Author: trent

In one of my outdoor education jobs we would rotate the classes we taught every week.  So for a week straight, we’d teach the same class two or three times a day.  There was a process of learning the class from a naturalist, teaching it, then being evaluated.

When I taught the aquatics class, we would take kids to the river catch little water bugs and let salamanders walk on our hands.  At night I would have flashes of nets with nymphs in them, I could still feel the rubbery feet of the salamanders, hear the sound of the river, feel the wetness, and have images of green moss.

The museum class entailed a raptor center, taxidermy, and a room with snakes, hissing cockroaches and stick bugs that we’d take out for the children.  Those weeks, in my half-conscious state I could feel the smooth skin of Sandy the boa constrictor, I’d get flashes of the inquisitive stares from Bob the American Kestrel, or the more awe inspiring stares of the peregrine falcon.  I’d feel the spiny legs of the stick bugs and hissing cock roaches.

Through the process, I noticed how the class that I taught would have this effect of seeping into my being and would especially come out when I was half asleep at night or in the morning.

When I taught the geology class, my dreams and half-conscious flashes were of cliffs and rock formations.

The forestry class brought on flashes of leaves, bark, and pine needles with feelings of holding worms and rolly pollies from the worm bins.

Similarly, in my martial arts training, I’ve been working on keeping my thumbs in.  Having a thumb sticking out while punching could easily end up in a sprained or broken thumb.  I really like my thumbs so this one felt important to me. I started thinking about it all the time.  I’d feel my thumb sticking out while driving or pointing at something and Id tuck it in.   I started noticing it all the time. It felt tiring, having this periodic reminder of a body position I was trying to change.  I started doing a lot of things with my thumbs attached to my pointer finger.  I even started pointing at things with my middle finger.  In my half asleep states I’d get the feeling of my thumb sticking out then tucking it back in.

They say that when you practice something new, you are building new neural pathways.  Continued practice thickens the myelin sheath making the action more automated taking less thought to perform.  Studies are even indicating that once something has been learned, you can thicken the myelin sheath (essentially practice) simply by thinking about doing the activity.  Here’s a neat video about practice and mylanation.

I don’t completely understand the connection with sleep/sub consciousness, but it’s definitely there.  Are we able to practice in our sleep?  I feel like the intent of learning might affect the amount this happens.  It also seems the myelination not only comes with practicing an activity but also building a relationship with interaction (knowing what salamanders little rubbery feet feel like)

In viewing life in terms of relationships, in seems that our relationships in the world build pathways and relationships in our brains and neural networks.  On an experiential level, it feels like the sensations and correlations we have with these interactions seep into our being.  Some actions speak to our sense of identity or meaning.  They may calm us, agitate us, motivate or encourage us.  Sewing, riding horses, doing dishes, driving in traffic, surfing, chewing on a pencil; I know people (myself included) that have nostalgic feelings about using outhouses.  This means that even shitting in a hole has the ability to perform this magic of shooting electrical pulses through our brains and bodies making us feel alive and providing reference points for knowing ourselves and the world around us.

One way to explore this is to pay attention to some common actions; walking, sitting, scratching your nose, eating. Try to listen to the effects they have on your sensations, emotions, and attitude.  Also, think about the relationship you have with that movement or activity.  How many different states of being have you experienced while blowing your nose?  Have you ever had a period of time where blowing your nose worked itself into your dreams?

Another way to explore this is to consider different experiences you’ve had that has left an imprint on your psyche.  How have these experiences affected how you go about the world, especially in the subtle little ways.  Going for a walk, picking a flower, going to a birthday party; everyone will have different images and feelings that come up when they hear the phrases for these actions.

For me, these practices have led to me wondering how much my relationships with varying parts of myself affect my relationships outside of me and vice versa.  It seems like an endless feedback loop.

I relate to dogs a lot. Every time I see one I say hi. I’m an uncle to a lot of dogs as well. I often end up dog sitting for friends and family. I live in a place where everyone seems to have a dog. I still get excited whenever I see one. I frequently ask their owners if a can pet them. I love playing with dogs. I’ll get on all fours and hunch down in the play posture. Sometimes the reaction is like “why the hell is this human speaking dog?” It may also be similar to when I say a few words in a foreign language with a good accent when I’m not actually fluent. The recipient responds by quickly discussing whatever matter comes to mind not realizing that I don’t actually know that much.

​Often, I find myself in a state of feeling like a dog. Not in a demeaning way, but definitely in a simple way. Play, eat, drink, …squirrel! Not much else going up there… I’m usually pretty happy when I’m in this state. Of course it may also be a state of survival mode.

I’ve recently been exploring a couple concepts. One is recognizing different parts of myself, the other is giving myself love. I’ve noticed that there are these layers of self-love that are difficult to wade through. It’s hard to love myself the same way I love other people. It’s difficult to even recognize the parts involved in this process. Most other people I talk to have the same problem. A lot of people are their own worst critic, and while telling others to be easy on themselves they are secretly beating themselves up.
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When I had a pet rat living with me, I was constantly concerned about his well-being. Was he warm enough, cool enough, getting enough attention, eating well, safe from potential predators, did he have enough stimulation and things to play with? Having a friend mess with my rat in a not very loving matter brought out the first time I’ve ever threatened anybody. I didn’t even know I had that in me.
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During this process of learning self-love, there are times when I could reach out to people but my own insecurities get in the way. I get in the way of helping myself. In recognizing different parts of myself, I’ve started to play a game with self-love. I pretend that when I’m hurt or needy, I’m taking care of an injured pet. I’m my own pet… It’s been surprising that it’s actually pushed me to be more proactive in taking care of myself. I’m simultaneously bolder about reaching out and more gentle with myself. How much do I love the animals and people that I have an affinity for? Why would I be any less deserving of that love?
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I recently saw a friend post on social media that when elephants see people it activates their brain the same way our brains are activated when we see puppies. The conclusion was that they think we’re cute. I haven’t done due diligence to fact check this yet, but I love the idea and hope it’s true. It also really reinforced my game. Would an elephant want its puppy beating itself up or not being taken care of? Thanks elephant.

Origin

late 18th century: from French, ‘shade, subtlety,’ from nuer ‘to shade,’ based on Latin nubes ‘cloud.’

Google Dictionary

I really like nuance.  Maybe because I like shade?  I purposely walk down the shady sides of streets.  I even stand in the shade of stoplight posts while waiting to use the crosswalk.  I’m always amazed when I see people standing in the hot hot sun while there’s this beautiful little strip of relief right next to them.  Maybe I notice the shade because I hate the sun?  Well, hate is a strong word… it’s just that it’s rather strong and overbearing much of the time.  I know it’s necessary for life and all, but it can be so damn oppressive.  Sometime’s I can appreciate it though.  If it’s cold out and it’s not stabbing my eye’s.  Also if I want to go swimming, or need to dry my clothes.  It also helps trees to grow and I like trees, they give me shade…  Maybe I don’t hate the sun.

