even more change. But it's cool to know that right now, virtually anyone can connect with another person across the world in real time. And I believe it's our connection to each other, and to our collective humanity, that will truly change the world. To making across the world friends.

Phones Can Save the World

I remember when I bought my first iPhone. It was in Beijing in late 2012. I spent hours reading up and watching videos about the older iPhone 4s and the newly released iPhone 5. My coworker eventually groaned, "just get the newer one, it will last longer." I was so naive throughout that first smartphone purchase. Thing is, that first iPhone altered my behavior.

Before Beijing, I lived in Cape Town, my roommate and I sharing a small house with no internet, no TV, and far outside the city center. Those 4 months were probably the most productive of my adult life post school: I read dozens of books, established my life philosophy and values over many weeks (and got my first tattoo to commemorate it upon leaving the country), and wrote pages and pages of material. With no overt distractions, I deeply introspected and got shit done. Upon moving to Beijing, when I still had my brick Nokia, I barely used my cellphone and rarely had it on my person. I was fully immersed in the world around me whenever out in public, with nothing to distract me during "dull moments." I used to carry around a little notebook, jotting down thoughts or observations, often while riding the subway. I would sketch things as well, filling up notebook after notebook. My thoughts were calm and collected, and I felt strong intention in my life. Then the iPhone arrived (I accepted my coworker's advice and got the iPhone 5. Thanks Amybabe). I remember becoming addicted to a game on it, and playing that game nightly for months. I began to read books less, and surf the web more. Video calling with friends or family back home changed; originally it was a big deal to set up a time and date and confirm which program (usually Skype) we would connect with, which necessitated using the computer. Even the preliminary versions of Facetime and iMessage made it ubiquitous for such communication. My phone replaced my notebook while riding the subway lines of Bejing. Maybe not in an obvious way, but my life, my thinking, was different.

Fast forward ten years later, and I think about the deeply engrained habits revolving around my phone. I check it immediately upon waking and just before bed. I whip it out the moment I'm bored. It's literally within arm's reach 99% of the time, awake or not. I've tried to combat such listless attachment to it over the years. I've named it "This is a Tool" in an attempt to remind me of its true purpose. I've experimented with having it in the other room, or not using it until a certain time. I've only upgraded twice in ten years. But the powers that be--trillion-dollar tech behemoths employing teams of the world's best engineers to capture your attention--have proved too strong. I always revert back to an undesirable behavior, usually in moments of weakness when I'm tired or hungover.

My wife teaches kindergarten, and we frequently discuss the apparent differences the children display now. Over the past few years, it's evident they struggle with emotional regulation, doing things they don't want to do, handling consequences, etc. Of course, they're five and six years old. They're learning all of those things. Hell, I'm still learning them at 35. But the behavioral patterns now are clearly different than a few years ago. The effects of the pandemic, namely locking children up for 2 years, almost certainly figures to be the main culprit, and is a variable we can't fully understand because it was so unique. However, any child born within the past decade has grown up using mobile devices since birth (true even at my wife's low-income school). I've witnessed infants, literal infants, swipe and pinch on iPad screens. Our children are raised in an electronic world, constantly provided dopamine through the prevalent use of our increasingly captivating devices. Their brains are literally forming differently.

And I wonder how common this is across the entire planet. Or rather, how common it is for people to not be addicted to their phone. Smartphones have been accessible to 68% of the world's population for 7 years now. Our collective psychology is not only hijacked by these machines, but our neurochemistry is changing. I don't know how to approach this conundrum, but what if solving this one problem lead to many other answers? What if it really is as simple as us unplugging? Think about it: there would be less Twitter warfare, because people would use social media less because they'd be on their phones less. Perhaps we could regain our humanity by having more social interactions face to face, without distraction, because we would not be communicating solely by phone. Maybe we would collectively become more aware, more compassionate, simply by determining how to leverage the power of our technology while limiting its detrimental effects. Could the predicament of raising our global consciousness, counterintuitively, be achieved by using this technology less?

Canister Conflict

­­­News about the conflict in the Gaza Strip and Israel has been harrowing. With so much vitriol between online spectators, it’s hard to know what to say or how to react. I wonder:

— What does my ambivalence say about me? What does it say about society?

— How many people have been killed in this conflict compared to those killed in the Ukraine?

— How many people are still dying in the Yemen humanitarian crises?

— Does the United States House Speakership being vacated still matter? (Wasn’t this our most recent alarm bell?)

And I think: we have the technological capability to know what’s happening all around the world, but not the biology. We only have a finite amount of attention. We haven’t raised enough global consciousness to process what happens around the world without reverting to tribalism.

