Belly Button Lint

Feeling Lint-y?

Tag: isolation

  • Theme:

    rejected masculinity

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    1–2 minutes

    Many boys were taught masculinity by standing up for themselves and confronting the world’s difficulties: don’t complain, do.

    Today, as a man, you still don’t complain. But you are told to back down, apologize, and shut up: step aside.

    Many women see this as an apropos reversal: men being treated as women were treated.

    The reaction from men will be the same as that from women, except perhaps less social and more violent. Feeling alienated and incapable of providing value or worth, men form sub-societies and lean into the traits society was meant to civilize.

    How does “don’t complain, do” manifest for a man stripped of socialized, compassionate consideration?

  • Theme:

    The proximity trap of sin

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    1–2 minutes

    To sin is to "miss the mark," and the consequence of sin is the distance from God.

    However, in God’s shadow, the close proximity creates hell.

    The further we wander, the more extravagantly we "miss the mark," and the freer we become by escaping the gravity of the goal. The mark becomes impossible to hit at some magical distance, thus irrelevant.

  • Theme:

    Competing against time alone

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    1–2 minutes

    People assume they are competing with the top 10% of the world, and they work to be the most attractive, compelling option.

    It is not another guy, girl, or business you are competing with: you are attempting to replace their time alone.

    sent to me by a friend

  • Theme:

    To become stable alone you first need community

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    1–2 minutes

    To grow into the ideal state of autonomy (the robust individual), you must first participate in an ecology of growth and attentiveness.
    You must first build the strength and skill to remain independent later.

  • Theme:

    Self-sufficient from love

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    1–2 minutes

    The problem with being self-sufficient is that you teach yourself never to ask for help. Pretty soon, you never ask for anything.

    The problem is, how do you teach someone how to love you when you don’t share or even talk?

  • Theme:

    rowing in circles

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    1–2 minutes

    As you strike out for the far shore, partner by your side, rowing through the waves you will encounter difficulty.
    When your partner jumps out, taking their oar with them because they are tired of the journey, you can keep rowing, but it will just spin you around in a lopsided parody of progress.

    At this point, you need to consider: do you go on alone (becoming your own partner), wait for your partner to rejoin you (conserve your energy), or jump in the water and swim around (say fuck it.)

  • Theme:

    everything is emotional, everything is personal

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    1–2 minutes

    We live in a society, not alone in space. We think of and desire the other; even when alone, we shape ourselves for others.

    Every decision involves how we see ourselves through others, and every joy or disappointment comes from the success or failure to align to the other. And so, the striving is always emotional (from our desires), and the alignment is subjectively judged, letting every misalignment create fear and hurt.

    Knowing that we are fueled by emotion, craving an oddly shaped personal outcome, we can work backward from the hurt to find the fear that stemmed from a failed alignment of how we fit into the world.

  • Theme:

    Finding yourself through others

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    1–2 minutes

    If you are seeking the authentic you, the unadulterated authenticity of the unique self, it would only be revealed when you are by yourself, without the distractions or pressures of others.
    Yet, who we really are might only come from the challenges of interacting with others, otherwise your conception of self is untested.