Salut.
It seems like just yesterday that the new year began, and now in the blink of an eye we’re almost passed January. Somewhere along this forty-five-and-three-quarters-year journey I learned a funny trick, which was to calculate the amount of year that had elapsed in the form of a percetage, to wit: at around 4pm on January 4th, you’re 1% through the year. I think the psychological goal was to make the year pass more slowly, with each incremental unit of the percentage calculation being 3.65 units of the standard measurement of time (the day). While I’m not sure this exercise really succeeds at slowing the perception of time, it can be an interesting re-contextualization of one of the things we humans likely take most for granted: it’s passage.
It seems like just yesterday that the new year began, and now in the blink of an eye we’re almost passed January. Somewhere along this forty-five-and-three-quarters-year journey I learned a funny trick, which was to calculate the amount of year that had elapsed in the form of a percetage, to wit: at around 4pm on January 4th, you’re 1% through the year. I think the psychological goal was to make the year pass more slowly, with each incremental unit of the percentage calculation being 3.65 units of the standard measurement of time (the day). While I’m not sure this exercise really succeeds at slowing the perception of time, it can be an interesting re-contextualization of one of the things we humans likely take most for granted: it’s passage.
It’s possible I may have “run out” of 2023, like Johnny Topside before me, running out of drill fuel (ten points to Ravenclaw if you get the reference). Until then I’d been to-the-letter rote when it came to my “Watershed” posts. No matter what ill may have befallen the other blogs of the year, the last one, always written on December 31st, had never eluded me. It became a sort of annual ritual, considering, then summing up the year’s events, pushing my observations and thematic musings to the precipice of philosophic moralizing, then taking a step back, doing my best to remain genuine while not taking anything too seriously. After what must have been the better part of a decade of doing this, surely it had become habit.
So what was it that was different about 2023?
The very end of 2023 must be looked at in context of the rest of 2023. In that vein, December 31st 2023 proved itself no different from every other day of that year. And, in keeping with how I felt on every other day of that year, I woke up on December 31st with absolutely nothing to say. (Of course, critics of my blog might say: and that would be different from usual how?) But as the seconds ticked away and midnight gradually approached, I felt panic sneaking in. I tried to push through it, stepping back into writing-exercise territory, free associating, outlining, but nothing was forthcoming. Eventually, in the dying last minutes of 2023, I came to the conclusion that the best way to deal with this would be to just accept it.
5…4…3…2…1…
The very end of 2023 must be looked at in context of the rest of 2023. In that vein, December 31st 2023 proved itself no different from every other day of that year. And, in keeping with how I felt on every other day of that year, I woke up on December 31st with absolutely nothing to say. (Of course, critics of my blog might say: and that would be different from usual how?) But as the seconds ticked away and midnight gradually approached, I felt panic sneaking in. I tried to push through it, stepping back into writing-exercise territory, free associating, outlining, but nothing was forthcoming. Eventually, in the dying last minutes of 2023, I came to the conclusion that the best way to deal with this would be to just accept it.
5…4…3…2…1…
And that was it. The sky didn’t fall. The quantam didn’t solace. The earth didn’t swallow me up. Just as on November 8th 2016 (remember that day?), the sun would rise, the day would begin, and people would get up and continue on their lives as per usual. And so would I.
Our current society will tell you to structure your lives around externals. To live a life that’s “connected,” that’s “current,” indeed, that’s “confraternal,” (I *heart* thesaurus) you must obey the external cycles that are imposed on you. You have to tweet about a current event hitting the news cycle within 24 hours, or else you’re “not relevant,” you have to have a 2024 opinion about, I don’t know, anything, from the Kardashians (Cardassians?) to the cost of the latest NFT, otherwise you’re “obsolete.” You have to listen to the right dozen podcasts and have at least as many reddit threads, tiktok is the new instagram baby, and god help you if the only platform you are on is facebook.
Our current society will tell you to structure your lives around externals. To live a life that’s “connected,” that’s “current,” indeed, that’s “confraternal,” (I *heart* thesaurus) you must obey the external cycles that are imposed on you. You have to tweet about a current event hitting the news cycle within 24 hours, or else you’re “not relevant,” you have to have a 2024 opinion about, I don’t know, anything, from the Kardashians (Cardassians?) to the cost of the latest NFT, otherwise you’re “obsolete.” You have to listen to the right dozen podcasts and have at least as many reddit threads, tiktok is the new instagram baby, and god help you if the only platform you are on is facebook.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-social media, mostly because I don’t think that it is the actual problem. It’s a tool, and I believe it serves a very useful purpose. Viral marketing has likely introduced some wonderful, community-centric businesses and organizations to the world at-large, and for that, social networking earns our thanks. It’s not the tool itself, but rather we who go down the rabbit hole of externals, with current society acting as our enabler. I’ve been down this road, retreating into the warm yet toxic embrace of outer-directedness, and while it took no small amount of clawing and scratching (and not the good kind #weeds) I was glad to finally find my way if not fully than at least mostly out.
The question then remains: how does a population, a “current society,” built on a foundation of obeying external cues, teach itself to think freely from them. I have an inkling that this is the society (among other things) that we are going to have to become in order to fully embody the next stage of our evolution. There’s a chance I’ll be devoting some of my own personal and professional blogosphere to examining this, thus I’ll be signing off soon, before this becomes a tome. I’ll leave you my very warmest of wishes for a continued happy and healthy start to 2024, as well as the thoughts that broke me out of my shell and got me to start writing again. I don’t think they’re anything super profound, but, hopefully, they’re helpful:
The question then remains: how does a population, a “current society,” built on a foundation of obeying external cues, teach itself to think freely from them. I have an inkling that this is the society (among other things) that we are going to have to become in order to fully embody the next stage of our evolution. There’s a chance I’ll be devoting some of my own personal and professional blogosphere to examining this, thus I’ll be signing off soon, before this becomes a tome. I’ll leave you my very warmest of wishes for a continued happy and healthy start to 2024, as well as the thoughts that broke me out of my shell and got me to start writing again. I don’t think they’re anything super profound, but, hopefully, they’re helpful:
- Live by your cycle.
- Focus on what you are doing.
- Be the agent of your own life.
Travel safe. Talk soon.
RSS Feed