It seems we are constantly bombarded with high-intensity flares of emotional canisters of information. They land at our feet and spew an engulfing, manic cloud that obscures our vision and our reasoning. The particles may dissipate for a while, only to be replaced by more canisters from different events around the world. And so we subsist in a continual fog. We react to the canisters hurled toward us instead of surveying the landscape and finding a better living environment.

I do not know the history of the region nor understand the motivations of any of the groups of people that live there. But I do condemn organized violence, especially against civilians.

I pray for true lasting peace, and for us to find a way, as one species, to raise our global consciousness.  Only then will we be able to unite humanity and inspire change.

Particle Soup

I've been contemplating the universe as a vast soup of particles of various compositions. Smell is the simplest way to conceive of this. Smell = molecules from the environment enter our nasal cavity and interact with our olfactory receptors. We literally perceive the environment by touching other free floating particles. It’s but one example of our experience with this particle soup.

The particle soup we call the universe is not a metaphor, it is the physical makeup of reality as we know it. And while the biological evolution of our intelligence might not have optimized for understanding the universe at the smallest level of physics, we are capable of understanding it. On the shoulders of giants, we have developed tools and technology to observe the universe at the most basic level—think Large Hadron Collider, microscopes and telescopes, etc. It's possible for a layperson to review the data, learn the math proving our reality, and even observe it at the basic level firsthand.

Particle exchange through three different organisms

So the concept of particle soup is not simply a paradigm to adopt. It's how our universe exists. We don't yet understand the full physics of how particles of matter interact. And we're even further from comprehending the organic chemistry, the biological implications of how the particles of life work. But today, right now, we are far enough out on the precipice that we can reach forward and conceptualize this mosaic of particles and the symphony their interaction creates. Consider playing a sport with another person. When playing a game of basketball, two people are often touching or up against each other, their molecules colliding. Their sweat rubs against each other. The environment of the gym acts as a somewhat contained system; the materials of the floor and the baskets and the ball and peoples' sneakers are all mixing together. During a simple five on five pickup game, a dynamic interaction of particles occurs between both organic and inorganic materials. Our bodies react to all this. Not only are players weaving through the court within the game, they are weaving through, and exchanging molecules with, the liquid fabric of the universe within the gym. We are simply a collection of particles navigating among other groups.

If we accept the universe is a soup of particles, what does it mean? It enables us to foster a more holistic approach to our life experiences and generate empathy for others. We are part of the universe, and a part of our local environments: the Earth, the continent we reside on, the local city, town or village we inhabit. We truly share these environments with all others who live there, because we exchange particles with them and the environment itself. Anything we emanate into our environment affects all within it. Which means we make our reality together. What kind of universe will we live in?

Live Slow, Do Less

On July 27th I wrote the following in my journal: "live slow, do less. Less stimulus, slow eating." Perhaps utterly lacking context to anyone else, but it clicked for me when I revisited the entry today.

I can feel more space between the ears when I reduce my content consumption. There have been many mornings (and even days) in the past few months in which I fill much of my waking moments with phone reading or podcast listening. When that happens, I've realized my thoughts are primarily reactions to things produced by others. In this way I have little opportunity for original thought, because my focus and attention are directed towards someone else's.

It's even more ethereal than production vs. consumption. There's something psychological, something universe-warping around slowness, stillness, and less. When I eat less food and eat it slower, my meals seem longer, more enjoyable, full of experience. When I'm "bored" for a stint during the day because I'm not consuming anything, I'm fascinated by the minute nuances of life on this planet. Mundane facets of life become interesting.

And I'm motivated to produce something: to create, to write, to contribute. In living slowly, I seem to live more. My behavior changes from consuming to creating. Thus life feels more meaningful, because I experience fulfillment in what I produce. When I live slowly and do less, I think less about things that don't matter and instead ponder things that truly do. Living slowly and doing less, paradoxically, isn't really doing either.

Jimmy's Contribution

I was saddened when I heard of Jimmy Buffett's passing a week ago. It's taken me a while to process, and I've listened to his music all week. I'd like to pay my respects...

Jimmy Buffett’s songs weren’t really about island escapism or partying. They were about weathering hardship, rejecting despair, and living with joy. His lyrics called for perspective on this great mystery in which we all partake. They compelled me to reflect, and increased my appreciation for the universe. And most of all, his music was fun. I hold many fond memories of singing and dancing with family and friends while listening to his songs. Thanks Jimmy. I hope you're enjoyin' the scenery, I know that it's pretty up there.

Long-sighted

Recently I've been entranced by the history and art of movies. I've consumed a ton of "The Rewatchables" podcast, produced by The Ringer and hosted by Bill Simmons, who seems particularly in tune with pop culture. In each episode the hosts pick a 'rewatchable' movie and detail its production history before debating over categories like 'most rewatchable scene,' 'what's aged the best/worst,' 'who won the movie,' etc. Having watched a lot of movies over the course of my life, I've enjoyed revisiting the classics through this podcast and hearing interesting tidbits about various actors or directors. The hosts seem to be having so much fun, writing and podcasting about popular culture and its aspects they find intriguing.