These are parts of my relationships with the sun, shade, and trees.  Nuance has everything to do with relationships.  It’s about detail; expressing or observing on increasingly finer scales.  When it comes to practice, there’s always something smaller that can be worked on.  One can practice basketball.  If you play a game, you’re practicing.  You can also scale down to do passing and shooting drills. Scaling down further might mean dribbling or simply running.  Even further might be standing on one foot and repetitively lifting on to your toes to strengthen the muscles that support the ankle.

Nuance also comes up with communication.  It might be one of the biggest casualties of social media.  I often say that I hate the sun.  Even though I’m expressing my feelings, it’s not completely accurate because it lacks the nuance that I displayed above.  Nuance has a lot to do with accuracy.

One reason for the necessity of this concept is because there are often seemingly contradictory truths that exist simultaneously.  One of my favorites is that, life is beautiful and life is rough.  It’s a favorite, because they are two statements that most people can agree on. With these “truths” in mind, I can almost always find some way to relate to anybody despite varying beliefs or experiences.  Recognizing both at once adds depth to life and understanding.

A lack of nuance in conversation almost always makes someone feel misunderstood.  It’s the blanket statements and generalizations, or the expression of feelings without accuracy of meaning “I hate the sun!”.  Nuance is often avoided or missing because it takes effort.  It can make my brain hurt trying to figure out how to accurately convey something in detail.  When I start trying, I quickly realize that the more detail I can go into, the more accurate it will be… unless I mess up.  It can also get overwhelming realizing that the practice of going into more detail often has the potential to go on indefinitely much like a fractal pattern.

One of the reasons I believe nuance is waning in our culture is because there is an increase in quick written communication, such as texting and social media, and a decrease in face to face communication.  When you don’t have the combined experience of facial expression, body language, tone of voice, and eye contact, there is a lack of reference and therefore a lack of accuracy.  It’s like a GPS with fewer satellites.  The other side of this is that misinformation can be more destructive to accuracy than a lack of information.  With information more widely available, misinformation is more abundant as well.  Nuance isn’t the exact same thing as accuracy but it can increase accuracy. With misinformation, it’s the nuanced truths that are the first to be obscured.  More expression doesn’t always make for more nuanced accuracy just as more color doesn’t necessarily make for a better painting, it eventually becomes a black out.  Therefore nuanced communication isn’t always more communication, it’s thoughtful communication with clear definitions.

Nuance is the changing of scale, the recognition of depth that is around us.  I like trees and there’s a relationship there.  When I learn about how they grow; photosynthesis, the flow of  water through their structure, the fungal network that helps to distribute nutrients throughout a forest; there becomes more depth to my relationship.  Also, if I begin to pay attention to the details of the tree, the bark and leaves; if I go smaller in scale with one tree, there will be a more intimate understanding.  This detailed attention will reveal micro ecosystems and structures of ever diminishing scale that can paint my perception of the tree.   Nuance is the path of never ending distinction, it’s the coloring in, the ornate detail, the shading… and it’s worth the effort.  And like all things, practice makes better.

We choose to go to the Moon! … We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win…

-JFK

I like to play arrow golf with my brother.  We grab recurve bows and blunt tip arrows then wander around the field and lawn by his place.  We take turns picking targets and everything is par three.  There is a wide variety of targets; posts, fences, thistles, other random weeds.  One of the favorite targets however is a Dandelion.   The possibility of hitting such a small target with the added bonus effects from the puffball is super enticing.  Over a week or two of playing, it never got boring.  I never even hit one.  My brother shaved half a puff ball, but that just made him want to get a center shot to make it explode.  One day, I will hit one.   Fuzzy white circles…

I’ve found that when I talk to people really into fly fishing and ask their favorite thing to fish for, the response is often steelhead. Steelhead fishing seems to involve a whole lot of casting, often in cold rainy weather, for a small chance to piss off one of these fish enough to hook one.  It’s not uncommon for people to spend a weekend or more fishing to hook one or zero fish.  They may however be one of the feistiest fish you can hook in fresh water and they are beautiful.  It seems that the feeling of handling such an aggressive fish along with the feeling of beating the odds might be the motivating factors here.  They’re also shiny…

One of the best feelings if ever had was shooting a clay pigeon out the air with a 22 pistol.  I was just being silly, sneaking the shot in after my cousin had missed with a shotgun.  I didn’t expect to hit it and quite frankly surprised myself enough to get startled when it exploded.  I tried to do it again and missed 40-50 times in a row.  Little white disc in the air…

I played a pool game the other day where neither of us really cared about winning.  We would sometimes take really difficult shots because they seemed fun and were what we felt like practicing.  We both made shots that we thought we’d miss.  I got better at bank shots and curves; she got better at breaking and long shots. It’s easy to try difficult things when there’s no fear of failure.  However, we did manage to hit the cue ball every time…

Most of the time when people talk about shooting the moon, they’re referencing card games or life goals.  I don’t always find myself playing card games with this option (is Hearts the only one?) and shooting the moon with life goals is a heavy, variable topic.

I bet right now, there is something you can throw, kick, flick, spit, or even say; some type of shot you could take that would make you feel amazing if you hit it yet leave you with no hard feelings if you missed.

Shoot the moon, not because it matters, but because it does not… it’s just fun and lacking devastating possible consequences… and practice makes better.

As someone who likes spicy food, for a long time I thought of black pepper as a second rate spice.  It was ok, but not great; very common place and not as flavorful as different types of chilies. I may have to shamefully admit that I looked down on it a little.

In Thailand however, I encountered a dish that used whole peppercorns to spice the food.  It was spicy and delicious.  Afterwards I payed more attention to the use of pepper in food.  Blackened chicken or catfish, salt and pepper prawns or asparagus.  I learned that I hadn’t been thinking of pepper correctly because the method of adding it to a dish with the typical amounts being used weren’t sufficient to my liking.  I began to use it more in my cooking and think about it more when ordering food.

I just had some nachos for lunch.  Black beans, pickled onions, crema, guacamole, olives, cheese, and jalapenos.  I put a little hot sauce on them, then saw the pepper shaker sitting there, “Blackened Nachos!” I thought as I dowsed my food.  It was delicious.

I have redefined my relationship with black pepper and given it the respect it deserves.

What are some relationships you’ve redefined?

What are some that could maybe use some redefining?

I’ll never forget the end of staff training at Camp Nor’wester in the San Juan Islands.  After two weeks of learning how to work with children (the first time for some people) director Paul Hendrickson summed it up nicely.  “Some of you are probably thinking ‘I can’t remember all the information I’ve been given and I in no way feel qualified to work with people’s children, the most precious thing in their lives’  My advice to you is, fake it till you make it.”  Everyone of course laughed at this point.  He went on, “But really, if you are in a situation and you feel like you don’t know what to do, pretend that you do and follow through.  After a little bit, you’ll find that you’re actually doing it.  You are going to make mistakes, you are going to learn. Fake it till you make it.”

When dealing with children or anything with high stakes, there is always this feeling that there is no room for failure.  While it’s good to do well in such important matters, there’s no getting around the fact that practice makes better.  The important thing seems to be to not freeze up from intimidation at the possibility of failing at an important task.  Often, freezing produces worse results than incorrect action, and with incorrect action there comes practice and perspective.

