Week 16 – Death

“As long as you have not grasped that you have to die to grow, you are a troubled guest on the dark earth”

~ Mircea Eliade (a Romanian philosopher)

Found the above quote recently and really liked it.

Finished reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Next is The Notebook – A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

Still slowly reading my way through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Just got Dante’s Divine Comedy to read too.

It occurs to me that with each book I read (such as the ones mentioned above) I die again, because they affect me in a way that changes me. I am no longer the person I was when I started reading the book. In a way that person is gone. I’ve been given new perspective (for good or ill) and integrated that with my previous knowledge and experiences. We have often discussed a similar effect in the IHC meetings.

In this digital declutter I have been confronted with the fact that I had stopped reading for knowledge, self improvement, and mastery, and instead had fallen into the trap of digital distraction. I don’t tend to scroll mindlessly through social media (though I used to) or cute cat/dog videos on YouTube but scrolling through the internet for information, especially YouTube, to learn how to do stuff, had become my default, and from there I could easily get lost in the algorithm suggestions of what to watch next, and before I realized, significant time had slipped away. We are often told in class to ask ourselves, “Where am I? What am I doing?”. We are being encouraged to be fully present and, dare I say, intentional. However, this is not what my online/digital life has necessarily been. With going back to reading books I have found that it is just me and the book — no dings, no vibrations, no message notifications, no ads — just me and the book, “I am here in my sunny window. I am reading this book.” It is so much more peaceful, calming, and enriching! I am quite sure it has changed the way (the voice I have when) I write my blogs.

I don’t think the change in reading habit is the only reason for the change in my blogs. Getting my mind decluttered has been huge too. I now tend to keep a digital Field Notes “book” on my phone to jot things down quickly and get it off my mind. I am no longer trying to remember so much in my head. I tried a physical notebook briefly, but my phone is always with me and the physical notebook was not. If you see me typing away on my phone during IHC meetings, now you know what I’m doing, I’m taking notes in my notes app.

“Never memorize something that you can look up”

~ Albert Einstein

I do a similar thing with my blogs now. I just jot stuff down that comes to mind during the week and when it comes time to write my blog it’s practically already written. I just have to make it make sense to minds other than my own (hopefully). Some stuff gets deleted, some doesn’t, and some gets transferred to my personal journal. It all just collects there until I need it on blogging day. Sometimes it get’s written down and then forgotten to post it on time – like this time.