Post Category → Writing

Sailing Ahead

Right now the media is flooded with retrospection about the year, complete with highlights, moments and considerations for what is to come. While I strongly considered creating my own post on this past year, I felt it could be best summarized in a much smaller space.

This year ended better than when it started.

Much better.

I felt I’ve grown a lot over the past year (giant leaps as opposed to small, incremental steps) and despite the ongoing global pandemic, recognize I (and my family) are in a much better place than we’ve ever been.

If I can replicate that growth again next year, there’s no need to set any resolutions.

Just keep sailing ahead.

I Try to Be a Decent Person

But it doesn’t always turn out that way.

There’s an illusion, a façade, I’ve put up for myself over the years that I’m a halfway decent person. Better than some, but still a long way from others.

And while I’d like to think I did my best, taking a long, hard look at myself proves otherwise.

I’ve failed.

Many times.

And I’ve spent many years looking back at those times and cringing at how poorly I’ve acted… reacted… thought… wondering how anybody would still wish to speak or associate with me.

But, I’m not beating myself up over it.

The very idea that I cringe at my past shows growth in the present. It means I can reflect enough to know where I’ve faltered and where I need to improve.

It gives me hope that the more honest I am, the further I dig and the deeper I go, the better I’ll be.

It paves the way for the future where I might one day be a decent human being.

I’m not there, but I’m on my way.

The Disconnect

We currently have technology available to us that can teach us anything within the realm of human knowledge. All it takes is a willingness to access it and spend the painstaking effort to learn.

Slowly.
Bit by bit.

Using this same technology, we also have the ability to take our hard fought knowledge, experience and wisdom and share it with others.

Here’s the disconnect:

This same technology has also eradicated our attention spans and our patience.

And now we’re asking those people who have done the hard, focused work to share what they know in a shallow way to accommodate this collective attention deficit.

Seems like we need to find a new way to work with this technology to make that connection again.

To See the Stars

The Nativity story showcases a segment where three magi follow a star and inevitably end up at the birthplace of Jesus. Curiosity leading them all the way and reverence for when they arrive.

This is a story that seems so appropriate on a day where we’ve launched a satellite that has the potential to see into the furthest reaches of the universe—right to its origins. Curiosity driving us to develop such a magnificent marvel and reverence for humanity when we discover something new.

It’s the reason I’ve set its progress as my homepage.

We are on the precipice of discovering a brand new story about the universe.

To be given a vision of what we’ve never had before.

I Just Want You to Know

That it’s Christmas Eve and I feel unbelievably blessed.

My children are still young enough that the magic of the season is very much alive and I can think of no greater gift than watching them.

I feel blessed to have the means of being able to provide them with the joys of the season:

A roof over their heads.
A warm bed to sleep in.
A house with decorations.
A Christmas Tree in the family room.
Ingredients to bake those cookies.
Food to eat.
Food to enjoy.
Presents to look forward to.
A kitchen to bake cookies in.
Two parents to spend time with.

Even though it doesn’t feel like Christmas this year, with so much of the togetherness and travelling stripped away (yet again), I still feel unbelievably blessed.

It’s the first Christmas where I actually appreciate everything I have…

and I’m completely…

and utterly…

unapologetic about it.

I have found my joy.

It Always Seems Artificial at First

Whenever a new endeavour is on the horizon, the first leg of it will always seem artificial.

It’s a new way of working, thinking or being and it all feels a little forced. A little too different. Not something you would intuitively do.

It can be easy to slip back into the old ways, abdicating any current attempts with something that’s familiar. More comfortable.

But like the sailor who sets to sea for adventure, there’s never going to be anything new in familiar waters.

Identify and Rectify

The problem with the combination of experience, knowledge and self-reflection is the tendency to look back upon life’s decisions and regretting it all.

“If only I knew, how things would be different.”

Maybe. Possibly.

But the regret isn’t useful.

What is useful is going forward by identifying all those connections in the past and seeing how they manifest today. Once that’s done, then it’s time to rectify.

Nothing can be done for then, but something can be done for now.

A World of Symbols

Where do we even begin to understand the world around us?

While many completely underestimate the study of Religion, relegating it to nothing more than reading about myths and fantasy, it has a massive advantage.

It’s a key to understanding culture, including its language, rituals and symbolism.

The one thing you quickly learn is that Religion, much like culture, transforms. It does this through contact with others, ideas that are challenged from within and adapting when necessary. I always find it puzzling that there are those who would plant their feet in the sand in an effort to defend a moment in time as the moment from which we should never stray from.

The Catholic Church, for instance, is a behemoth and glacially slow to move, but it does. Yet, there are those within who feel it shouldn’t have left 1958 as that is what “true” Catholicism looks like.

But—things move and things change.

Our very nature asks us to give symbolism to just about everything and to abandon those symbols when they are no longer useful. Should a person not be able to keep up, they are lost. Confused. Completely uncertain as to what is going on anymore.

It’s in these moments, we need to break the veil into something real.

And the most real thing we can do is connect with each other.