This is a skill to practice in itself, the ability to move forward with action despite unconfidence, intimidation, and/or indecision.  For myself I also sometimes think “A bad choice is better than no choice”

Fake it till you make it.

On a side note, I actually started this post pretending that I had the inspiration to write one…

What are some experiences you’ve had with this?

I’ve never been in a serious fight in my life, nor do I ever plan to be in one. I’ve recently however been thoroughly enjoying meeting up with some friends to practice martial arts.

There is a lot of knowledge among the people I’m meeting with (especially two of them… not me), and the training is very practical.  It’s based on Jeet Kune Do concepts which follow the philosophy of Bruce Lee, “Take what is useful, disregard what is not, and add what is uniquely your own.” With this idea, we learn concepts and skills from a lot of different disciplines, then spar with them…. a lot.

The more I talk to other people in the group, the more I realize that this is very different than many formal martial art structures.  Some you have to train for years before sparring, and some avoid it even then.  The structures are also often far more rigid, learning specific moves instead of concepts that you get to play with in sparring practice.

Here’s the interesting thing.  Let me reiterate, I never plan on getting in a serious fight the rest of my life.  I know there’s always the possibility; but I’ve managed to avoid it for 36 years, I can easily see myself doubling that and then some.  However, the practicality of the training makes it more fun.  There’s a richness that comes with learning something functional whether it’s ever used or not.  I’m learning a lot about movement and my body. This learning is not only  theoretical, but experiential as well. I’m getting and giving kicks, punches, knees and elbows.  I’m having someone swing a stick at me and come at me with a knife.  I not only know how I’m supposed to respond, I’m learning how it feels; and I have the bruises to show for it. It’s fascinating and frankly, beautiful.

The most important part of the practicality comes with sparring.  This is where we’re able to simulate situations that are closer to real self defense scenarios.  Where I get to have a trusted friend swing a stick at me or throw a punch at my head so that I can feel myself block it… or miss.  The neat thing about sparring is that it’s not a competitive venture, it’s collaboration.  The goal isn’t to beat the person you are sparring with, the goal is to help each other practice.  To provide the exact level of intensity and type of movement to optimize each others growth.  This fosters relationships with awareness and sensitivity that is amazing, beautiful, and enables us to play extremely fun games that would otherwise be impossible and unsafe.  The experience of these relationships is worth the practice in and of itself.  The practice helps me to grow in other areas in my life that I could go on about for quite some time, but even that is a secondary benefit compared to simply getting to experience these types of relationships that come from practicing martial arts in a practical way.

One of the goals of Playful Living could be considered showing the practicality of fun, the practicality of play.  At the same time it also seems, that practicality is more fun.

What are some experiences you’ve had where practicality has made something more fun?

• My Grandma was a painter.  She also did flower arrangements for people.  I’ve always been a more audio and tactile person.  I remember going to visit her one day sometime in September or October.  She was on the second story of a rest home.  When I walked in, she was staring our her window which looked out to the top of a giant tree just a few feet away. “Hi Grandma! How are you doing!”  “I’m trying to figure out how to make the color of the leaves”,  “…huh?”  “I can’t quite figure out what I would mix to make that color.  It’s such an interesting green, I don’t think I’ve even seen it before.” “…Grandma, you just changed my whole world and how I see colors.”

I have a friend who blows glass.  One day talking to him about it I asked, “What’s your favorite thing about glass?” (A typical, sometimes annoying type of question that I like to ask) “Well… one of the coolest things to me… you know when you see colored glass?” “Yeah!”  “It’s not actually that color. The composition of the glass is such that it reflects only that color when light bounces through the crystals.  So clear glass reflects nothing, green glass only green, brown only brown.  You can add different things to the glass to make it do that.  The stuff for green and brown is the most common.  Blue is more rare, red is super rare.  That’s why you don’t see red glass as often.”  “Whoa! You just changed my entire perception of glass!”  “Pretty cool huh?”

My brother is a financial advisor.  He was just getting into it when all the shenanigans in 2008 happened.  Needless to say, the industry was dealing with a bad reputation that justifiably stems from some bad practices.  It was a fun learning process for me watching my brother process the point and value of an industry that has been saturated by greed and causing so many problems.  One day, I asked about what he wanted to do in the industry. He simplified it for me.  “Investing in it’s pure form is a really great thing for society.  You’re taking money that’s not being used and funneling it to grow businesses that (ideally) provide beneficial services to society. It creates a way more efficient society as a whole if used correctly.  The concept also works on a small scale.  I can make coffee at work, but instead I go to a coffee shop.  I pay more, but I’m putting money into the community and getting social interaction out of it.  It’s a way to connect, network, and have good conversation.”  So we’re always investing in something.

Sitting in a bar in Monterey I met a guy who dives to collect jade.  He would also carve it and sell it.  In fact he made a living doing it. “That’s so great to be able to do what you love! Do you have a favorite thing you’ve made?”  “Well… sort of.  It’s my favorite and least favorite.  Have you been to the Monterey aquarium?” “Yeah”, “You know the circular tank they have mounted in the ceiling of the hallway with the bait fish swimming around in circles?” “Yeah!”,  “I made that… probably the best craftsmanship I’ve ever done.”  “That’s cool man!”  He didn’t look happy.  He took a big drink of his beer and looked at me.  “Yeah, well whenever I think about it, all I can think of is that I doomed those fish to simply swim in circles the rest of their lives.”

At one point, I lived in an experimental, educational, commune that was focused on sustainable architecture.  It’s called Arcosanti and is located in the desert an hour north of Phoenix.  It was created by Paolo Soleri who was a student of Frank Loyd Wright.  Most of the people living there were architects or graphic designers.  I was neither of those, nor had I ever been inclined in that direction.  My friend who’s a graphic designer lived there however, and after visiting for a few days, it came up that they needed a spot filled for a work exchange.  “Sure why not!”  While there I learned a number of things about architecture and graphic design.  I learned that architecture is a cut throat business and that most people getting into it don’t have much hope of doing their major work until they’re at least in their 40’s.  I learned that if you are a famous 92 year old architect you get paid to travel the world, give speeches and answer peoples questions with whatever you feel like talking about. I also learned about the essence of graphic design.  I’d been asking my friend a number of questions, telling him I was currently trying to wrap my head around the concept as I hadn’t ever been inclined towards it before and it was coming up in some of my research along with my living situation.  One day, walking into the cafe he and another graphic designer he worked with called to me, “Trent! Come here!”  I walked over to where they were looking at a National Geographic, “This, is good graphic design.”  It was a map of the world.  It had a small chart of all the parts that go into a car. On the map, it had corresponding drawing’s and arrows showing where each little part came from.  “You see how it conveys the idea both efficiently and beautifully? It utilizes space well, completely conveys the concept and is pleasing to look at”  “Ohh, that IS good graphic design…”

My gut tells me that I’ll probably never be a professional painter, glass blower, jade carver, financial advisor, architect or graphic designer; but you never know. Regardless, through my curiosity and interaction in topics that I’m not naturally good at or inclined to; I see colors differently and think about their components, I see glass differently and am impressed by rare colors, I have a sense of good and bad investments, all the little ways we invest and therefore spend money differently, I have an appreciation for pretty images with clearly laid out concepts, and whenever I see an animal in a well made tank or cage I imagine that the creator might be out sitting in a bar somewhere drinking away their regrets.

