Slowly, in the light

The compensation of growing old, Peter Walsh thought, coming out of Regent's Park, and holding his hat in hand, was simply this: that the passions remain as strong as ever, but one had gained -- at last! -- the power which adds the supreme flavour to existence -- the power of taking hold of experience, of turning it round, slowly, in the light.

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Originally, this blog was intended to chronicle a career change. I now think it served a much greater purpose.

In my early/mid twenties, I seemed to value what society valued: a hefty paycheck, an impressive job title, an enviable rolodex of "powerful people", a fancy car, a chic apartment, an athletic physique, etc. I valued this identity for the message it transmitted to the outside world: "Hey everyone, I have my shit together." That was nice. But then something happened. A quiet voice inside of me had been whispering, "yo dude, you don't truly value any of these things." And what began as a harmless whisper grew into an incessant blare, leaking a corrosive inauthenticity into my thoughts, decisions, and actions. Only my feelings, as harrowing as they had become, seemed to harbor the final remnants of truth. I was not happy.

The Great Imbalance

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. 

We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

-Albert Einstein

As preposterous as this may sound, each of us are in fact two. The presence of this division of human experience may become one of the greatest psychological discoveries of our time.

The pop-psych understanding that one part of our brain handles "reason" while the other part handles "emotion," is not entirely accurate to reality, but it is pretty damn close. For simplicity's sake, let's call reason the "left side" and emotion, the "right side." Again, remember that these labels are oversimplifications of the truth. Allow me to add a little more meat to the bones of reason and emotion.

On Kindness and Worms

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves.

- Shakespeare

Lately I have been curiously attending to my interpretation of experiences. The phrase "things aren't always as they seem" is wrong; for things are indeed always as they seem. Things are always something other than what they seem, as well. All interpretations are valid... as well as none. Kindness to others, and interestingly also to ourselves, depends on our ability to relieve our own perspectives from their place atop golden pedestals.

I'd like to share the following story recently recounted by a Harvard professor.

Happiness on Fire

I hold that to need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs

the nearer he does approach divinity

Socrates

Happiness. I have reoriented my life towards understanding it and what have I learned? The desire to be happy does not lead to happiness; and in this paradox lies the key.

Although some of the following concepts are also found throughout literature and philosophy, they may not be understood easily or quickly as they require some unweaving of established perspectives. Let's unweave.

The Broad Road Through

If you would be a real seeker after truth, 

it is necessary that at least once in your life 

you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

-Descartes

I had a difficult time accepting this aspect of myself, but compared to the average person, I am really bad with details. I’m not sure if it’s because I find them boring or because I’m simply bad at paying attention to them. Due to this, I’m not good at recalling facts or dealing with practical matters. I’m beginning to accept however, that I have substituted that skill with a different one.