I've struggled to find a new blogging cadence since my month-long hiatus. TAV is my passion and purpose, but it's been challenging to balance it with my day job in product management. So I routinely question - what should I do with my time? Should I pursue a meaningful career that offers those coveted P's of passion and purpose, or should I maximize my income and find fulfillment in my personal time? Many people deal with this conundrum - in the modern world, it's one of the pitfalls of becoming an adult. For me, it helps to consider the big picture, to view life on the largest possible scale across time and space. This offers perspective and removes some of the personalness of the debate that can sometimes lead to feelings of overwhelm or depression.

The reality is 99.9% of people are forgotten within 2 generations. People rarely know their great-grandparents, the lucky ones forming fuzzy memories of them from their early childhood at best. Most so-called "ordinary" people's lives fade fairly quickly from memory when viewed from a large enough timescale, even a mere 100 years. Case and point: all 4 of my grandparents have been significant influences on my life. They shaped who I am today and the course of my life. But this will likely not be true for my children. Two of my grandparents are already gone, so there will be no physical connection between them and any children I may have. My two surviving grandparents are likely to only be around for my children's early years. I have vague memories of my great grandparents, and their influence passed to my grandparents, to my parents, to me, but I cannot truthfully say I "remember" them, and I certainly don't know much about their lives before old age.

New Melones Lake from the paddle board. Shot with the GoPro

This appears to be a harsh fact of our existence. It can feel even more uncomfortable when considering ourselves. I will likely be forgotten within 100 years. What kind of person I am, how I made others feel, my best memories and hardest challenges... it will all be lost to history, most likely. My children will remember me, and hopefully I positively influence them the way the 2 generations before me have impacted me, but a generation after that... my memory will be gone.

Think of even so-called "famous" people: Clark Gable or Judy Garland, Billie Jean King or Mickey Mantle. These names are still known, partly because it hasn’t been that long—yet I can barely think of 2 or 3 silent film stars. I can’t name any famous baseball players from the 1800’s. Maybe this is changing somewhat with better recordkeeping; first through newspapers and national coverage of news and notable events, and later through the internet and international coverage of the world; however, there’s still likely a “Dunbar’s number” equivalent for remembering famous people. A sports aficionado might know most Hall of Fame basketball players, but most casual fans only recognize the names of a small handful of great players. These notable people were incredibly well-known for decades, and yet faded into obscurity like the rest of us "ordinary" people.

The long road ahead. Gold Country this past weekend

What of the names still known hundreds or thousands of years later? Aristotle, Confucius, Cleopatra, Mansa Musa, Siddhartha Gautama, Joan of Arc, Jesus of Nazareth. These people, or at least their legend, have permeated cultures and civilizations for dozens of generations. Why is that? Why does the memory of their lives survive past the arbitrary 100-year mark? I would argue it's because these people offered something meaningful to the world, things that had lasting impact on society, civilization, or our species as a whole. Their contribution has implicated results for centuries, and we credit them for it. They weren't entertainers or pundits or athletes. They were bringers of change, those who helped society move from zero to one on something important. Often their ideas are still relevant today, still influencing how we see the world.

This isn't to disparage journalism, sports, entertainment, or any other mechanism of society. As I mentioned before, one can choose to earn a living and find meaning outside of vocation, and I don't believe there should be judgement around that. This is simply to examine our lives through the long lens of history. And while I think this may be uncomfortable at first, it also provides a freedom for our choices. Not an escape, but a true reckoning with how we want to live our lives. We can choose to dedicate them to a cause we believe will help our species, improve the universe in some fundamental way, understanding the significance of our work is not about us or our memory but about the contribution itself... or we can accept that we'll be forgotten, and enjoy life, teach our children what we believe, and find meaning outside of "work." In a way, it's not really a choice, but a surrender to the physics of our universe, without yielding fulfilment. In the end, we as humans enjoy the freedom to choose our path of meaning.

Return to Writing

Something I wasn't sure would happen, but I'm glad it did--I feel compelled to write. Taking a month's hiatus, I wasn't sure if I would return to writing so easily. But it's started to itch and pick at me recently, and although that feeling has been uncomfortable, I'm glad it's grown stronger.

Why do I write this blog? Why does TAV exist? I asked myself this question several times during my hiatus. One of the reasons I paused on writing in the first place was because it had become a chore, something I had to do every day and check off. This diminished the quality of my posts, and I wasn't proud of what I was offering the world. I didn't enjoy scrambling for inspiration at 10pm while scribbling away on my phone to simply get a post up.

