I’m going to cheat here and write about writing again. The daily blog is a practice in noticing. The trouble with noticing, I’ve found, is that it takes a while to “boot-up,” so to speak. My awareness muscles are cold. The past few months have dulled my senses for preparing each morning’s practice. On a normal week in this rhythm, I would have an abundance of ideas, quotes, arguments, and novelties to share. The dailies practically write themselves in a season of plenty.
Then there are seasons of transition. A path arrests me with new styles, new interests, and new leanings. My usual entries begin to shift in a direction wholly unexpected and uncomfortable, and it takes time to adjust my thinking and habits for this kind of work.
Currently, this looks like a shift from technology to philosophy. My work has always been littered with philosophical ideas and influences, but, as of late, has donned a new mask entirely obsessed with the abstract. More than that, my inputs from the realms of technology have shifted. Instead of consuming news and history and analyses of technological changes, my feed is entirely devoted to news. I’m swimming in innovation.
This problem is common for us today because of the newly minted twenty-four hour news cycle, instantly accessible internet, and invasive marketing schemes of tech companies. Getting sucked in is the new normal. But despite its ability to lend us a grasp of cultural conversations, this rhythm leads not to wisdom, but to ignorance. One can easily read all there is to know about the current month’s happenings that fly by in a week having not amounted to anything. It takes and gives greater strength to look back and understand those things which shape cultures eternally. History and philosophy, comparative religions and natural phenomena.
These things lend themselves to the cultivation of an ordered mind and virtuous heart. Thinking and writing on these leads to a level of depth unmet by doing the same with current events. A daily practice requires more. It demands more. Writing from abundance is only possible when nourished by rich sources.
