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If it was revealed that your whole life was a “Truman Show”, how much have you questioned the reality to which you’ve been presented?

by | Apr 25, 2021 | If it was revealed that your whole life was a "Truman Show", how much did you question the reality to which you were presented?

“Honestly, hardly at all. Sure, I’ve asked the big questions. I’ve done a bit of exploring. I’ve unshackled myself from some of the most obvious constraints of modern western socialized life. However, when I think about it, I have never come close to REALLY perceiving an escape route – To REALLY questioning this reality as it’s been presented. This whole existence feels distant and unfamiliar. As A.E. Housman said: ‘I, a stranger and afraid, in a world I never made’ – encapsulates this experience best.”

Why not?

by | Apr 7, 2021 | Why not?

“When do we ask this question? It’s almost always just a solidification of a plan. For example, your friend asks you if you want to go cliff jumping. ‘Why not?’ aka, ‘Yeah, sure!’ Occasionally it’s used as an opposition to the question of ‘why’. For example, ‘Why are you going cliff jumping?’ ‘Why not?’ We ask the question ‘why’ quite a bit, and paradoxically, the question of ‘why’ is more dissuasive of doing something than the question, ‘why not?’ ‘Why cliff jump?’ as opposed to ‘why not cliff jump’. The latter is much more persuasive and optimistic way of thinking, even as it seems more negative when it stands alone.”

Who are you really?

by | Dec 16, 2020 | Who are you really?

I’m one wildebeest in a herd of fifty thousand (million?). Sometimes the grazing is good, other times not. Sometimes there’s water in the river, other times not. There are the lions, of course, but some of the other beests are just as dangerous, or at least just as annoying. And some of them smell so good it’s hard even to graze near them without — you know.

Like every creature, I know my own physical nature — how I move through the world, how to get what I need to survive, and a sense of what it’s like to be “me.” My mind sifts those thoughts over and over, generally in sync with my immediate environment, always ready to react from instinct if the need arises.

But beyond just the physical, I know I’m a wildebeest. I can get my mind to think about what it might be like to be a different beest, or even a zebra — or a lion! I can graze when I feel like it, on either side of the herd or (yuck) right in the middle. I can try to mount another beest if I want to, though there could be consequences. I can be the best lion-scout in the herd if I set my mind to it, and I can even chase a lion away if I want to feel totally alive. I know I could die doing that, but I’m going to die at some point anyway.

When we’re on the move, I can feel the rumble of the many beests who ran before me on this same ground, and I know there will be many more running and rumbling here in seasons to follow. I am “me,” and eventually I will be nothing — “no thing” — and a moment after that the herd will have moved on without me….