Thank you Sam, this is such a potent piece to start the day, and for life more generally. I love the closing focus on affirmatively choosing to live. It brings home the sense of purpose that we read in the self-authored eulogy of J. Alex Hotell. He was killed in the Vietnam War in 1970. He left an obituary he had composed about a year prior. Part of it reads:
"We all have but one death to spend, and insofar as it can have any meaning, it finds it in the service of comrades-in-arms.
And yet, I deny that I died FOR anything—not my Country, not my Army, not my fellow man, none of these things. I LIVED for these things, and the manner in which I chose to do it involved the very real chance that I would die in the execution of my duties"
Dan, this is powerful. I just spent the last 10 minutes reading about Hotell. The man was a poet and this is well said. Thank you for sharing from your endless source of military readings.
Powerful perspective. “Self-mastery is the ability to flourish in and out of hardship.” Love everything about this. Simple definition that encompasses all walks of life including those who lean toward ease or challenge. Excited for what is next
Thank You. You have definitely led us to a very imposing and formidable door, now we all have to kick our collective asses through it. The pain signaling system was implanted in our physical body at conception and does exactly what it is supposed to do, it is a guidance system with metaphoric guard rails, constantly pushing and punishing us to get back on the track. Life is not a glide path, it’s a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone, and there are no absolutely smooth landings. If when awake and alert you feel no physical or mental discomfort, it means all reference points have been obliterated, your guidance system has been compromised, literally you are flying blind. Now how are you gonna ever get back home ? You have literally become a “complete unknown” “like a Rolling Stone”.
Except for one minor detail; the “meaning of life”, just like the meaning of pain, was also implanted in us at conception. Deny it and be a rolling stone, embrace it and shine with the dignity of the devine.
You’re onto something good here, brother. Keep chipping away.
I’ve found the trail from that other world to be a daily struggle between the good wolf and the bad wolf, and choosing what to carry with me while discarding the things I no longer need has made it a better journey.
It is appreciated, Paul. The daily struggle is itself a good fight to win on a daily basis. I think it is the awareness of these options—between "the good wold and the bad wolf"—that make it so much more powerful.
Sam, great subject. I see boredom as the enemy of ease. “Retirement” from something (service, career…) is that transition to something (hobby, side gig…) is key. Otherwise, it is death (slow or long). As I am jotting down this comment, I thought of “hitting the wall” I experienced running a marathon when we switch from using carbs to fats at about 20 miles. If we don’t, we “die” - we give up.
Boredom is a sign we are not engaged as we were meant to be. I really like your point about retirement and marathon running. Life is movement, engagement, getting after it. Well said, Barry.
The Crow were particularly devastated by their complacent reservation existence. Alcoholism and obesity and suicide. Clearly the “safe” life is not so safe.
That is spot on. I can only imagine having life so radically changed on the scale and at the speed theirs was, only to sit on a reservation. Even the word "reservation" sounds like it is built for despair. It is almost taking ease and our awkwardness with it to the next level.
Very potent thoughts on the imperative of finding a mission when one does not urgently present itself for us.
This is a bit tangential, but you may find it interesting: "death" for Heidegger is an existential phenomenon rather than physically dying (which he calls "demise"). It is the total collapse of being-in-the-world that happens in the cessation of projects and engagement, the sort of cessation that happens when things lose their grip on us in the anxious withdrawal from the world that is for Heidegger the predecessor to authentic re-engagement.
His assertion that "mortals die their death in life" points to the loss of engagement and anxiety in the perceived absence of meaning being fundamentally human phenomena. The authentic turn happens when one re-engages, in the same projects or others, in a way that is one's own. Whether the projects are old or new, it is the way they are taken up is authentic or not. What is highlighted in the authentic re-engagement is one's "ownmost potentiality-for-being" and the new project or the new way in which an old project is taken up anew is to correspond to that.
Thanks for presenting the existentialist perspective, CC. One of the most accurate and disturbing paradigms for understanding the deepest struggles of life.
This is stellar and it may be more than tangential. I have been attempting to see how Heidegger maps onto my overarching theory and study. The problem is what his terms actually "mean" in reality, in actual application, and how it occurs for each of us individually. I appreciate you dropping this, plenty to think on.