Playfulness is intertwined with curiosity and interaction, and other people are the best resource for playing and exploring ways to see the world.

What are some interactions that have changed your views? What are some ways they have changed how you go through life that you might not always be thinking of?

This morning I brought a roly poly to the coffee shop.  It was for my friend.  I had told her I wanted to bring one to live in one of the planters there.  She views them as a children’s introduction to the world of bugs. They’re safe, you know they won’t bite you, they’re not sticky, you can find them everywhere and they roll into balls.  They are definitely one of my favorite animals.  I met an entomologist at a bar in Santa Cruz once.  I asked him about roly polies, telling him that they are one of my favorite animals.  He told me that they’re actually crustaceans.  I was excited to learn this and be able to talk to an expert about one of my favorite critters, “What else do they do? Tell me more!”  He got defensive. “What more do you want from them? They eat dirt and roll into a ball!”  So there you have it. A simple little charismatic crustacean, ambassador of tiny crawly things to children everywhere.  (or at least a lot of places)

There was something about the interaction; finding my new coffee shop pet, sharing it with my friend.  Something that warmed and tickled my heart at the same time.  It had at least a similar type of impact on my friend as well, judging from her reaction.  I can’t help but think that it changed the rest of my day.  It came up in conversations at least four times, once in a discussion with six other people.  I had lunch at a restaurant where my friend was working and felt inspired to color with crayons on the children’s menu.  I colored in furry woodland critters all multi colored with various polka dots, stripes, and Holstein cow shaped markings; each of them saying some type of greeting, asking her to play, or telling her that they love her.  She got a kick out of it.  I have to say, I strongly feel that my inspiration largely stems from my earlier interaction with the roly poly. That makes nine people that heard about my roly poly, one of whom got to see it as well, and one person who got art work that was inspired by the mood it put me in.  That means at least ten people, eleven including myself, were somehow impacted (mostly in a positive way) by a tiny little crustacean smaller than a pencil eraser (it was small even for a roly poly).  A fine ambassador indeed.

What kind of relationships do you have with roly polies? What other relationships or ambassadors does this make you think of?  What are some ways they affect you?

I had a great conversation with a friend the other day.  A one point I mentioned how I’d been writing these posts comparing stories to fractals.  She excitedly told me about learning how most things (maybe everything?) can be reduced and measured into being both a wave and a particle.  She then mentioned how when learning about the patterns of stories, they seemed to go in  wave; beginning, build up, climax, conclusion.  I thought for a moment.  “Let’s say you have a story with ten characters.  The story follows this pattern, there’s one wave.  In life, however, each of those characters has their own stories, sometimes with some of the same characters, but often with others” “All fractaling off of each other!”  She had already caught it.  In my mind I was picturing little wave patterns connecting and branching off of each other; each representing a story, a pattern of growth.

In life, in existence, there are no stories in isolation; they are all connected. I hadn’t considered this part of the connection between stories and fractals until talking with my friend.   Our interaction and the development of our relationship is what gave me the reference point to see this pattern.

Right now I’m watching a momma and baby bird hop around the floor of the coffee shop patio.  The baby follows the momma as she finds bits of food then sticks them in the baby’s mouth.  The baby keeps chirping and fluttering its wings rapidly.  They’re really cute.

They also make me think about how babies are a fractal pattern from their parents; the way population graphs form fractal patterns.

The baby just flew a little bit, then tried to run up the railing while half flying with its feet slipping on the wood.

Part of the cuteness is derived from the clumsiness that comes with growth and development.  I feel like cute things tug on our sense of meaning.

Baby birds form fractaly patterns in the form of feathers and population graphs.  They also give me warm fuzzy feelings and reference points for understanding.

What is the point?  It’s fairly open ended.  This section is simply another reference point.  A picture of connections painted through the lens of my limited understanding and experience.  The hope is that it is an encouragement to find meaning through discovering patterns, making connections, developing relationships, and playfully interacting with the word around us.

When I was four or so, I remember my mom saying something to me about God loving me.  My response was “Where’s God?” She replied, “God is everywhere”  I thought for a bit, “How do you see God?” She replied, “If you look hard enough and want to, you can see him”  I stared out the window at the leaves and branches of the walnut trees, straining my eyes trying to tell if there was something that I was missing.  As I looked through the upper part of the tree seeing the green and white patterns overlapping, my vision sort of twisted and a wave of emotion came over me. A sense of peace, love, and awe.  “Is that God?” I asked.  She stared at me for a second, “Um… maybe?”

When working on my research paper a key component came to me from an article that my brother sent me written by  Lance Hosey on “Why We Love Beautiful Things“.  Later he sent me another overlapping one on fractals and design.  I’d like to pull from both to outline the significance to my research.

“The natural world is replete with fractals–in spinning galaxies and spitting sunbursts, in splitting crystals and splintering lungs, in creeping coastlines and veining leaves, in forking rivers and shivering snowflakes, and–importantly for human perception—in the explosive joy of a tree. Touching everything everywhere, fractals have been dubbed the “fingerprints of nature” and the “thumbprint of God.””

“In recent years, physicists have found that people invariably prefer a certain mathematical density of fractals — not too thick, not too sparse. The theory is that this particular pattern echoes the shapes of trees, specifically the acacia, on the African savanna, the place stored in our genetic memory from the cradle of the human race. To paraphrase one biologist, beauty is in the genes of the beholder — home is where the genome is.”  It goes on to explain, “We respond so dramatically to this pattern that it can reduce stress levels by as much as 60 percent — just by being in our field of vision.”

Not only does research shows that looking at fractals reduces stress; there are also studies showing that patients recover from surgery faster “when given hospital rooms with windows looking out on nature.“, as Richard Taylor points out in his article on fractal patterns.  He has even used research on fractals in Jackson Pollock paintings for “developing retinal implants to restore vision to victims of retinal diseases.” Going on to explain, “At first glance, this goal seems a long way from Pollock’s art. Yet, it was his work that gave me the first clue to fractal fluency and the role nature’s fractals can play in keeping people’s stress levels in check. To make sure my bio-inspired implants induce the same stress reduction when looking at nature’s fractals as normal eyes do, they closely mimic the retina’s design.

When I started my Pollock research, I never imagined it would inform artificial eye designs. This, though, is the power of interdisciplinary endeavors – thinking “out of the box” leads to unexpected but potentially revolutionary ideas.”

This means the there is a basic pattern of existence that is echoed everywhere, even within our own bodies. And that by staring at it, by simply seeing it, we reduce stress and heal; and that this is a relationship that’s built into the physiology of our eyes.

