IN OUR HEADS
Has been a pretty reflective fortnight, with the end of the year approaching and questions of exactly how to craft one’s life for the year ahead.. what changes, what is tweaked, all of this sort of thing. Or maybe it just shall unfold, as life does, and we can’t impose too much. This is one of the core tensions of being a human, I think. Much of the time, it’s easier to ‘let things unfold,’ it feels organic and there isn’t that fear that in making a big decision (to study a full time course, for example, to move one’s life to California), it might turn out to be totally wrong. I guess the moments in which this comes to a head are those ‘big decision’ moments, when suddenly the option to just ‘let things unfold’ doesn’t exist. The lease is ending, and you either have to move into house A or house B. In this situation, it’s painfully apparent that this simple decision, made now, will actually have an impact on your lived reality for the next year... longer. These sort of moments remind us that we are captaining a ship, how exciting and terrifying. It’s on my mind at the moment, as I try to decide what might fill my time in the year ahead.
THE BEACH
Annie gave me her copy of The Beach by Alex Garland, a thicker edition of those classic orange Penguin books. She described it as her ‘palette cleanser’ book, one to read between other books to clear the slate. It’s fast-paced and adventurous, but I can see how that would be the effect, you are sort of lulled into this tropical paradise and the musings of Richard, the protagonist, as he finds his way in this seemingly idyllic commune. So far, it’s making me think about community, always a major theme in my life, just how reassuring it is to be surrounded by a group of great people. It’s also making me think about the changing chapters of our lives, how quickly we can forget the last one. You arrive in one beach paradise and the last beach paradise quickly slips from view. Hard to have continuity, perhaps, through all of these stages?
INSPIRATION AND MIRROR NEURONS
Was watching Thelma play some beautiful original songs on guitar, bittersweet and uplifting, was struck by such immediate inspiration. Found myself, after the call, with a few songs worth of lyrics that wanted to pour out. It’s lovely to remember just how much our realities are defined by the people we surround ourselves with, and how much that awesome creative spark can bounce off, one person to another. We were both feeling a bit melancholy on the call, nice to find some real solace in the song writing. Something just so magical about the combination of words and chords, greater than the sum of its parts, so much more than just poetry, than just melodies, together they become an evocative and intoxicating elixir.
FOUR TYPES OF THINKING
In a fascinating podcast the other day, the idea of thinking like a Politician, a Preacher or a Prosecutor. The Politician willing to change whatever they’re saying, as long as they appeal to their audience. A lack of integrity or commitment to actual beliefs in there. The Preacher trying to convince their audience, not wanting to hear any other points of view, but simply to monologue about their point ad infinitum, the audience supposed to cheer and agree in awe. The Prosecutor simply wanting to win the case, the argument, have the other party admit that they’re guilty, that they’re wrong. In all three of these modes, the ‘truth’ or the curiosity about what is being discussed is lost to ego, lost to the push pull of the relationships. The fourth mode is The Scientist, who is interested in testing hypotheses and finding out what works, what doesn’t work, discovering new ways and updating the truth as new data is presented. All of this a useful model I feel. The idea is that all of us are guilty, sometimes, of slipping into all of the P modes, but should be aiming to be scientists !