Category Archives: Life

PROMPT: High School

Posted on by
1
Daily writing prompt
Describe something you learned in high school.
View all responses

A psychology teacher taught us about what he called “the gestalt of expectations.” It’s when one builds an alternative reality in one’s mind (typically a worst-case scenario) and then one acts as though it is a reality, when – in fact – it is not. (Though sometimes it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy situation, which — of course — triggers selection bias in people of the unexamined life.)

It was my introduction to what I would come to know as the most fundamental insight of human existence — i.e. that one’s experience of the world is not the world itself, and while one has minimal influence over the latter, one can have tremendous influence over the former. One can even train oneself to perceive difficulties and sorrows as learning and growth opportunities.

PROMPT: Character

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
View all responses

Wu Song (武松) from Water Margin (水浒传.)

Because he’s a traveler with zero f#&ks to give. There is no more freedom to be had than that.

PROMPT: Job

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What job would you do for free?
View all responses

To pick nits, I think the defining characteristic of a job is that one earns money for one’s time and effort. Otherwise, it’s volunteering or a hobby — both of which are fine activities in which I’ve participated over the years — but they’re not “jobs.” In the case of a hobby, one should do it because one loves it and / or gains from it. In the case of volunteering, if you’re doing the work only because you love the activity, you’ve probably missed the point of the undertaking.

“Night Rain Sent North” [夜雨寄北] by Li Shangyin [李商隐] [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
When am I coming home? I don't know.
   At Bashan, night rains swell Autumn ponds.
 Recall, candles in your West Window?
   Ah, through night rains, to talk and bond!

The original in Simplified Chinese:

君问归期未有期， 巴山夜雨涨秋池。
何当共剪西窗烛， 却话巴山夜雨时？

Note: This is poem #298 of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首.]

PROMPT: Morning

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?
View all responses

I’m a morning person and am typically at fairly high energy levels first thing in the morning, So, that time is generally active, filled with exercise and / or physical activity of varied varieties (calisthenics, walking, running, and — of late — the occasional swim [which I normally do latter in the day.])

[Of course, there is the obligatory urinating, washing, toothbrushing, etc. (sequentially not concurrently,) but that seems like it would go without saying and would be strange to ask strangers about.]

PROMPT: Technology

Posted on by
2
Daily writing prompt
How has technology changed your job?
View all responses

Technology has changed everything, for good and for ill. It’s the source of our vast growth in productivity, but also at the heart of our modern crises (e.g. I’m almost certain that no caveman ever experienced “imposter syndrome.” But like other crises of modernity, I suspect that technological dependence and an ever-continuing trend toward ultra-specialization are its cause.)

I count myself fortunate to be of an age to (probably) miss the (rapidly approaching) day when machines and artificial intelligence do all “productive tasks” better, faster, and with far less energy consumption than a human being. I don’t think most of humanity will be prepared for that day, and it will – in all likelihood – go down catastrophically. [I think we’re seeing the cracks in the dam already.]

I spend more and more time with the only technology-proof sector of which I’m aware: building a more capable human being.

I believe if every person spent some time learning skills like primitive living (sustainable wilderness survival skills) or unarmed martial arts (that train against armed opponents) society would be much better off. I pick these two as examples of skill sets that give practitioners a deep confidence in themselves [not in themselves + technologies that they can’t build, can’t fix, and which they don’t really understand.] I suspect that the core self-empowerment that would result would ease away much of the general shittiness of character we are increasingly prone to see in the world, shittiness that — like all shittiness — is ultimately rooted in fear.

“Spring Thoughts” by Li Bai [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Yan grass shimmers like silken jade.
 Qin mulberry trees' green leaves droop.
 Your homecoming is now at hand
 As heartbreak has me thin and stooped.
 Spring Winds and I are strangers --
 Why, past my curtains, the inward swoop?

Chinese Title: 春思; Original poem in Simplified Chinese:

燕草如碧丝， 秦桑低绿枝；
当君怀归日， 是妾断肠时。 
春风不相识， 何事入罗帏？

Note: this is poem #7 in “300 Tang Poems” [唐诗三百首]

PROMPT: No

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
View all responses

I say no to all sorts of things regularly, for good or bad. I have a [sometimes] unfortunate proclivity to default to no. I move through life like an aircraft carrier, not prone to quick turns or rapid adjustment to unexpected circumstance. I need prepping for course changes and plenty of time. But it does tend to keep me on my objective.

“Fame is a fickle food” (1702) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Fame is a fickle food
 Upon a shifting plate
 Whose table once a 
 Guest but not
 The second time is set
 Whose crumbs the crows inspect
 And with ironic caw
 Flap past it to the
 Farmer's corn
 Men eat of it and die

PROMPT: Influential Teacher

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
Who was your most influential teacher? Why?
View all responses

I’d say my first full-time martial arts teacher, because I was young enough to have considerable open domain in which said teacher could be influential and because the lessons were so diverse — from kinesthetics to ethics to culture to psychology.

By “most influential” I think one means having had either the broadest or most profound influence. (I favor the importance of the latter, the lessons that stick with one and which inform one’s philosophy of life.) This definition favors earlier teachers, but as I don’t remember any specific lesson taught by a specific elementary school teacher, they’re out (though I learned useful things from them and they ranged from competent to quite skilled as teachers go.) The earliest profound lesson I received through scholastic education, one that became a core tenet in my philosophy of life rather than just a skill, was in high school — and in my junior or senior year at that.

As with books, if I can take away one profound lesson from a teacher, I consider my experience well worth the time and energy. And most influential isn’t necessarily the prime criterion for a teacher — and certainly doesn’t necessarily mean best or most skilled or most in command of a diverse array of knowledge.