Nothing is impossible. You just have to want it more.
~ unknown
Elsewhere, this is 4a877. — slipbox
Impossible?
Precendence
Dead last finish is greater than did not finish, which trumps did not start.
~ unknown
Elsewhere, this is 4a136. — slipbox
Be kind
Did not finish
Never throw in the towel. Use it to wipe the sweat from your brow. Then keep going.
~ unknown
Elsewhere, this is 4a69. — slipbox
Did not start
The hardest part of any journey is believing you are able to begin it.
~ unknown
Elsewhere, this is 4a203. — slipbox
Start now
Maxim:
Dead last finish is greater than did not finish, which trumps did not start.
~ unknown
Elsewhere, this is 4a136. — slipbox
Corollaries:
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
~ Plato
Elsewhere, this is 4a116. — slipbox
Never throw in the towel. Use it to wipe the sweat from your brow. Then keep going.
~ unknown
Elsewhere, this is 4a69. — slipbox
The hardest part of any journey is believing you are able to begin it.
~ unknown
Elsewhere, this is 4a203. — slipbox
Reality check from 2008
My mom dug this photo up from somewhere. It was taken in 2008, and there may have been a few changes since then.
I think this is now my favorite inspirational photo.
Why inspirational? Most of the changes I’ve accomplished have been in the past four years. If I can accomplish what I did, without killing myself (literally or figuratively), while having a tremendous amount of fun… then I cannot wait to see what comes next!
ɕ
The little box on my desk
A long long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms. I kept them on the first version of my web site, where they were displayed randomly. But as time went on, I realized I wanted them where I would see them. Eventually I copied the fledgeling collection onto 3×5 cards and put them in a small box. As I find new ones, I add cards.
I keep the box on my desk with one card showing — just wedged in so it stands up readable. I change the card randomly, whenever the urge strikes.
Countless times I’ve pulled another card and found it eerily appropriate to the challenges of the day.
Countless times I’ve returned to my desk and felt inspired upon rediscovering an old card’s whispered counsel.
Countless times, just as I was about to throw in the towel, I was saved by an echo from the little box on my desk.
ɕ
Yes you can
Hello there! Welcome!
This post is where I’ve dumped a bunch of things intended to convince YOU that you really can do Parkour.
Why do I think you can do Parkour? Because, basically, everything the general public has heard about Parkour is wrong. You could totally do Parkour because…
I’m too old, over-weight, out of shape…
I did it, so can you.
I simply mean that when I started, I was very over-weight (BMI well over 30, definitely “obese”), very out of shape, and I was just over 40 years old. That combination is probably “worse off” than most people who end up reading this.
However, if you are older, in worse shape, or fatter than that, I do still think you can do it . . .
Do you think you can improve yourself?
Parkour is about improving yourself through challenge. So whatever is challenging for you, that’s going to be your practice. Maybe for you, it’s a warmup and then start working on some shoulder strength, but you spend a majority of the time watching class so you’re not over-exherting yourself. Maybe it’s a long talk about nutrition and diet (generally what you eat, not a specific diet fad) combined with your initial Parkour efforts.
What about that crazy stuff on TouYube?
It is NOT about big jumps! Why does everyone see the EXTREME movements, and then assume ALL Parkour has to be like that?
You can drive a car without getting into auto racing. You can do a cart wheel without being an Olympic gymnast. You can go for a jog without running a marathon. You can practice Parkour without jumping between roof-tops across an alley!
There’s nothing wrong with the extremes (in the “ultimate level of performance” sense) in any of those activities, but those extremes are NOT representative of the average activity of “driving”, “cart wheeling”, “running” or “Parkour”.
And anyway, here’s a link to my all-time favorite video of some Parkour. I think it’s spectacular, but not in the “huge jumps”, “extreme movement” sense: Julie Angel’s, Movement of Three (2’33”) Movement of Three – YouTube
But I’m a woman…
The answer is still: Yes. Yes you can.