"But then the honeymoon came to an end. I was safe and had never felt so empty. I could do whatever I wanted and yet I felt useless. I was surrounded by nine-million people and yet alone."
Sharp and terrible contrast there, Sam. As I read your writing, I envision how your military training and combat experience awakened such deep evolutionary programs, and how deadening the return to safe bourgois civilian life must feel.
As to managing that transition, I am working on an essay about how the loss of a "calling" is like a death of the self, and the special challenges that presents to the "survivor". Perhaps it will resonate with you if you happen to see it later on.
I'm really looking forward to your piece, Baird. Your point about the evolutionary program is spot on. This is one of the reasons I'm drawn to pre-state ethnographies—I had a taste of that life and it made me wonder exactly what it must have felt like to live in that world so in tune with nature, band, and meaning.
Your point is extremely perceptive and on point—busyness can be a pure escape from the burden of existence. Finding the right amount is the art of life. Thank you, Evan.
This makes alot of sense for me as well. Finding a purpose without conflict is critical for survival. 32 years in uniform, 5 years of corporate hell and now retired, comfortably, but often missing that “spicy” element of purpose being framed around “the mission”. I’m slowly still learning how to do that. I figure it’s a marathon, not a sprint anyway..
Allen, first of all well done on your 32 years of service, and then an additional 5 years of "corporate hell". Your point about the marathon echoes Barry's point in another comment. We can probably take it a step further and say it's a marathon without an exact end point, and all we really have in life is the process. Owning this process and loving the ride may be what it's all about it. I appreciate your comment and thoughts.
Inspirational thoughts of the highest order. Your writing is great to wake to. Thank you.
You're very welcome, Kurt.
Thank you Sam, this is such a potent piece to start the day, and for life more generally. I love the closing focus on affirmatively choosing to live. It brings home the sense of purpose that we read in the self-authored eulogy of J. Alex Hotell. He was killed in the Vietnam War in 1970. He left an obituary he had composed about a year prior. Part of it reads:
"We all have but one death to spend, and insofar as it can have any meaning, it finds it in the service of comrades-in-arms.
And yet, I deny that I died FOR anything—not my Country, not my Army, not my fellow man, none of these things. I LIVED for these things, and the manner in which I chose to do it involved the very real chance that I would die in the execution of my duties"
Dan, this is powerful. I just spent the last 10 minutes reading about Hotell. The man was a poet and this is well said. Thank you for sharing from your endless source of military readings.
Powerful perspective. “Self-mastery is the ability to flourish in and out of hardship.” Love everything about this. Simple definition that encompasses all walks of life including those who lean toward ease or challenge. Excited for what is next
Ease and its effects is a never ending source of paradox. There is much more to explore. Thanks for joining, Kyle.
Thank You. You have definitely led us to a very imposing and formidable door, now we all have to kick our collective asses through it. The pain signaling system was implanted in our physical body at conception and does exactly what it is supposed to do, it is a guidance system with metaphoric guard rails, constantly pushing and punishing us to get back on the track. Life is not a glide path, it’s a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone, and there are no absolutely smooth landings. If when awake and alert you feel no physical or mental discomfort, it means all reference points have been obliterated, your guidance system has been compromised, literally you are flying blind. Now how are you gonna ever get back home ? You have literally become a “complete unknown” “like a Rolling Stone”.
Except for one minor detail; the “meaning of life”, just like the meaning of pain, was also implanted in us at conception. Deny it and be a rolling stone, embrace it and shine with the dignity of the devine.
https://youtu.be/Evk7Nk9q5qc?si=a-zlSHzbXKquukNk&t=20
Beautifully said, Robert. I'll give this a listen. Thank you as always.
You’re onto something good here, brother. Keep chipping away.
I’ve found the trail from that other world to be a daily struggle between the good wolf and the bad wolf, and choosing what to carry with me while discarding the things I no longer need has made it a better journey.
It is appreciated, Paul. The daily struggle is itself a good fight to win on a daily basis. I think it is the awareness of these options—between "the good wold and the bad wolf"—that make it so much more powerful.
