Our friends and families journey's tend to rhyme with ours. To get completely different perspectives, we have to consciously pop our bubbles. One of the ways I try do this is to build lists on Twitter of groups of which I am not a part. By regularly seeing what is being shared on those lists, I can start to see the world a little differently. Even the groups I am a part of don't see things the same way as me. I see the world a little differently today depending on what I did yesterday. I never see the world the same way twice. Everything we do matters. Every action adds to our colour wheel.
I am in Santa Monica, California. The friend I am visiting is on a very similar journey to me. We haven't seen each other in quite a while. In sharing our stories, and the books and experiences we have gone through, there were several knowing nods. There were also differences. We learn more about ourselves through learning about others.
Meeting this friend, and getting to know his wife, has resulted in a long 'required reading' list. Names that came up were Derek Sivers and Alan Watts. We had both been influenced by Josh Waitzkin and challenged by Tim Ferriss. I was able to point out Jonathan Haidt and Virginia Postrel. Haidt did a grand survey of our ancient cultural and religious knowledge on happiness incorporating modern scientific, philosophical and psychological research. He also looks at why 'good people disagree', i.e. those situations where we don't understand how someone can disagree with us, and still be good. Postrel's 'The Future and it's enemies' convinced me of the power of a bottom up approach to life rather than wishing we had a benevolent dictator. Understanding can't be communicated upwards. We need to empower people. Add Tim Minchin's idea of being micro-ambitious and my approach of focusing on each day and spending time kuiering with people I care about starts to fall in place.
Venice Beach, California
Meeting this friend, and getting to know his wife, has resulted in a long 'required reading' list. Names that came up were Derek Sivers and Alan Watts. We had both been influenced by Josh Waitzkin and challenged by Tim Ferriss. I was able to point out Jonathan Haidt and Virginia Postrel. Haidt did a grand survey of our ancient cultural and religious knowledge on happiness incorporating modern scientific, philosophical and psychological research. He also looks at why 'good people disagree', i.e. those situations where we don't understand how someone can disagree with us, and still be good. Postrel's 'The Future and it's enemies' convinced me of the power of a bottom up approach to life rather than wishing we had a benevolent dictator. Understanding can't be communicated upwards. We need to empower people. Add Tim Minchin's idea of being micro-ambitious and my approach of focusing on each day and spending time kuiering with people I care about starts to fall in place.
There is an infinite library. We don't have time to get through everything, but we can learn together. We can share experiences. We can make new mistakes rather than repeating old ones by trying to go it alone. I don't think we need to understand everything. I am completely at peace with the fact that the world is uncertain, complex, ambiguous and noisy. I love it. I love the search and I love the fact that the search will never be done. I can reread books that changed my life. I can read books that changed my friends lives. We can talk about them. We can share the journey.
Is there anything better than the connections we share with other people? Incorporating others into how we define ourselves expands our ability to experience the world.
I love this place
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