I do understand that there are issues (not just in Parkour) that only women face. But those issues are either societal norms, or other bullshit caused by men. That has nothing to do with Parkour per se. (It’s about men. Actually it’s about boys. Real men don’t pull misogynistic crap.)
HOWEVER, do not take my word about anything regarding the woman’s point of view. Instead, go read this:
«http://www.risingtraceuse.com/2015/03/5-thoughts-that-keep-women-from-trying.html»
And the question almost no one asks…
How do I figure out where and with whom to train?
This is ACTUALLY the hard part. It’s always the same: finding the right coach is mission critical. And you have to perfom this most-important step BEFORE you know much about the thing you want to learn.
So here’s how you do it: You find the nearest place/people/group that purports to teach the thing. You go there. You put your “vibe radar” on and you don’t go back if anything weirds you out. If anything is high pressure (“Jump this! NOW!”, “Sign up for a year! NOW!”) then you back away slowly, and never return. They should be welcoming, intelligent and you should feel supported by most (if not literally) everyone in the class.
ɕ
The hallway of inspiration
“Oceans destroy cities!” Also in the hallway, “Your butt looks good in that outfit.” Why thank you! :)
ɕ
Start Counting When It Starts Hurting
I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that’s when I start counting, because that’s when it really counts.
Elsewhere, this is 4a88. — slipbox
An overlooked factor in creating positive change
Find joy in every step. You’re not doing this to get to some great destination at the end. Each positive step can be a joy in itself, a place to smile and breathe and find gratitude. What a wonderful thing to be where you are!
~ Leo Babauta from, An Overlooked Factor in Creating Positive Change – Zen Habits Website
Elsewhere, this is 4uzetu1. — slipbox
ɕ
All Training is Sacrifice
To train successfully, you must be willing to sacrifice portions of your present self-concept to a future, higher version of the self created by your ego. It is your ego, god-like, that is initiating and driving the process of self-transformation and becoming. This process requires you to exchange something you have for something you want. Nothing worth anything is truly free, and everything worth having requires some kind of sacrifice.
Instead of “killing your ego” — instead of fighting yourself — approach training as a sacrifice of a part of yourself to a higher self.
~ Jack Donovan from «http://www.jack-donovan.com/axis/2016/08/all-training-is-sacrifice-stw-episode-18/»
ɕ
10 learnings from 10 years of Brain Pickings
And now, somehow, a decade has elapsed.
Because I believe that our becoming, like the synthesis of meaning itself, is an ongoing and dynamic process, I’ve been reluctant to stultify it and flatten its ongoing expansiveness in static opinions and fixed personal tenets of living. But I do find myself continually discovering, then returning to, certain core values. While they may be refined and enriched in the act of living, their elemental substance remains a center of gravity for what I experience as myself.
~ Maria Popova from, 10 Learnings from 10 Years of Brain Pickings – The Marginalian
Elsewhere, this is 4ubaye1. — slipbox
Maria Popova’s site “Brain Pickings” is one of the true delights of the Internet. Take a few minutes to click over and see.
ɕ
This is for Me, Too
My biggest struggle has been trying to live up to my own words and beliefs. I can’t just write this stuff and not do it. I can’t be that kind of hypocrite. I can’t tell people to go out and push themselves if I’m not willing to do it myself.
~ Jack Donovan from, «https://www.jack-donovan.com/axis/2016/10/this-is-for-me-too/»
ɕ
Random snapshots of two men I admire
One guy is always happy to see me. I don’t mean well-duh-that’s-obvious happy, the way say, my mom is always happy to see me; I mean, just outright happy, twinkle-in-the-eye, “Hey there you great lug!” sort of way. This fellow gives automobile-crash hugs– WHACK and you fall over into him. His aren’t “A-frame”, I’m-hugging-but-no-actually-i’m-not hugs. I think I could back over his dog — he doesn’t actually have a dog, and I’ve never backed over ANYONE’s dog — and he would STILL be happy to see me. Consequently, it is IMPOSSIBLE to not feel better after receiving one of these greetings. It is not just me which receives this treatment. The world is a better place every time someone gets a crash-test-dummy hug like that from him.