A piece of information I haven’t seen however, is an explanation of why this is the case.  I can’t help but assume that there is simply more going on than we can understand.  This is especially interesting when considering that staring at beauty in nature (often fractals) not only reduces our stress but is also often a source of inspiration and connection that speaks to our basic sense of meaning in life.  Think of all the feelings inspired from looking at the forests, mountains, rivers, and stars.  Any branch of spirituality has connections and inspirations from nature, from fractal patterns.

This idea of fractals influencing our sense of meaning is especially interesting when we consider that they are a visual expression of growth.  Veins on leaves, lungs, patterns on shells, even galaxies, all formed this pattern through their development.  The implication here ends up being the same conclusion that we get when looking at stories.  That we are inspired to a sense of meaning in life through growth and relationship.  I add relationship because there are the growing trees, then there are the feelings that come from looking at them.  That is a relationship.  And here we haven’t even begun to discuss the feeling we get from climbing, hugging, or swinging on them.

So my question is; does the stress reducing effect of fractals have a relation to our sense of meaning in growth, in the pattern of stories?  I can’t think of any method of how to prove this, but I can’t imagine that there isn’t some kind of connection.

Oh and if you are unsure of what a fractal is, here’s a fun picture.

And here’s an up close picture of a human eye.

I’m glad I didn’t make any promises as to how many posts I would do on this subject.  I even debated leaving it off at the last one.  “Stories and Fractals Part 1 of 1”  It’s all pretty much there besides the details, the quotes and the references.  But I guess that’s the nice thing about posts.  You can pick and choose what you want to read.  So lets go into some depth about stories.

A number of years ago, my mom gave me the book A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.  The premise was discussing how the job market was switching from needing skills that were more left brain dominant to ones that are more right brain dominant.  It was a fascinating read with a lot of good points.  One of the sections was on  the importance of stories.  He has a great way of showing significance by getting readers to imagine the way cave people would do things, thus conceptualizing origins of various aspects of human life.

“Story is just as integral to the human experience as design.  Think about that loincloth-draped prehistoric guy I mentioned last chapter-the one scraping flint against a rock and becoming a designer.  When evening fell and he and his buddies returned home, they probably sat around the campfire trading tales about escaping saber-toothed tigers or renovating the family cave.  His brain, like ours, had an internal “story grammar” that helped him understand the world not as a set of logical propositions but as a pattern of experiences.  He explained himself and connected to others through stories.”

I like this type of thing because it’s pointing out such a basic way in which we operate.  The idea of stories being a pattern, is particularly fascinating and an integral part of the goal of these posts.  He goes on to reference Joseph Campbell, going into more depth with this idea of the pattern of stories.

“In his 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell argued that all myths-across time and across cultures-contain the same basic ingredients and follow the same general recipe.  There are never any new stories, he said-just the same stories retold.  And the overarching story, the blueprint for tales since humankind’s earliest days, is the “hero’s journey.”  The hero’s journey has three main parts: Departure, Initiation, and Return.  The hero hears a call, refuses it at first, and then crosses the threshold into a new world, during initiation, he faces stiff challenges and stares into the abyss.  But along the way- usually with the help of mentors who give the hero a divine gift-he transforms and becomes at one with his new self.  Then he returns, becoming the master of two worlds, committed to improving each.  This structure underlies Homer’s Odyssey, the story of Buddha, the legend of King Arthur, the story of Sacagawea, Huckleberry Finn, Star Wars, The Matrix, and, Campbell would have argued, just about every other epic tale.”

I remember in my freshman english class one of the most fascinating concepts for me was learning who the main character was.  The assumption before hand was that the main character was who the story was about.  As it turns out, it is actually the character that changes throughout the story.  Some stories are about a static character while the main character is not the focus.  Sometimes, there’s more than one main character.  This made me re-think all the stories I’d read, heard or seen.  In Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker isn’t the main character, Darth Vader is.  He turns good at the end and kills the emperor.  In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is the main character not Belle.  In Pulp Fiction, pretty much everyone is a main character (maybe why it was such an interesting/popular movie?)  Change and growth are what makes the story.  Also, it usually happens through some type of stress.  Change and growth through stress, this is the pattern.

An interesting thing about this pattern, is it seems to speak to our sense of meaning.  It’s a pattern we follow in our own lives; which makes telling, reading, and hearing stories such an integral part of being human.  This is probably part of the reason we feel attachment and even cry at times when hearing stories that speak to us.

Now in conclusion, Id like to share one of my favorite stories that I’ve written. It’s a fairly quick read I think.

A Tale of Two Ducks

Reed and Lou were sitting by the river bank, watching the water swirl through the eddies. It was a nice day out. Mostly clear with a few wispy clouds on the horizon. It was mid afternoon, the sun still high in the sky, but on it’s way down. Lou was a bit older than Reed, he had spent the early years of his life on a foie gras farm until he escaped. He was then taken home by some children to live on a private lake until the family abandoned the property and the lake dried up. The next few years he spent roaming through twelve different states until he finally found a family in this flock and came to call the river his summer home. Reed knew all this about Lou. He had heard the stories many times. But there was one thing he never had asked. He slowly turned to Lou “Quack Quack Quack Quack?” Lou sat in silence, memories from his past flooding back. After a while he spoke, “Quack Quack, Quack Quack Quack. Quack Quack Quack Quack. Quack Quack Quack; Quack Quack Quack.” Reed stared in amazement “Quack!? Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack! Quack…Quack Quack Quack?” Lou gave a little chuckle at the innocence of the young duck and asked him, “Quack Quack Quack Quack, Quack Quack Quack Quack?” Reed thought about this for a while. Now he was put on the spot. He swished his beak in the water, stomped his feet around, stared at the sky then finally let out a long sigh, “Quack Quack Quack Quack. Quack, Quack Quack Quack. Quack Quack Quack Quack, Quack Quack; Quack Quack Quack Quack, Quack Quack. Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack.” He turned to look at the older duck, unsure of what his reaction would be. Lou looked back at Reed… and smiled. “Quack Quack! Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack? Quack Quack Quack!” Reed jumped up in excitement and gave Lou a slap on the shoulder. “Quack Quack?! Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack! Quack Quack!” And with that, they took off into the setting sun to go have adventures together.

Awhile ago I tried to write a post about stories and fractals.  I have lots of little written pieces that I’ve accumulated over the years as well as an unpublished research paper connecting education, expression, health, community, environment, motivation, and meaning.  In these, I figured I had all the material I needed to write the post; quotes from prolific psychologists and writers explaining how our brains are wired to think in stories, articles outlining research on fractals; how they reduce our stress and aid in healing processes, my own writing connecting the two together and outlining how they both affect our sense of meaning.  The funny thing is, every time I read through my post, it didn’t sound quite right.  I wasn’t happy with it.  I’ve rewritten in multiple times, clarifying and distilling it down.  The last attempt ended up a very shortened version split into two separate posts.  When I pressed my lovely editor for feedback they replied,

“As I re-read, I’d say they sound incomplete. Break them apart and try to make each one a story, beginning, middle end.”

