Belly Button Lint

Feeling Lint-y?

Tag: learning

  • Theme:

    The opportunity to steal tells you a lot about yourself

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    1–2 minutes

    I had the opportunity to walk away with over $200 worth of lumber yesterday. I walked back inside, found somebody, and paid for it.

    I thought about stealing, which contradicts who I think I am. However, it became more painful to do the right thing once I was open to a cheaper option: I opened my mind to justifications and rationalizations.

    I talked myself into paying by considering that 1) I am not a person who causes problems for myself tomorrow by taking a shortcut today, and 2) If I want to be a good person, it has to be done every day in the most minor ways.

  • Theme:

    Why defend (and fund) the arts?

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    1–2 minutes

    The village may pay the bard, who does not defend the village, but the bard can make the village worth defending.
    ~ Balaji Srinivasan

  • Theme:

    Consciousness Luddite

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    1–2 minutes

    When we begin to understand consciousness, we will turn it into a tool. We will create with it, harness it, enslave it, and manipulate it.
    Which is not understanding consciousness; it is using it. Can we leap this phase into wisdom?

  • Theme:

    Potential: the vitality of the unknown

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    1–2 minutes

    When we are young, our potential is abundant. We channel our shiny-eyed, optimistic life energy into opportunities.
    Most opportunities foreclose who we are, solidifying how we fit into the world.
    Over time we trade fortuity for stability, scheduling manufactured excitements and working hard to rob ourselves of the vitality of the unknown.

  • Theme:

    A Shinier Stick

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    1–2 minutes

    I watched a kid pick up a stick and hit some things. Then throw it, pick it up, and hit stuff until it broke.

    Anything can relieve boredom, but a shinier toy offers more attachment and subsequent loss when it breaks… and it tends to break quicker.

  • Theme:

    The good boy

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    1–2 minutes

    Being a ‘good little boy’ keeps us in place, acquiescent to authority. But my little boy is also the one throwing a tantrum at injustice and unfairness.
    My little boy is a sensitive optimist overridden by a scared man. Sometimes, I need to forgive the man and allow him to become the child.

  • Theme:

    You are a puppy

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    1–2 minutes

    The nature of consciousness is open, accessible, curious, and unconditionally loving. If we can let go of the chatter in our heads (insecurity, anxiety, and problem-solving), our inner puppy can come out to play.

  • Theme:

    You are never right

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    1–2 minutes

    Don’t be offended. You are never "right." Neither is the other person.
    You are both vying for supremacy and demanding submission. It’s not about "right," you are both protecting your identity.

  • Theme:

    To protect yourself you hurt yourself

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    1–2 minutes

    We have all had a trauma causing us to be anxious for years.

    That anxiety harms us repeatedly to caution us, despite the likelihood of a repeat occurrence being near zero.

  • Theme:

    Reckless You

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    1–2 minutes

    There is a part of you that is reckless. It works to destroy you under the pretense of fully living.
    This paradox is temporary, because it is a feeling: it is the small you lashing out, not the greater you already connected to life.