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We have all taken the convenient giftgiving route, and it shows.
The quicker the spend we replace thought with money, time with ease. Even a physical object that must be shipped or delivered trumps an ecard, making a gift of labor irreplaceable.
The frictionless, smooth and painless convenience of the digital age is precisely what shapes us to not care enough.
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If suffering can never be eradicated, our purpose must account for suffering.
Our purpose must make the pain worthwhile or meaningful. If not, life, suffering, and pain are all absurd.
In a moment of clarity (seeing the absurd), we can see the religious/humanistic impulse to validate suffering is attractive (giving meaning to pain retroactively).
The leap is to trade up: swap the obvious irrationality of suffering for a portentous, impossible dream. Upgrading absurdities maintains purpose by excluding logic and, in so doing, secures comfort.
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I love the dumb feeling of fuzzy openness that slinks up the back of your skull after three drinks.
The sunset is beyond profound, your troubles are pebbles, and the glee is a fist letting go of your heart.
You have a glimpse that this single moment is what all life could be.
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The wish to return is strong.The nostalgic return to comfort is a place from which you may heal, but equally, it has the potential to poison. In turning from risk, one can avoid the hardships of growth and embrace stagnation.
This regressive stability is only life in the most rudimentary sense.
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I always want to jump in, to defend myself or others, interrupting the unfolding tension and drama.
But just wait. Give the other person the courtesy of completing their tale: rest in the tension because the outcome may surprise you.
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Vacation’s premise of recouperative rest and respite has become work: we manically “add value” to our expensive “free time”.
We cram novel experiences (and novel foods) into the vacuity we gave to ourselves, attempting to fill it while neglecting to consider that floating in a vacuum, untethered and unencumbered, would be the ultimate novelty.
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What is the relationship between comfort and cowardice?
It seems the trap of comfort provokes cowardice: doing the easy thing as a way to avoid doing the right thing.
There may be times when the easy thing is the right thing, but do not allow yourself to mistake the "feeling of ease" as a sign of a decision’s rightness.
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Extending life is more important to most people than the intensity of life. Conflating longevity with quality robs us of peak experience in favor of caution for a gray future of deterioration.
The best advice is to prioritize your top 25 dreams, go for the top 5 and ignore the rest. Don’t outlast; instead, outdo.
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Convenience becomes routine. The comfort of convenience robs us of the space and opportunity, as well as the time, to engage with the world.
If you always drive, decide to walk. If you only go outside during the daylight, take a walk at 3 AM.
The way the world operates outside of your norm is surreal, and your attention will be engaged.
Introduce some micro-challenges by taking the third or fourth option, the more uncomfortable option.
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To be well-rounded implies balance and symmetry. Yet, symmetry seems antithetical to striving: the focus in one direction distending the form.
This analogical thinking uncovers my implicit bias: mathematical shapes as models for humans contain and reduce us.