The second guy is a Gentleman. This is a highly-intelligent, engineering-degree-from-respected-University… he knows there’s evil, and people do bad things, etc… AND he’s such an impeccably, unwaiveringly, decent soul. I have never heard him curse, or even speak ill of anyone. In fact, I have NEVER heard him even raise his voice. This is not hyperbole; I’ve known this guy decades. In fact, having talked to others who know him, no one ELSE has ever heard him raise his voice, curse, speak ill or generally be anything other than pleasant and polite. His composure rises above “great self control”, to the level of — well… honestly, I’ve no idea. I just wander around my life, thinking — how the F*** does he do that?!
(Alas, one of them recently died, and the world is a little bit poorer for it.)
These two men were best friends for — my guess here — 70+ years. One of them married the other’s sister, which as far as I can tell, only made them better friends.
I suspect that none of the above is coincidence . . .
ɕ
The path of fearlessness
The two key fears are the fears of uncertainty and not being good enough, and in my experience, they’re both the same thing. We’re afraid of the uncertain future (and uncertain situations) because we don’t think we’re good enough to handle whatever might come out of the chaos.
~ Leo Babauta, from The Path of Fearlessness
Elsewhere, this is 4uzefe2. — slipbox
If one felt that this were true, what might one do unlearn such fear? As usual, Leo has a considered opinion spoken from the position of experience.
ɕ
Not hopeless
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate.
~ E. B. White from, E.B. White’s Beautiful Letter to a Man Who Had Lost Faith in Humanity
Elsewhere, this is 4ubaei2. — slipbox
ɕ
You are flawed. And so are your heroes
We love these flawed superheroes, because it makes them relatable, vulnerable, and REAL. It gives them an identity; as readers of comics or viewers of a movie, we get to look inside these people and know that they feel real pain too, and we see parts of ourselves in them. … Why, then, don’t we do this with our real-life heroes and ourselves?
Elsewhere, this is 4unebo10. — slipbox
ɕ
5,000 Steps to Success
If you dream of something worth doing and then simply go to work on it and don’t think anything of personalities, or emotional conflicts, or of money, or of family distractions; if you just think of, detail by detail, what you have to do next, it is a wonderful dream even if the end is a long way off, for there are about five thousand steps to be taken before we realize it; and start making the first ten, and stay making twenty after, it is amazing how quickly you get through those five thousand steps.
Elsewhere, this is 4a880. — slipbox
A responsibility to light
Feel all the things. Feel the hard things. The inexplicable things, the things that make you disavow humanity’s capacity for redemption. Feel all the maddening paradoxes. Feel overwhelmed, crazy. Feel uncertain. Feel angry. Feel afraid. Feel powerless. Feel frozen. And then FOCUS.
~ Wendy MacNaughton, and Courtney Martin
Elsewhere, this is 4a886. — slipbox
If
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail”
Start
This morning’s contribution to the table at Chez Anton. Hugely inspiring weekend at #ardv17 !
ɕ
Here We Are
Forty years after the Voyager sailed into space, we seem to have lost sight of this beautiful and sobering perspective, drifting further and further into our divides, fragmenting our fragile home pixel into more and more warring factions, and forgetting that we are bound together by the improbable miracle of life on this Pale Blue Dot and a shared cosmic destiny.
~ Maria Popova from, Here We Are
Elsewhere, this is 4ubahe3. — slipbox
Also quoted in this piece is Carl Sagan’s original commentary on the “pale blue dot”. Gets me every time.
ɕ
Master the day
The big umbrella for me is this idea of “master the day.” The whole idea is that life doesn’t change — wether it’s weight loss, success, happiness, marriage. It doesn’t change until something today changes. And that by itself is a huge revelation. Because most of us, we may have heard that idea. But if all we did was change something today, then that would already put us on the path we want to be on. And that, again, right there, there’s a philosophical change. Because if we knew that it just took changing small things, and that by changing something small today it would be easeir to change something small tomrorrow, a lot of us would have a much easier time reaching our goals.
