Photos from my trip to Colorado Springs
Month: June 2017
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We summarize forward
Accept it. Now would be the moment to decide. Imagine the power of that moment. The decisions that could be made. The directions that could be taken. For me it works like this mantra. “We summarize forward.”
Everything we hold true remains nothing more than a summary. We summarize all of our past experiences, theories, or expectations. All of that gets brought together as we move forward from the moment. Within that framework we summarize forward and move on to the next moment. It is the moment right here and right now that we can take action. Things that happened before or will happen are captive to and are captive to a moment. It could have been a moment that already happened or it could be the moment that is happening right now.
Even in my best moments it remains hard to push forward. At one point, I had decided to adopt veganism. At my best I can manage to eat mostly vegetarian, but that is pretty much the edge of where my efforts take me. That pretty much results in eating vegetarian breakfast and lunch. Dinner remains the one meal that really trips me up. Maybe a stronger degree of commitment would help me push forward.
Even with the best intentions possible some tasks will always be much harder than others. Maybe it would be easier to summarize forward about the possible ways to fix my adherence to better eating choices. It might be easier to elect within this moment to take action and fix things moving forward.
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Watching Frank Mason III get drafted
It seemed like a good idea to watch the NBA draft tonight. The NBA draft is fairly easy to watch. It only lasts 2 rounds. Every pick goes by pretty quickly. I was curious where stand out University of Kansas basketball star Frank Mason III would end up being drafted. Pontificators seemed to be guessing the 2nd round would be where Frank would go. That turned out to be true. I’m not sure if the Sacramento Kings will end up keeping the pick. They probably should. I will make sure to pick up some Denver Nuggets tickets when the Sacramento Kings come to play.
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Garnering attention when it matters most
Distractions abound these days. Digital frontiers that were supposed to enable freedom seem to have empowered distraction. We have so much potential to unleash. Technological gains are about to redefine our understanding of possibility. These are the years that will define our course moving forward. We have so much potential to unlock. A potential that we allow to be distracted by a series of things that matter only in the moment. Garnering attention when it matters most remains one of the hardest things to do at the intersection of technology and modernity.
Over the last few weeks my television set has been turned to CNN. I even listen to the CNN channel in my car. Mixed with a steady diet of Washington Post articles I have tried to pay attention to politics. Now seems to be a key point in time to really understand what is going on in the world. It is easy to falter from caring about the course of our democracy. It is much harder to try to participate in the process and keep up with the increasingly hard to follow political landscape.
Even the largest televised events draw only a fraction of our attention. No newspaper or internet website can command the attention of the nation. The last point of common discourse most people share revolves around either high school or a test at the department of motor vehicles. Our shared history and experience helps create the common points we can build on to move forward. It seems that out points of divergence are expanding. Even a well organized campaign can only bring a small part of the equation into focus.
We have to figure out the best methods to garner the most attention when it really matters. We have to figure out how to set the stage for the next ten years. We are on the verge of seeing technological complexity ramp up in ways that are almost hard to imagine. That complexity may be the first way of change that cannot be easily consumed or understand with a reasonable amount of effort. Technology that may be easy enough to use, but may be complex enough that it cannot be easily reproduced or reverse engineered.
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Avoiding the urge to hurry
Naptime arrived today a little later than expected. It did not happen in a hurry. Things did not happen according to a plan. A few giggles occurred and then silence. Naptime at a hotel is always an interesting and unpredictable process.
Now would be the time to engage in a little writing. I turned on CNN and acknowledged the roughly two hours of time in front of me. Given approximately 2 hours of time a certain amount of productivity can occur. That will really depend on sustaining focus. It is about getting locked into the process of writing and staying in the zone without distraction.
The other day I went to a Bose outlet store and traded in my QC2 headphone for a pair of QC35 wireless headphones. Those headphones really do help me focus. Noise cancelling headphones really do shut the world out. Sometimes slowing down and appreciating the moment is the right thing to do and it is the best thing to do.
One of the things that I have learned and tend to share with others is the idea of working real-time, but avoiding the urge to be in a hurry. Imagine just how much Jack Bauer accomplished in 24 hours. That same epic amount of productivity occured season after season. That level of productivity is something to strive toward.
My ability to compartmentalize has always been outstanding. For better or worse that ability helps me move from concept to concept and begin from scratch when necessary. Picking something up in a tabula rasa way sometimes helps. Other times you do not have the time to break something down to the most basic levels and build it back up.
Two hours of writing time should produce a certain amount of words. During a normal writing session I produce more than 1,000 words of prose. It has been some time since I have tried to write for more than two hours at a time. That is probably something that I need to tackle head on and it could happen any night. Writing for a long period without being interrupted is something that will involve a little bit of planning or a little bit of reckless abandon.
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These are the moments that happen
These are the moments that happen right when the quiet time starts. That little bit of time before bed where things slow down and quiet happens. It really is just a little burst of time that happens. Things like this happen without any explanation. Separate from that inexplicable moment is my interest in writing some fiction novels. It has been some time since that type of mood has stricken my thoughts. Do consider the word stricken in this case to describe a type of infection. My writing typically ends up being either a functional journaling of thoughts, essays, or nonfiction efforts. Very little of my day in and day out writing ends up being fiction based.
Maybe I missed my calling. The last nonfiction book series I truly enjoyed reading was by David Baldacci. The Camel Club was a series that kept my attention and sparked my imagination. I could truly picture the characters and imagine how the book played out. Sometimes it seems like a good idea to just writing short stories within the spy thriller genre. That type of writing provides a grand adventure into distracting myself within my imagination. Knowing that it does not drive my inquiry into the greater understanding of the intersection of technology and modernity is really the only thing that keeps me from engaging in that type of prose.
Each weblog post helps to define the nature of my inquiry. It helps define the nature of the search and the footsteps that were taken down the path of understanding the intersection of technology and modernity. Maybe it is more or less about understanding how our grand social fabric came together and what it would take to drive things forward. That search for improvement is the keystone that brings our grand history into context. We strive to move forward in ways that could erase division and spark stronger community. Accepting and being present in the moment is not about abandoning the quest to strive forward. Being away of the moment and accepting the moment are important parts of taking active steps to improve things along the way. They are an important part of deciding to make each step toward improvement count.
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