Life is Unfolding
I am oddly peaceful right now.
It's been a while since I've picked up the blogs, and as I type this I feel the callouses developing on my left hand fingers from all of the time spent playing guitar. I've recorded three original songs, and I've gotten some very positive feedback and reception about it. That gives me so much joy I can't even express it.
I've been thinking about where I'm going and what I'm doing and I sometimes find myself spinning in circles. Sometimes I feel like I'm rock solid, and other times I feel like I'm in quicksand. But the one thing that always brings me back is learning something that I never knew before.
Every day I read a ton of information. Some of it is banal pop culture stuff, some of it's memes, but a lot of it is thought provoking material from somewhere that inspires me. I think I read every article that comes out of BoingBoing, a fair chunk from the Atlantic, the Harvard Business Review, and the New York Times. I'll also occasionally wander into unknown territories and see what I stumble upon.
I've been thinking about Malala. And from Malala I thought about all the other people who don't get the opportunity to read. And I thought about Banned Books Week, and about how it's not just the Taliban that wants to suppress people's minds. And I realize that I'm lucky.
I grew up in a small town, and we had our share of conservative religious suppression. They banned drama from school until my class graduated high school. But I grew up. I moved beyond. I kept exploring, and I grew further. Again, I'm lucky. I know that I have privilege. But I want other people to have it too. And I can't help but feeling that reading something new is where that starts.
One of the most beautiful aspects of living is that you will never stop being confronted with new things. For me, it feels like I'm constantly unfolding in new, strange, and beautiful directions. It kills me to see people's minds and hearts stunted, held back, and not allowed to dream. I can think of nothing more like hell.
For my part, I dare to dream,
to try,
to do,
to strive,
to struggle,
to exceed,
to overachieve,
to seek,
to explore,
to wish,
to hope,
and to continually forever unfold.