I’ve been writing a post about how we’re wired to understand stories, yet using a clunky, point by point format to do it.  I can’t have readers missing out on this fine bit of irony, so I’m admitting to you; yes, I did that.

And now I’m telling a story.  A story about my process in writing about stories and fractals.  I’m not sure how many posts it’ll take, but that’s ok.  This is a fascinating topic and can easily be related to almost anything in existence.  Fractals and Stories, what else is there?

To begin, I’ll show a piece musing on expression and character that I wrote before I had much of the research under my belt.

“If expression flows from creatively communicating oneself, the truth of what you are will affect your expression.   Are we in turn affected by our expressions? At least to the degree that we see the effects they have on the world around us and how that in turn affects ourselves.  It seems to me that there is also the effect that interactions with other people and things provide new reference points for understanding.  It then seems that the learning affects our character thereby giving us some sort of flowing, back and forth relationship between expression and character.

We also see the expression of others and the expressions of nature.  These all leave an impression, they communicate something about character.  Trees express themselves without even knowing it (Possibly).   They reach and grow, blossom and die, tugging on our heart strings the whole way.  There’s a deer across the road, she was looking at me funny.”

This little piece ended up fitting nicely with my later research.  So we will build from there.

On a side note, do you notice the stepping back I’m doing?  Having difficulty explaining something, I revert to talking about how I’m having difficulty explaining something.  Now I’m even writing about how I’m talking about how I’m having difficulty explaining something.  Now I’m writing about how I’m writing about how I’m talking about how I’m having difficulty explaining something.  Now I’m…  oh nevermind.  Wait, is this a metaphorical fractal?

I was reminded the other day of  a phenomena where a person trying out an activity, archery for instance, shoots their very first shot and gets a bullseye, then puts the bow down and says “I’m never shooting again.”

I think the idea is, they tried it once, did perfectly, and never want to potentially mar their perfect record by trying it again.

Viewing activities playfully and in terms of relationships; this would be like having the most amazing conversation with someone then saying “I never want to talk to them again because that conversation seemed perfect and I don’t want to chance having a lesser conversation”

How sad to ignore a potential friend!

I’m not the most organized person. This means that it’s a frequent occurrence for me to lose or misplace things.  One of the ways I’ve learned to mitigate this is to keep spares of things that are much needed.  Like car keys.  I have my main set, a spare in my wallet, and the original stashed away where I attempt to never touch it and therefore never misplace it.

It can be stressful losing something and going through the process of looking for it.  I’ve recently initiated a strategy for reducing stress by utilizing my spare key.  If I lose my keys, I look for them for two minutes or so, depending on what I have going on.  After two minutes I stop looking, stop worrying and use my spare.  What ends up happening is that I find my keys later when I’m not trying to look for them.  Doing things this way I manage to avoid a good amount of frustration and stress while saving time.

The most interesting aspect of this is the cross training that seems to be going on.  The other day I had a number of tasks on my mind that needed to get done.  It was stressful to think about them and would have been nice to get them out of the way. However, when critically strategizing I realized that one task would be best done in a day and a half, and the others would be best done in the proceeding two days.  I could have gotten some of them done that day, but it would have been much more inconveniencing and therefore less efficient.  “Great! I just won’t worry about any of this today and tomorrow”, I told myself.  It’s not always the easiest thing to ignore something pressing and important until the exact moment it can best be dealt with, but this time I accomplished just that with much greater ease than usual.

Pondering my success, I realized that my newer method of dealing with lost car keys is actually practicing a similar form of compartmentalization.  Both involve dispelling worrisome thoughts through trusting my overall sense of timing and strategy.  I can’t help but assume that the little bits of practice I get from losing keys helped in my success in compartmentalizing days and tasks.  After all, practice makes better.

Where are some places you find practice compartmentalizing?  What’s some cross training you’ve been doing?

Awhile ago I read a great book, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by  Jack Weatherford.  It was a fascinating account of the Mongolian empire that came about from recently rediscovered original documents that shed light on the life of Genghis Khan, mongolian culture, and the far reaching effects that the regime has had on the world.

Reading the book was partially inspired by my existing interest of nomadic cultures and horse archery.  I was fascinated by imagining their way of living which includes eating and drinking a good amount of food derived from fermented mare’s milk.  You can imagine why this would be a good source of food for a nomadic culture that rides horses on the steppes of Mongolia.

This fascination with culture led me to research milk fermentation.  I learned more about kefir and other types of fermented milk.  I learned that people of the caucasus mountains would hang leather bags of kefir outside of their tents so anyone who walks by could punch them.  This is done because periodic agitation is necessary during the fermentation process of kefir.

Googling how to make kefir, most links tell you to keep it in a jar and stir it periodically.  This seems way less fun to me so I bought a boda bag, filled it with milk and kefir grains, and hung it from the ceiling where I could combine production with the stress relief of having a punching bag.

A fascination with fermentation then spurred on a phase of experimentation with kefir, yogurt, kombucha, and beer.  Thus interest leads to interest; and an interest in archery can apparently lead to an interest in beer making.

What are some interests you have had that have led to unexpected other interests?  What are some benefits to encouraging this natural flow of curiosity?  What are some blocks to the flow of curiosity and motivation?

Part of the philosophy of Playful living is to view everything in terms of relationships.  We obviously have relationships with other humans, but with a closer look, we have relationships with everything we encounter.  We hold a coffee cup a certain way.  We probably have some degree of emotional response to the cup, and the coffee.  Actually, the cup was designed based on our relationship with our hands and how they interact with holding; designed specifically for a human hand to hold a certain amount of hot liquid (usually 12 to 20 ounces) in a manner easy for ingestion and to not burn oneself in the process.  Designs are also often aesthetically pleasing, nostalgic, or humorous.  Sometimes being handmade out of clay,  the person crafting the mug has a relationship with the tools they use and the clay itself.  They have knowledge of the clay and it’s properties, what happens when moisture or elements are added or when it’s heated certain ways to varying temperatures.  Their hands have a relationship with manipulating the clay.  Like any relationship, it was developed by spending time together, asking questions in the form of applying pressure in different ways and learning how the clay reacts.  The clay tells them when their hand isn’t steady enough to create even smoothness, it tells them when the structure of the hand is correct to make the sides grow.

Viewing learning in this light, any amount of touch will give someone a better understanding of clay.  The growth and understanding that comes from each interaction won’t always be equal, but it will always be there.  Watching and learning techniques from people who have a highly developed relationship with clay will often give great insights, especially in certain phases of the learning process.  However, everybody’s relationship with clay will be unique, and relationships with each individual piece will be unique as well, just as no two conversations are exactly the same.   One will be better equipped to learn from a master if they have some experience with how the clay feels, some reference or relationship as a basis for understanding the lessons given.