So how do you change on a daily level? When you think about it, the average person only reflects about what needs changing, once a year. Right? The New Year we write our resolutions and that’s the only time we reflect on what’s working and what’s not working. One time in 365 days. Imagine if you did that every day. Imagine if you did that 365 times now. Imagine how quickly you could iterate on your behavior and your habits.
~ Alexander Heyne from, «https://becomingasuperhuman.com/habit-mastery-weight-loss-the-secrets-of-success-w-alexander-heyne/»
I sure wish I’d read, (or heard,) this about 10 years ago. Took me an embarrassingly long time to discover this on my own. This is literally the it’s-not-actually-a-secret to all of my success. Small daily changes. Even in the face of catastrophically stupid, self-imposed set-backs. Small daily changes. Every day, one step forward.
ɕ
Changing context
There’s nothing magic about printing on paper and editing with a pen. To me it’s all about changing context, putting my brain in an at least slightly different mode. That’s why I love Lopp’s imperative to “Sit in a different place” — you need to see your own words in a different light.
~ John Gruber from, HOW TO WRITE
Elsewhere, this is 4udali2. — slipbox
Changing context is so critical. There’s deep magic to be found in having loving crafted spaces where you work, think, read, etc.
ɕ
People who are able to make an impact on the world
The self-limiting beliefs infect all of us because all of us like being competent, we like being respected, we like being successful. When something shows up that threatens to undo all of those things, well then it’s really easy to avoid it. What goes hand-in-hand with that is the sour mindset. The mindset of, “We are not getting what we deserve.” The mindset of, “The world is not fair.” The mindset of, “Why should I even bother, it’s probably not going to work.”
One thing those of us who are lucky enough to live in the world where we have enough — we have a roof and we have food — is we find ourselves caught in this cycle of keeping track of the wrong things. Keeping track of how many time we’ve been rejected. Keeping track of how many times it didn’t work. Keeping track of all the times someone has broken our heart, or double-crossed us, or let us down. Of course we can keep track of those things, but why, why keep track of them? Are they making us better?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep track of the other suttf? To keep track of all the times it worked? All the times we took a risk? All the times we were able to brighten someone else’s day? That when we start doing that we can redefine ourselves as people who are able to make an impact on the world.
~ Seth Godin from, Seth Godin on How to Think Small to Go Big (#177)
Elsewhere, this is 4utise1. — slipbox
Seth Godin has a lot of unusual (as in, high-fidelity, clear, insightful, meaningful, useful) things to say. This bit of insight made me stop in my tracks — literally made me stop walking and fumble for my podcast player controls to capture the time code so I could dig this out.
“We can redefine ourselves as people who are able to make an impact on the world,” indeed.
ɕ
Spontaneity
Those of us accustomed to making life livable by superimposing over its inherent chaos various control mechanisms — habit, routine, structure, discipline — are always haunted by the disquieting awareness that something essential is lost in the clutch of control, some effervescent liveliness and loveliness elemental to what makes life not merely livable but worth living.
~ Maria Popova from, Spontaneity and the Search for Meaning: Erich Fromm on the Wellspring of Individuality, Creativity, and Love
Elsewhere, this is 4ubaei1. — slipbox
I spend significant time swerving between the two extremes of schedule-and-organize “all the things,” and running around like a dog fascinated by everything. New item #1 on my list of 42 things (all numbered “1”)…
ɕ
Ignore everybody
You don’t know if your idea is any good the moment it’s created. Neither does anyone else. The most you can hope for is a strong gut feeling that it is. And trusting your feelings is not as easy as the optimists say it is. There’s a reason why feelings scare us.