So I asked myself: why do I want to write? The answer is multi-faceted, and yet simple. I write this blog because I cannot not write. I need an outlet for my observations, my feelings, and my dreams. I write because it brings me a joy that is unlike any other sensation I've experienced. Writing is hard, but when you enter its flow, when you feel proud of what you're producing in real time... it's being alive, something I haven't experienced with anything else. And so I have to write. But about what? I asked myself this question many times as well, and I want to share them here.

The majesty of our big beautiful amazing world. Iguazu Falls, Brazil - February 2019

I write about my perspective of the world and my vision for it because I have this unshakable belief in the human race and the contribution we can make to the universe. That there is purpose to us being here, even if we don't understand it. And that it's worthwhile to contribute positively to the universe, in whatever way we can. It's not a matter of fame or legacy, my work echoing into eternity beyond my lifespan. It's not about me. I hope what I produce outlives me, and contributes to the universe, because I want the universe to be impacted, to be bettered.  I believe in Trevor Allen Vision's mission to raise global consciousness, unite humanity, and inspire change.

I hold those three tenets deep within my soul. With the technology and knowledge we possess as a species in the year 2023, we have the capability to develop true global consciousness. We can view our planet as one Earth, not an assortment of territories. Indeed, many of our (serious) contemporary problems will require solutions that can only be implemented with global consciousness. For us to recognize this potential, we will have to rise above our basic biology, tribalism within small groups. This leads to the second component of uniting humanity. I have been privileged to travel the world, and I've accumulated evidence for one of my core beliefs, something my Dad told me when I was young:  we are more similar than we are different. We all laugh and cry, sing and dance, smile and embrace, for the same reasons. It's possible for us to see ourselves as one people, and I believe it will unlock our full potential to thrive. Many would say we are not thriving now, that our trend line points downward. If this is true, we must change. We must consider what should be changed, together as a united species with global consciousness. And we must consider how to change. I hope to inspire this, with all I can offer.

“Pale Blue Dot,” courtesy of the Voyager I spacecraft. Credit NASA/JPL

Writing is the best way I can do it now. And so I will continue to produce content for this website: because I must, because I love it, and because I am compelled to fulfill TAV's mission. I will not post every day, but I hereby make this promise that what I do post will be the best I can possibly offer, and that from the bottom of my heart, it will contribute to the betterment of humanity, life on Earth, and ultimately, the universe.

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Some Work

I think there’s an importance to work in life. It could just be our pure biology, or a passed down cultural trait from thousands of years of civilization. But it seems we’re wired to work. Fulfillment and satisfaction, and even happiness, derive from meaningful work. Can we organize ourselves better to achieve good collective work in life?

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Rest and Adventure

With each new day we are presented with further opportunity. Even on a day of rest, when it’s not fun to try to be productive, there is always something to learn, some new experience to have. That’s life. Because rest is only one small part of it. The other side of the coin is adventure.

Having a Weekend

It’s good to have some fun in life just for the sake of having fun. We are social creatures that enjoy play. And then, sometimes, you can have a weekend.

The First 35

I truly cannot ask for more. How rare is that, how appropriate? What will I do with the next 35? With this support, I bet on myself to do good.

Life is Grand

Is it not?

Priorities

I often wonder about priorities. What are mine, what are those of the people I’m around, what are the world’s? Are people our priority, and more holistically, should they be? These are the difficult questions we need to answer.

Polar Blog Series Part II: The Arctic

Chapter 9: Lessons of the Arctic

Our experience in the Arctic was transformative. It reinforced lessons learned in Antarctica: the Earth is huge and magnificent. We live on a planet with an incredible diversity of life. And we are but one (albeit important) component of it all.

Surprisingly abundant plant life on Svalbard

But our trip also solidified new learnings as well. I now understand how crucial the polar regions are to the health of the entire planet’s ecosystem. The phytoplankton and zooplankton that thrive in these regions are integral to the food cycle that exists throughout the world’s oceans, and the prosperity of the oceans determines the life on land. This includes us; we are recipients of what occurs in the water in these parts of the world.

Bearded seal chilling on an iceberg

Polar bears only reside in the Arctic, and the opportunity to not only see them but spend prolonged bouts of time with them was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They are amazing animals that contain full-fledged personalities. Their behavior is truly unpredictable, as we witnessed during each and every encounter. And they really are the regal symbols of the Arctic, and all that this special ecosystem represents.

Cody Bear tracking Junior

I know I will return to the polar regions some day. Their impact on my life cannot be overstated, and I feel reinvigorated about promoting the protection and appreciation of this planet. It is all connected, even these most unique and remote regions. We are connected to it. We are one planet, that will thrive or fall together. What’s our next move?