There are countless places I will never see. Countless things I will never do. Countless things I will never know. Countless people I will never meet.
I would be sad if I considered any of these facts of life a shortcoming. Life is short, life is fleeting, they say. Sometimes, we say. It is true. When life, that state of constant becoming, comes to its end, we will reflect and wonder how it might have been different.
That is why we must always learn, explore, and love. Explore the places we go. Know in full the things we do and do them well. Keep our minds open to ideas and change. And never cease to love the people we meet. In doing so, we will grow and become more than we were before.
And we will have countless happy memories.
"This is the American worker’s saga. The stuff you’re making is getting cheaper. The stuff you need is getting more expensive. That’s why you feel so squeezed."
— Squeezed Dry: Why Americans Work So Hard but Feel So Poor - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic
"A frigid November day pressed against the windows of a shabby apartment building in the Chinese city of Yanji, ten miles from the North Korean border. Three stories up, footsteps stopped outside a door. At the sound, two young women hurried to a back room and shrank against a wall. Then came a knock. The women, defectors from North Korea, bowed their heads, expecting the worst. If the Chinese police found them without identity cards, they would be deported in handcuffs and chains. Back in North Korea, they would be sentenced to years of hard labor in a prison camp."
— Escaping North Korea — National Geographic Magazine: The first time I read this story when it came out two years ago, I cried. Every bit as moving now.
"Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way – towards a busy street or terminal – before they run out of their burrows. - Alain de Botton"
— Lifework - Herman Miller
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Recently I read an article by one of my favorite authors, Alain De Botton. The article was called On Distraction and I found this passage of particular interest: “We are continuously challenged to discover new works of culture—and, in the process, we don’t allow any one of them to assume a weight in our minds.”
I coudn’t agree more with this statement. Just think of sites like FFFFOUND, with its endless parade of sourceless and context-void images. How long do you contemplate each? Then again think of sites like this! I am as much a culprit of perpetuating this rapid culture consumption as any other blogger. I write 2-5 times per week about cool work I find, but how long do you (or I) actually spend looking at it? We glance at it, maybe visit the website, but in all likelihood it is in and out of your consciousness in less time than it took me to write the post.
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— Culture Fasting » ISO50 Blog – The Blog of Scott Hansen (Tycho / ISO50) - I haven’t been posting much lately, in part because I haven’t had time, but also because I only want to blog things I find genuinely interesting and valuable—things that deserve my time and yours.
"If the meaning of an e-mail were already clear, we would still have a lot to deal with, but it would be much easier. E-mail is not just news – it’s potentially relevant news. It’s not just communication – it’s communication that I might possibly need or want, about which I might need or want to do something. It is potentially important, potentially relevant. And it’s the necessity to determine that relevance that creates the sense of overwhelm."
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The Problem is Not Information Overload | GTD Times - David Allen, the GTD guru, identifies the problem of information overload and its cause, but I felt he didn’t go the extra step in the article to identify a solution.
My solution: when you’re feeling overloaded with information, like there’s-just-way-too-much-OMG!… slow down. Look away from your screen. I hear the outdoors are fun—try that. Now come back and ask yourself, “what matters here?” Try variations. “Why does this matter?” “Why do I care, really?”
Or just let it go. If it’s truly important, you’ll think about it again or they’ll call/email/text/Twitter/Facebook again. I used to feel guilty if I didn’t have a zero-count on all my information boxes—email, Things list, Google Reader, Facebook notifications, et cetera et cetera. But it was taking up all of my time, and then I started letting it go. And guess what—I felt better. Genuinely. Less mental clutter and noise, more clarity and room for imagination. It’s information, people. Even if you read everything you’re not going to remember it all anyway. So let it go and let life take you to happier places than the never-ending rabbit hole of information that is the Internet.
And if you’re like me, and you like the Internet, for goodness sake, while you’re on here make something that means something. Share with purpose and intent. Write with conviction and sincerity. Follow only those things that you feel compelled to pursue. Spend your time wisely and carefully, and consider always the blessing with which we are endowed this very moment.
"Make your work beautiful. Make it simple. Make it clear. Put it out there. Cast off the illusion that you can control the results. People respond by comparing to things they already know, so prepare for criticism. Ignore most of it. Listen to the bits that resonate. Understand that the more original your work is, the less others will be able to help you."
— Possibilities — Before & After | Design Talk - Wise words from John McWade at Before & After. Must read.
"Create for the joy of creating. Share for the joy of the sharing, and because the information you’re sharing genuinely excites you. Do that, and the rest will follow."
— On Self-Promotion – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report : Sage advice from one of my favorite writers on the web.
My mother’s parents died many years before I came along. My grandmother had brain cancer and died when my Mom was only 9. My grandfather died in a tragic truck accident a little over ten years later. I know them only through my mom’s stories about them and a few photographs, and occasionally (like tonight), I feel hollow where there should reside the wisdom and love of my grandparents.
Fortunately, some letters my grandfather wrote my grandmother when he was courting her survive. It’s been since last Christmas since I read them, but I still feel the impact they made on me. Holding those letters in my hand, I felt as if they were alive still, as if I could go to their bedroom and ask them how they met, how he proposed to her, and the first song they danced to. Maybe I’d see them smile.
I think about this as I pick up my journal for the first entry in over two months, and I’m reminded that our writing, whether a grocery list or a letter to a loved one, is a remnant of who we are, what we believe in, and how we see the world.