And asking close friends never works quite as well as you hope, either. It’s not that they deliberately want to be unhelpful. It’s just they don’t know your world one millionth as well as you know your world, no matter how hard they try, no matter how hard you try to explain.
~ Jason Korman, from «https://www.gapingvoid.com/content/uploads/assets/Moveable_Type/archives/000888.html»
Elsewhere, this is 4ugaco4. — slipbox
There are so many ideas that can be tried. But knowing which ones to try, which ones to stick with, and which ones to stick with beyond the point of sanity is the hard point. It’s important to find a balance between some things which are fulfilling and a sure-thing, and some things which are inspiring and impossible.
ɕ
Get to work
Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work.
Elsewhere, this is 4a108. — slipbox
Intelligence
At worst, we apply a supernatural explanation to the whole show, because otherwise we’d have to recognize intelligence as a natural extension of the things that happen on a barren, unattended planet. For some reason we often insist nature couldn’t be that interesting or potent on its own. There has to be a super nature, to keep nature in its rightful, humble place. It makes us feel special I guess, maybe that’s why we don’t give nature the credit. We’re special either way, but we don’t need special rules to explain how we’re here. For that matter, we don’t necessarily need to explain ourselves to ourselves at all. Whatever happened, we got intelligent at some point, and that’s great. It’s okay to wonder aloud exactly how it happened, but clearly it did.
Elsewhere, this is 4urana2. — slipbox
Monism has never made sense to me. It’s interesting and I’ve spent a significant amount of time turning over its various flavors trying to understand others’ points of view. But, “that’s interesting,” is as far as I get.
When I face reality—thinking through mental models, comparing them to my personal experiences, talking to other people and listening to their experiences—I simply don’t see any deep mystery in life. Certainly, I see mind-bogglingly-huge expanses of things which are unknown (by me or anyone,) but that simply makes me more excited and more curious!
What confuses me is that the majority of people think differently, and I spend a lot of time talking to people as I try to understand how they think. I have only one point of view. I’m deeply fascinated by the universe around me and, in particular, by the conversations that come from me saying, “What does that bit of reality over there look like from your point of view?”
ɕ
The muse
Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.
Elsewhere, this is 4a42. — slipbox
Not in the mood
A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.
Elsewhere, this is 4a300. — slipbox
Nobody cares
22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
Everybody is too busy with their own lives to give a damn about your book, painting, screenplay etc, especially if you haven’t sold it yet. And the ones that aren’t, you don’t want in your life anyway.
The journey
I’m fond of the old adage, what was once your workout will eventually be your warmup. It captures the inevitability of progress if you simply put in your time. In the beginning, the time spent seems to surface an endless sequence of unknown-unknowns. Bottomless, rabbit holes appear and you have to go far too far down the first few to learn an important lesson about depth versus breadth of knowledge. Soon you begin to realize the beginner’s journey is more or less the same for everyone. You get a few wins under your belt. Someone ahead of you compliments your work. You help one of your peers. Then you help one of those farther ahead of you, and realize the distance you’ve come is farther than the distance between you. You feed increasingly off of the energy of your peer group, bouncing ideas and challenges around like a seasoned practitioner. You look around only to realize there are now a large number of newer people on the journey who are behind you. You’re struck by a deeply pleasant emotional vertigo. You remember running in the halls with your brand new friends full of energy, and you feel recharged and invigorated; You might no longer run in the halls—age appropriateness and all that—but the energy from those who do is absolutely contagious every time. You struggle to refrain from proclaiming, “wait until you see what’s next!” Instead, you redouble your efforts by dashing ahead, behind the scenes, around the next corner, or over the next hill, to help with the preparations. You realize—you apprehend—that you’ve gotten as much out of giving back to help with the process, than you did from going through the process that first time. The cycle repeats. The learning, the friendships, the accomplishments—and quite frankly the advancement of the entire human race—builds with each iteration.
So, when is the last time you started something as a beginner?
When is the last time you showed up a bright eyed and bushy tailed neophyte?