At the coffee shop where I like to work, they have mugs that look like dinosaur eggs.  Nothing I order has ever been served in one, so I asked the other day what they use them for.  They’re for tea. I usually drink coffee.  I’m a little jealous and might start drinking tea.  They also told me that someone else mentioned they should turn it into a dinosaur themed cafe once they get the whole set…

What are some relationships you have that you don’t typically think about?  Do you ever have relationship issues with activities or inanimate objects?  How might viewing things in terms of relationships affect your perspective and actions?

Fives hours or so after writing this post, I ordered tea (for the second or third time) and got the dinosaur egg mug for first time.  I’m pretty exited and had to share.

In her book Animals Make us Human, Temple Grandin describes the varying aspects of emotional well being for different animals. In the section on cats she explains that, unlike dogs, cats don’t have the same language ability for apologizing.  This is the reason cat fights escalate so quickly and can be so brutal, there’s no communication available for de-escalation.

I found this point in her book to be particularly fascinating.  It made me think of driving and humans’ propensity for “road rage.”  When you accidentally cut someone off on the highway you almost never have any method of apologizing.  The person becomes angry and might even react with aggressive driving or honking. There’s a way to show that you’re angry or to give warning, but very little room for saying you’re sorry.

I remember a unique instance where I had accidentally pulled in in front of someone, immediately thinking “damn that was a jerk move on my part.”  Shortly there after I came to a stop light with the car pulled up next to me.  I looked over and saw the driver and passenger livid and yelling.  Despite the fact they couldn’t actually hear me I tried my best to shrug in an apologetic manner and say I was sorry.  They stared at me a moment then looked at each other.  We were close enough I could read what they were saying “He said he’s sorry”  Their demeanor changed, they laughed, waved, said “no worries!”, and then the light turned green and we drove off.

Most cases of making mistakes while driving don’t give you the opportunity for this type of communication.  Like with cats, a deficiency in language escalates anger and aggression. It’s interesting to think of ways to mitigate this.  A green or blue light that purposefully signals apology?  A glowy “I’m sorry” sign that can be switched on, or a soft sounding apologetic horn sound?  I can’t think of anything that doesn’t seem a little cheesy or ridiculous, but I think it’s worth considering the impact an ability to apologize would have on how we drive.

It’s also a fascinating topic to think about in general.  What are other ways deficiencies in communication lead to aggression?  Texting can be confusing.  Social media seems to bring this out as well.  I think the combination of not seeing people, feeling anonymous, not being able to portray tone or read facial expression leads similarly to anger or aggression in these areas.

What are some other area’s with similar effects from communication deficiencies?  How can thinking about cats affect your relationship to apologies with interpersonal relationships?  How can thinking about cats affect your actions and attitude while driving or on social media?  What other thoughts or topics does this bring up for you? What are things cats are able to communicate that we are lacking? Do they notice some glaring deficiency in our abilities to communicate…?

The other day my brother showed me an exercise tool he was excited to try out to enhance his climbing.  Besides having a fun name, Power Fingers also outlines a great concept to utilize in our Analogous Learning process.

“The PowerFingers
$30 | THEPOWERFINGERS.COM |

The PowerFingers are elasticized forearm extensor trainers that feature individual finger loops and come in five different resistance levels. As with most other grip trainers, they can be used for addressing muscular imbalances, base conditioning, injury prevention and rehabilitation. However, these rigs seem to have magical powers when it comes to strengthening, which in my opinion makes them the most important supportive grip-training device. The big difference is that most other extensor trainers don’t work individual fingers and offer low resistance levels, meaning they can only be used for conditioning. With PowerFingers, you can stack them up for high resistance, enabling strength sets of one to eight reps.

The background here is that it isn’t possible to develop the forearm flexors (or any muscle) to their full strength potential if the antagonist (opposition) muscle is disproportionately weak. So by using the Powerfingers to strengthen the extensors, you can indirectly facilitate further strengthening of the flexors. I suggest a minimum of three sessions a week, either on rest days or when resting between climbs. Hold contractions for three to four seconds, and do two or three sets of 10 to 15 reps to warm up, then go for four or five sets of four to six reps, to failure. Many climbers who use PowerFingers are reporting increases in finger strength and reduced susceptibility to injury, and I highly recommend these devices.

This article originally appeared in Rock and Ice issue 239 (January 2017).”

There is probably an inexhaustible amount of connections to be made with this concept of antagonist muscles.  The most obvious are similar applications to all other forms of muscle exercise and the health/structural benefits within.  However, we can see this concept across the board.

Through my own experience as well as the personal accounts of others, I’ve encountered this concept in the practicing of many artistic activities.  In playing a musical instrument for example, I’ve noticed two opposing types of practice that support each other; Repetitive Drilling, and Creative Expression.

Repetitive Drilling, is the more structured form. An example would be learning a scale on the guitar.  While doing this exercise,  one focuses on accuracy and correct form.  You simply play up and down the scale trying to hit each note with maximum efficiency.  You may change up the pattern of going up and down the scale to practice a wider variety of movement, but the practice is still highly structured and focused.  In the beginning stages you typically start very slow to ensure that you are practicing consistent rhythm as well.  This builds strength, muscle memory, coordination, agility, and caulous development.

When practicing creative expression, the rules slacken or go out the window.  Here the focus is on exploring different sounds and methods, experimenting with them,  and practicing an openness to yourself and your expression.  It’s a practice of being in tune with yourself, exploring your relationship with creating music,  and a process of finding new reference points that bring a better understanding of music and facilitate more accurate creative expression.  While practicing this way, you may explore playing over other music or improvising on your own, experiment with holding on to notes for various lengths, hitting notes outside of the scale, playing slower or faster, exploring the emotional response to stringing different notes together, or even trying different methods of holding the guitar and hitting the strings.

Like the antagonist muscle practice of Power Fingers,  these are two sides of the same practice of musical expression.  Repetitive drilling, provides the strength, agility and skill for your body to better perform the necessary movements for accurate expression; while creative expression connects the various lessons of drilling, loosens physical, mental, and emotional rigidity, practices being in tune with the flow of emotion to expression, and can also bring to light different possible repetitive drills that exist and can be utilized.

One of the beauties of utilizing this concept is that often, if you become tired or unmotivated to continue one type of practice,  switching to the other form often reinvigorates motivation and provides a resting/healing period from the particular type of stress in the opposing practice. This in turn enables us spend more time practicing with less mental and physical stress.  Yet another reason to not push yourself to the point of hating something that you practice, you can simply change it up.

I’ve also used this concept in knife throwing.  Anyone I teach, I encourage to learn to throw with both hands.  This provides resting periods for muscles and joints, develops muscles more evenly (especially important for the back) and also has this effect of building off one another.  The right and left side will actually teach each other different lessons on throwing, body position and focus, thus the benefit is a multiple effect and not just the sum of practicing both sides… it’s also more fun to throw with both hands, a benefit not to be overlooked.

Where are some areas where you’ve utilized the concept of antagonist muscles already and/or recognized it’s effect?  What are some areas where being aware of this concept might open you up to different types of practice?

Also practice identifying Analogous Learning concepts yourself.  What are some other connectable concepts you can identify from the description of Power Fingers and their benefits? Gotta love the name.