Sam, great subject. I see boredom as the enemy of ease. “Retirement” from something (service, career…) is that transition to something (hobby, side gig…) is key. Otherwise, it is death (slow or long). As I am jotting down this comment, I thought of “hitting the wall” I experienced running a marathon when we switch from using carbs to fats at about 20 miles. If we don’t, we “die” - we give up.
Boredom is a sign we are not engaged as we were meant to be. I really like your point about retirement and marathon running. Life is movement, engagement, getting after it. Well said, Barry.
Great stuff, Sam — looking forward to reading where this goes!
Thank you Lou! I'm just grateful I get to explore these paths and that I'm running into those like yourself who enjoy the process.
The Crow were particularly devastated by their complacent reservation existence. Alcoholism and obesity and suicide. Clearly the “safe” life is not so safe.
That is spot on. I can only imagine having life so radically changed on the scale and at the speed theirs was, only to sit on a reservation. Even the word "reservation" sounds like it is built for despair. It is almost taking ease and our awkwardness with it to the next level.
Perhaps Websters should add despair to the list of synonyms for safe ☺️
100%
Very potent thoughts on the imperative of finding a mission when one does not urgently present itself for us.
This is a bit tangential, but you may find it interesting: "death" for Heidegger is an existential phenomenon rather than physically dying (which he calls "demise"). It is the total collapse of being-in-the-world that happens in the cessation of projects and engagement, the sort of cessation that happens when things lose their grip on us in the anxious withdrawal from the world that is for Heidegger the predecessor to authentic re-engagement.
His assertion that "mortals die their death in life" points to the loss of engagement and anxiety in the perceived absence of meaning being fundamentally human phenomena. The authentic turn happens when one re-engages, in the same projects or others, in a way that is one's own. Whether the projects are old or new, it is the way they are taken up is authentic or not. What is highlighted in the authentic re-engagement is one's "ownmost potentiality-for-being" and the new project or the new way in which an old project is taken up anew is to correspond to that.
Thanks for presenting the existentialist perspective, CC. One of the most accurate and disturbing paradigms for understanding the deepest struggles of life.
This is stellar and it may be more than tangential. I have been attempting to see how Heidegger maps onto my overarching theory and study. The problem is what his terms actually "mean" in reality, in actual application, and how it occurs for each of us individually. I appreciate you dropping this, plenty to think on.
"But then the honeymoon came to an end. I was safe and had never felt so empty. I could do whatever I wanted and yet I felt useless. I was surrounded by nine-million people and yet alone."
Sharp and terrible contrast there, Sam. As I read your writing, I envision how your military training and combat experience awakened such deep evolutionary programs, and how deadening the return to safe bourgois civilian life must feel.
As to managing that transition, I am working on an essay about how the loss of a "calling" is like a death of the self, and the special challenges that presents to the "survivor". Perhaps it will resonate with you if you happen to see it later on.
I'm really looking forward to your piece, Baird. Your point about the evolutionary program is spot on. This is one of the reasons I'm drawn to pre-state ethnographies—I had a taste of that life and it made me wonder exactly what it must have felt like to live in that world so in tune with nature, band, and meaning.
Excellent work, thanks for sharing!
You are more than welcome, thank you for jumping in.
I think this is why so many people stay incredibly busy.
The hard thing to do is to diligently incorporate a sustainable amount of urgency for the long haul.
Great post.
Your point is extremely perceptive and on point—busyness can be a pure escape from the burden of existence. Finding the right amount is the art of life. Thank you, Evan.
This makes alot of sense for me as well. Finding a purpose without conflict is critical for survival. 32 years in uniform, 5 years of corporate hell and now retired, comfortably, but often missing that “spicy” element of purpose being framed around “the mission”. I’m slowly still learning how to do that. I figure it’s a marathon, not a sprint anyway..
Allen, first of all well done on your 32 years of service, and then an additional 5 years of "corporate hell". Your point about the marathon echoes Barry's point in another comment. We can probably take it a step further and say it's a marathon without an exact end point, and all we really have in life is the process. Owning this process and loving the ride may be what it's all about it. I appreciate your comment and thoughts.
That’s an amazing view on life, I‘ll think about that for the rest of the week!
Rock on, Kai, I'm grateful you found value.