Category Archives: Awareness

On the meaning of acceptance

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All the greatest wisdoms come down to acceptance. It is key.
Accept:
… the present moment.
… your situation.
… how you feel.
… each other.

And, yet, our language somehow frames this as something passive.
I’ve written before, “accept, then act,” and this is right, but let’s look at what we are accepting, and how we are acting.

I accept that our universe is full of limitless resources. Energy, material, and time. Even the material contains more energy. Every single atom is full of immense energy, which can be released and directed. I accept that I have intelligence and knowledge, and access to enormous amounts more of both. I accept that I have the love and support of some of the smartest, kindest, and wisest people on the planet. I accept that I have a body which is strong and healthy and genetically blessed.

I will act accordingly.

Why Multiculturalism?

Got a question earlier, from a friend, as a response to my last post:

why would [we] give precedence to [celebrating other cultures] over efforts to celebrate what we have in common?

I’ll say this: we make special effort to celebrate our diversity because

  • it’s what makes us interesting,
  • because there’s often something to learn,
  • because celebrating what we have in common is all the richer in the context of our different backgrounds,
  • and finally because celebrating what we have in common happens without any effort. It’s easy to go bowling with your buddies who are mostly one race, political party, economic status, marital status, and age.

Doing anything else is always at least a little out of our comfort zone.

We Live In the Future

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Dan dressed as Neo from The MatrixI’m on a train from Washington, DC to New York, currently passing through Philadelphia. We’ll be at New York’s Penn Station in 90 minutes. I just looked up from the book I’m reading on my iPhone and saw a building with a sign on it: Penn Proton Therapy Center. Now I’m writing a blog entry on my iPhone. I don’t feel like spending a couple of dollars on 3G access (I live in Europe, so I’m roaming here) and WiFi hasn’t been installed on this train yet, so I’m writing this in the Notes app instead of directly to my blog, which is hosted in a data center in…er…I have no idea.

Stop and read that again. Only, this time, pretend you are the average human. Remember that the average human does not have access to the Internet and can’t get to this blog. In fact, the average human lacks running water.

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New Year’s Resolutions

The nice thing about the New Year is the strong symbolism of a clean start. The hard thing about the third week of the year is feeling discouraged about anything you didn’t (re)start cleanly.

But every day, every hour, every moment, is charged with the same power. An almost-toddler learning to walk, a baby bird learning to fly, a child learning to ride a bicycle…they all look the same: after every thud, there is a standing up followed by an exuberant thrust. It doesn’t matter if the last attempt lasted 1 second or 100, the thrust has the same energy.

…until it’s time for a snack and a nap. Tomorrow’s play is just ahead.

 

Baby exuberantly learning to walk