The other day I had an article by John Pavlus shared with me.  It was on Ian Bogost’s new book “Play Anything”.  It peaked my interest by how many similarities (and a few differences) Ian’s writing has with the mission of Playful Living, so I figured it would be a great venue for discussion.  I haven’t read the book yet.  I thought it would be more fun to post a link to the article, my thoughts and impressions solely based on that, and then read the book.  I just bought it the other day and it’s sitting next to my computer as I’m typing right now.  I’ll do a follow up post after I’m done reading it.  I almost forgot my plan and starting reading it last night, but don’t worry, I remembered and refrained from tainting my superficial post with extra insight. So here’s the link.

The beginning of the article outlines the amount of topics he is cross sectioning and his admission that “I’m not sure it was a good idea to make a milkshake out of all of [those things],”  This is something I connected strongly with.  the essence of Analogous Learning and play is to connect subjects together, often in experimental ways to see what happens.  The fact that he tackles a wide variety and jokes that it might not be a good idea is a great example of these concepts in action.

“Along the way, Bogost unpacks the meaning of play, creativity, satisfaction, connection, and (arguably) life. If that can’t make you a better designer—and human—what can? Buckle up, though—because Bogost’s big idea is a paradoxical one.”

In the next paragraph however, I’m a bit surprised by the condescending tone that ensues.

“YOUR IMAGINATION IS OVERRATED, NOT SPECIAL, AND QUITE POSSIBLY YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY (DEAL WITH IT)

Bogost has a serious beef with what most creative types consider their defining and most precious attribute: a “rich inner world.” After all, aren’t imagination and introspection the very things that set the Picassos and Woolfs of the world apart from the shmucks in gray flannel suits?

Short answer: nope. Whatever wonders that may reside within your own special-snowflake skull wilt in comparison to the fractally unfolding immensity of plain old reality. According to Bogost, “play” happens in the world, not in your head. Which means that anything—literally anything—can become an instrument or game, a plaything and a playground, if we’re simply willing to look beyond the confines of our own navels.”

On one had, the tone seems counterproductive to encouraging play, on the other hand; I can appreciate that he is trying to impress on people how fascinating reality is; and his last sentence, acknowledging that anything can become an instrument or game, is an echo of my own philosophy.  It seems we agree on acknowledging the value (and/or potential value) of every little thing around us.  Part of the philosophy of Playful Living is to view everything in terms of relationships. The most obvious is that we have relationships with each other; we also have relationships with ourselves, plants, animals, our activities, our bodies, rocks, tools, weather, other inanimate objects; any thing, concept, or action that we encounter, there is some type of relationship (and I’m sure this even isn’t comprehensive.)  At this point Ian and I might diverge on our ideas about what imagination and creativity are.  I view creativity as our ability to connect these different relationships together. Our imagination is influenced by the world around us.  We then use our imagination to create new ideas, inventions, innovations, and expressions not from some isolated inner world but through our filter of experience, relationships, senses, and probably a lot of other things that I/we don’t know about.  Our imagination therefore, is affecting the world around us and visa versa.  It’s a relationship.

So I don’t really agree that there is a conflict between our imagination and interacting with the world around us, however, I’m curious as to the philosophies that  Bogost has encountered to inspire him in this direction.  Maybe there are people out there encouraging self focus at the expense of having relationships with the outside world?

The last part of my review of the review is an appreciation of this paragraph,

“I don’t feel compelled to require the reader to adopt my position as the sole and definitive answer for all situations and circumstances,” Bogost says. “And I think that position is consistent with the ideas themselves: If you really can play anything, then by necessity there is a time for deep and worldful attention, and a time for throwing your shit away when it doesn’t bring you joy, and a time for brusque pragmatism, too.”

I immediately think, “For everything there is a season.” I know it’s kind of cheesy.  Probably also why Pavlus mentions, “That may sound like an intellectual cop-out, but it’s actually the logical consequence of taking Bogost’s book seriously.” I agree with his point even though I haven’t read the book and would like to unabashedly expound on it.  By running the gambit of allowing ourselves to go through various phases or attitudes such as these, we gain more reference points for understanding ourselves and the world around us.  There is also this sense of getting a feel for our needs and interactions with life and that embracing the natural fluctuations is probably healthy.  It seems that Bogost is also doubly encouraging this freedom by not taking his position overly seriously; an important attribute, in my opinion, for being playful and fostering relationships.

And now I’m excited to read his book, see what I can learn, and find out what type of misinterpretations and assumptions I’m making from the article.  Get back to you later!

When contractors bid a job, standard practice is to add 30% to whatever the estimated costs are.  On really big jobs, they may even add 50%.  This is because there are always unforeseeable events and costs that take place; an employee cuts a board wrong or drops something, obstacles get discovered while digging the foundation, someone hurts themselves on the job.  The profession has developed to account for unforeseen events.

Ravens often live with the top predators of the area.  In Yellowstone they live with wolves.  Their main diet is deer meat, their nests are lined with deer fur, they play with wolf pups and eat with the pack.  Its clear that the ravens benefit from the wolves, but do the wolves benefit?  Ravens are known to be very good lookouts so that is one benefit.  It’s also hypothesised that they may locate prey for the wolves but this has not been proven.  In greenland, hunters viewed ravens as a good omen and would also claim that they would point out prey to them by flipping upside down in mid flight.  This has not been proven however and the alternative theory is that a hunter upon seeing a raven would explore further, motivated by the positive sign to keep looking for game and would therefore be that much more likely to find some.  (For more on Ravens, check out: “Mind of the Raven Investigations and Adventures with Wolf Birds” by Bernd Heinrich)

My first year at university I was driving my friend to show him this awesome thrift store I had found called Last Chance.  It was appropriately named as is was located outside of town right next to the dump.  My buddy was a 42 year old  army ranger veteran.  As I was driving I started to think that maybe I had made a wrong turn or past it, it felt like I should have been there already.  I started to get self conscious about leading my friend on a wild goose chase. “Maybe I passed it, I thought it was this way, I cant really remember” I’m sure I was clearly fretting and anxious about getting us lost.  I’ll never forget his response, “Don’t worry, you know what you’re doing, just keep going.”  A minute later we were there.

Since then I have applied the percentage mark up that contractors use to navigation.  If I’m going somewhere and begin to feel lost, I start paying attention to time and/or distance.  The moment I think maybe I passed a turn or am going the wrong way, I look at a clock or start tracking distance traveled.  At a certain point later I have the feeling of, “ok I should turn around, this is the wrong way.”  That’s when I look at the clock again, add up the time, roughly calculate 30% of it and keep going that much longer and further.  It usually gets me there.  My hypothetical raven.

I’ve been able to apply this concept to other facets of life; estimating the time it takes to do something, how much work something will be, how late a friend will be when they say they’ll be done with something at a certain time. As it turns out life in general, not just contracting, has unexpected events and costs, and one can expect the unexpected.

Try it out at let me know how it goes.

…I have to admit, I kinda hope that ravens actually point out prey to wolves and hunters even though it would make their place in this post slightly irrelevant.

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