Master Generalist
So, the sleepless nights continue. Last night, I awake at 2am and could not get back to sleep. Despite being dead tired from so little sleep the previous two nights. There is no way I’m even lucid enough at this point to as trick complete thoughts together, let alone sentences.
Read the first draft of the latest Hugh MacLeod book instead. It is a good continuation of the discussion I started yesterday. Seriously. This book is a real ass kicker and fear buster. You need it.
Pretty |syzhy|referrer|bshnf
tired tonight (as I write this). I’ve not gotten particularly good sleep the past couple of nights and it is really wearing on me now. Not sure I can even form enough complete thoughts to write this but I’ll try to do some broad strokes.
I had a good discussion today with my friend Garrick about discouragement vs. dissatisfaction.
The premise being that we live in a society that, in so many ways, simply wants us to be satisfied. It seeks to actively discourage us from making an impact on it. Those that are like everyone else are accepted. Those that are different are shunned or treated with suspicion. If one fits in and follows the crowd and stays largely unnoticed is promised a life with very little risk. Just be satisfied with the way things are.
There are many people who are happy with such a life. Those whose only ambition is to have a job they can show up at, do the bare minimum, get their paycheck and benefits with automatic inflation-adjusted yearly raises, then retire comfortably in someplace warm. They discourage themselves from sticking out one way or the other. They find satisfaction in their mediocracy. And, society is largely satisfied with them there.
On the other side, there are those that are that are driven by dissatisfaction. Those for whom there is always something better or something more. Those that live to stick out like a sore thumb. Those that are not afraid to challenge the status quo. Often, these people make terrible employees because they are never satisfied with their jobs. They are restless seekers. They are full of ideas plans and schemes. Society likes to romanticize these folks but often brands them reckless and dangerous.
Perhaps I’m biased but I believe the only cure for discouragement is dissatisfaction. That it is a key ingredient, perhaps the key ingredient, to success. That only once one is sufficiently dissatisfied will they be able to make real noticeable change — either in themselves or in society as a whole.
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Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?
How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love
— Seasons of Love from RENT by Jonathan Larson
I’ve been thinking lately about measurements. Specifically when it comes to emotion and human interaction. Words mean things. How we use them to measure and gauge ourselves, each other, and our surroundings can be quite telling.
For instance, intimacy is always measured in distance. When we have an intimate relationship with someone we say we are "close" to them. When someone is withdrawn we say they are "distant". Of course, I’m very close to people who live thousands of miles away and there are many times I feel distant in a crowded room. Yet, such words take on powerfully descriptive new meanings in a different context.
I also wonder if we are measuring things by the proper metrics. Just as Jonathan Larson urges us to consider measuring a year with love, should we measure how good the day was by counting the number of times we smile ("A seventeen smile day!")? How about the bad by tears ("I’m having a fifty-three tear day")?
Then there are the things we can’t measure using any words that seem adequate. Like love for ones children, partner, or spouse. I know my measurements always fall short because just when I feel I can’t love my wife any more than I do I surprise myself. How can words of measure capture that?
There is no grand point to resolve here. These are just some of the ideas about this subject that have been occupying my mind lately and I felt it time to share them.