When is the last time you helped the others? Those behind you, those ahead of you, and those around you?
ɕ
Inspiration
Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.
Elsewhere, this is 4a435. — slipbox
Rabbit holes
Draw Antonio, draw Antonio, draw and don’t waste time.
Yes, I do spend a lot of time chasing white rabbits down rabbit holes.
I cannot tell if that’s because diversity of experience and exploration is central to what it means to flourish as a human being, or if I’m simply the type of person for which that is true. Which case it is doesn’t really matter since I can only deeply relate to my personal experience of being. (Recall, I’m not trying to accomplish ‘change the world’ with this blog; Rather, I’m working on self-reflection here.)
Today, an example of a rabbit hole: I have a way of reading entire web sites, one page at a time—software that keeps track of an entire web site and feeds me “the next thing” to read each day. (Aside: If you want to pay to make this a commercial product, let me know.) Today a post from some author (I’m ommiting names) came up that referenced another author’s book which quotes Michelangelo… and it only took me a few minutes to dig around the internet to figure out the quote is correct (albeit translated from Italian) and the original source is in the British Museum. Note to self: See if I can find it next time I’m there. Along the way I found a few interesting things which I shared with some friends. Along the way I learned several new things.
Along the way.
ɕ
Discipline
Motivation will get you out the door, but it fades over time. A good book or podcast might give you the momentary impulse to take your first steps along a path, but when the road gets tough only discipline will keep you moving forward.
~ Dan Edwardes from, Motivation is Temporary
Elsewhere, this is 4udamo1. — slipbox
Edwardes is a well-known figure in the world of Parkour. He’s someone I’m proud to call a friend. A little over a year ago, I had a quiet, private, late-evening conversation about businesses and movement and Parkour and I’m pretty sure we touched on motivation. …or at least, I know motivation was something bouncing around in my head. Specifically: lack thereof. I’m not even sure that I realized that at the time, but it’s clear to me now.
At the time though, I definitely experienced a sort of ground-shifting sensation. I don’t generally fan-boy on Parkour people, and I’m pretty sure I never did that with respect to Edwardes. No, it was more like—something I’ve experienced on several occasions with Parkour luminaries—I was suddenly aware that I hadn’t been fawning [for years] over this person. No, here I was, once again, in a cool conversation with a fellow human. Being.
These days, I’m doubling-down on discipline and that quoted blog post and that conversation conspired to inspire me to make a fresh post.
Anyway. Dan Edwardes is someone you should hear of, and now you have. Check out his blog, or the best—call me biased—podcast interview of him, Dan Edwardes: Motivation, efficacy, and storytelling.
Oh— and no, that linked podcast is not the conversation I mentioned up top.
ɕ
Calm
Information competes for our conscious attention: the web of thoughts with the greatest activation is usually the one where we direct our attention. The calmer our mind, the fewer thoughts we generate in response to what happens in the world—and the greater the odds that intuition will speak to us.
~ Chris Bailey from, The science of how to get intuition to speak to you – Chris Bailey
Elsewhere, this is 4uaite1. — slipbox
I’m not sure if I truly remember the following story, or if I simply heard it told so many times and subsequently retold it so many times that I believe I saw it first hand, but here it is in first person regardless.
Sitting in an enormous church service early one morning, two parents down front where having increasing difficulty with a precocious young child. With each noise, question, request, and pew kicking, the parents were taking turns playing the, “If you don’t be quiet…” game. The massive church was known by all to have a well-appointed “cry room” at the back complete with a view of the proceedings, amplified reproduction of the goings on, double-pane and mostly scream proof windows, games, rocking chairs and so forth. Meanwhile, in the main hall, everyone could hear the “if you don’t be quiet…” game escalate to defcon 5: “If you don’t be quiet, I’m taking you to the cry room.” The opposing forces countered with a volley of indignation at being forced to… “That’s it!” And the patriarch hoisted the youngster and performed the mandatory “excuse me pardon me excuse me…” incantation across the pew, and started up the aisle with a writhing 3-year-old in Sunday’s best. From the moment of hoisting, the winding-up siren of shock and horror got up to speed until said child was screaming. “I’LL BE QUIET! I’LL BE QUIET!!” The minister had paused, as the father strode briskly for the doors at the back. Hundreds of people sat silently as they passed through rear doors—the child’s screaming dropping instantly in volume as the door swung shut. “I’LL BE QUIET! I’LL BE QUIET! …i’ll be quiet!” At which point, as far as I could tell, everyone collectively giggled at the humor of it all.
