What is with the agenda? Why do we need schedules and goals and ideas for a perfect weekend?
Our minds give us the unique opportunity, as we know it, to make decisions based on the prediction of just how damn good it will be to experience it. We all want to take the first steps toward the things that will make us feel good and steer us from the bad. My favorites are frozen yogurt with almonds and talking nonsense with my friends.
And this idea can make you a control freak. (Not the friendly froyo, the endless responsibility of daily choice.) When we're left with the awesome power and knowledge we think we have to determine the entire course of our lives by how we imagine it, we have the opportunity to build up a good amount of nervous anxiousness. Could it all be wrong? What could this mean? How do I find myself where I want to be?
I think the questions are natural. We have the ability to ask them till we're blue in the face and never find an answer, so we keep asking.We cannot know it all. The challenge is always remembering that and moving forward.
Brian Clark, founder of GDM Studios, gave an intriguing talk about this subject in the arena of phenomenal work. He believes a tree doesn't make a sound when no one is around to hear it fall and, therefore, meaning from art comes from the audience. The concept of a phenomenal piece of work is exactly the "universal principle of how people experience everything". (I suppose that really puts a damper on the "If you were the last person on Earth" question.)
Of course, the artist exists to create but what is the point if no one else is making meaning from it? If the idea is to express what is in your mind, who are you expressing it to? Sartre said it this way: Our ideas are the product of experiences.
And so if art is defined by the phenomenal portion of the audience, it's my understanding that everything is a piece. Never look back thinking why or what if, you needed it. You can't enjoy a great experience without understanding it is a thread away from your worst memory. The You is how you consume it all right now.
And as every moment can be an experience to weather or invigorate the storm of thought, it is a constant flow. If we're all made of the same stuff, we're not just bouncing off one another, it's constantly an experience displaying itself in an infinite amount of different observable ways. Nothing will ever be the same and it keeps going. The best moments are the ones that are meaningful, powerful, transformative and therefore unforgettable for one reason of another. It's your favorite song or a certain sunrise on a roadtrip vacation.
Life is an adventure every day to find these experiences, to find the hair on your arms standing up or your stomach trapping wrestling butterflies. They are the moments when you're in such a flow that time, responsibility, physical upkeep - they all don't matter. You're in the zone.
Until next time...
I explode into space.
-dan