Three Months of Wisdom

It’s been nearly three months since my last blog post. I feel like a lover spurn­ing an old flame, but the trap I con­tin­ued to fall into for the past months is that — my life hasn’t been overly inter­est­ing. I haven’t felt dri­ven to chase my muse across the key­board, though I’ve watched her flit about to and fro.

I’ve con­sid­ered sto­ries, like one I have work­ing titled “RIOT­Ball” which explores a world where sports and police forces inter­min­gle almost indis­tin­guish­ably. It sounds zanier than it actu­ally is, but it’s a con­cept still — nascent and unready to be brought forth.

I’ve done some travel and I could talk about the places I’ve gone and the things I’ve done, but not yet — there is a story there, but as above… it’s time hasn’t come yet.

My wife and I just cel­e­brated our first year of mar­riage, a muted but inti­mate affair. We’re over­joyed that we sur­vived the first year and have agreed to carry on for at least 79 more years.

I have opin­ions on the cur­rent state of pol­i­tics, the cur­rent finan­cial cri­sis, and the whole #Occu­py­Wall­Street move­ment but again, none of these are wholly formed and ready to be put down on paper.

There is wis­dom all around us. Spun out in bands like radio waves from a tower, if only we are pay­ing atten­tion to see them. The wis­dom which res­onates in the world comes from the news of Steve Jobs’ pass­ing, and it’s a quote that is now six years old. I remem­ber read­ing it when the tran­script of his com­mence­ment speech was posted — but it never res­onated with me until he died.

Remem­ber­ing that I’ll be dead soon is the most impor­tant tool I’ve ever encoun­tered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost every­thing — all exter­nal expec­ta­tions, all pride, all fear of embar­rass­ment or fail­ure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leav­ing only what is truly impor­tant. Remem­ber­ing that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of think­ing you have some­thing to lose. You are already naked. There is no rea­son not to fol­low your heart.

To me, that’s three months of wis­dom. Gained at the cost of three months, to be spent friv­o­lously over the rest of my life.