While one part of my mind wants to be touring the facility and taking up slack, the petulant child is not to be taken on by main force. When it’s in the mood, the child part can be a source of great power and inspiration. (Apropos, the quote sticking up from the Little Box today reads: “Genius is the power of carrying the feelings of childhood into the powers of manhood.” ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge) The inner-child mind has its own agenda and demands its outlets too.
ɕ
Get a move on
Do what nature demands. Get a move on—if you have it in you—and don’t worry whether anyone will give you credit for it. And don’t go expecting Plato’s Republic; be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant.
Elsewhere, this is 4a479. — slipbox
Spiritless men
Dreams
Dreams come true. You just have to be willing to work for them.
Elsewhere, this is 4a748. — slipbox
Daring
To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
Elsewhere, this is 4a773. — slipbox
Mortality
The essential power that confronting your mortality will give you—I call it the Sublime. Because it also opens up this idea of how amazing the world is that we live in, and how much we take for granted because we think that we’re going to live forever. It’s an incredibly important concept to me and it’s also very personal in the sense that I came this close to dying myself. I compare it to standing at the shore of some vast ocean. The fear of that dark ocean makes you turn away and retreat. I want you to get into your little boat and I want you to go into that ocean and explore it.
Elsewhere, this is 4a964. — slipbox
Seeds
There is a tide
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea as we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.~ Shakespeare‘s Julius Caesar
Elsewhere, this is 4a1283. — slipbox
Possibility
Hope is not happiness or confidence or inner peace; It’s a commitment to search for possibilities.
Elsewhere, this is 4a1296. — slipbox
Have it over
Don’t stand shivering upon the bank; Plunge in at once and have it over.
Elsewhere, this is 4a1307. — slipbox
Try
Ingenuity
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
Elsewhere, this is 4a1347. — slipbox
100 issues of my “7 for Sunday” email
As some of you know, I write a weekly email that isn’t related to my podcasting efforts. On Sunday, Sept 1, issue 100 of 7 for Sunday will go out. (See https://7forsunday.com to sign up or to simply read any issue.)
From the first issue of 7 for Sunday, I’ve always wondered if I’d make it to 100, and I’m glad I stuck with it. Some weeks it was a right struggle to get it done. In a very real sense, knowing there were readers out there gave me a goal to get through some dark days. Yes, external validation is not a great idea. But also, the life preserver that saves you is necessarily thrown by another.
Thanks to a suggestion from 7 for Sunday reader Wayne, the centennial issue is about books. 7 books, of course. Each book is presented with bibliofervor (the urge to leap out of one’s chair, race to find a friend, and press a book into their hands, see Issue № 60.)
Sometimes people express amazement at all that I get done—
Please realize that I struggle just as much as everyone does to create. And, boy howdy!, do I hope that any part of anything I ever do somehow helps you, in even the slightest way, to move forward!
I appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted.
ɕ
Find your people
I hope this inspires you to LISTEN to YOUR body: 54, post surgery, post radiation, in ADT (abs zero testosterone, whole body muscle aches, flabby…), getting hot in Pa today… and my brain is screaming MOVE!! Walk, yoga, QM. Hat tips to Adam McClellan for inviting me to my first class, Travis Tetting for giving me this shirt, Stany Foucher for sooo much training… It’s dangerous to go alone. Find your people. I’m lucky.
Also, FUCK CANCER.
ɕ