Thanks again so much for your patience with my absence and delay in responses (and, apparently, my ability to actually type on small screens without either making huge spelling errors or being auto-corrected to death). It was a great time and, as I realized, the longest time The Ravishing Mrs. TB and I have spent together in the at least the last year and may be in fact the longest vacation we have had without children in 25 years.
In terms of writing it all up, the next two weeks will be finishing out Turkey (if you can believe it) and the following month (more or less) catch-up from Japan and Switzerland/Germany on Tuesdays and Wednesdays while I try to get my thoughts and pictures in order.
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One of the surprising benefits of being "away" is that one can be completely isolated from the day to day news cycle (or at least the discussion of it; every tour I have been on we are very much encouraged to "not discuss U.S. politics", a rule that everyone pretty much holds to). As a result, one gets both a blessed relief from the 24/7 news cycle as well as the rather constant volley/counter volley which has come to constitute virtually every communication here.
While this is not an invitation to delve into politics, it is an observation that the term "First World problems" really is a thing. A lot of what seems to be consuming all of the oxygen in the room here and in the greater "First World" is not a thing that happening in the rest of the world.
Everyone on both sides who is hyperventilating about "the news" should go abroad. The issues that people are concerned with there are quite different from what "we" are concerned with here, or at least believe we should be concerned with here.
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Somewhat connected to the point above, I may be taking a relatively permanent break from Social Media.
One of the outcomes of the election is that more and more people have been posting about such things at The Book of Face. To be consistent with my practices here, I never comment. I also started taking the measure of not having their posts appear in my daily feed - for both sides: I try to be consistent if nothing else. As a result, a surprisingly few people appear in my feed at this point; it is mostly groups I follow for things that are cute or interesting and a lot of advertisements. At this point, it is adding little (if nothing) to my life.
Instapic is slightly better as it is just pictures and quotes (a fair amount of the quotes which I use here).
But I can easily see a day where Social Media is something I used to do, not do now.
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To no-one's surprise more than myself - tomorrow represents one full year of being at my new job in New Home 3.0 (my official "one year date living here" was 15 March). I find it shocking that it has been a complete year, but given the amount of things that have happened in the past year, perhaps less shocking than I might think.
In terms of work, the job is going well. In terms of life - especially with the advent of The Ravishing Mrs. TB here permanently (more or less), I am looking forward to what is essentially the next chapter of our lives.
I also look forward to finally unpacking some boxes and hanging some pictures that have essentially been undisturbed since I moved here.
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Somewhat fascinatingly along with my ongoing review of Greg McKeown's Essentialism, I have been reading two books by Cal Newport - The End of E-mail: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload and Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World - as well as two in the reading slot by Matthew B. Crawford, Shopcraft as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work and The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming An Individual in an Age of Distraction. The fact that all of these texts with the emphasis on focus, attention, and spending one's time meaningfully and accordingly are not, I think, by chance.
The outer location of my life has changed; it appears the next part is the inner practices of my life as well.
"Everyone on both sides who is hyperventilating about "the news" should go abroad." Or take daily long walks in the woods. Without the device. It's interesting how getting away from the continual bombardment can radically change perspective.
ReplyDeleteI love that you seem to be entering a season of potentially steady calm. Meaning all the uncertainties of the changes you've had to go through are finally working themselves out.
Also, it seems you have been reading some interesting books. Not titles I would ever thing to pick up myself, but ones I would be interested in learning what you picked up from them.
Leigh, that is a great suggestion at well, especially with "the device" (something that Cal Newport heartily recommends). It strikes me that it simply keeps us at a level of agitation that we can not come down from.
DeleteThe calm would be welcome - and to your point, I think it is coming. Part of that is circumstances, part of that is a conscious plan on my part to help move things into a new mold.
The books have been interesting and hopefully applicable. Newport and Crawford are authors that have been quoted by several writers I have read before (in fact, they also quote each other). One of the things I have started doing differently is taking notes as I read - it does slow down my reading plan, but it also allows me to ponder over these items and hopefully start to incorporate them into my life.
While a full write up like I am doing for Essentialism may not be in the cards, summarizations might be because they seem to have a lot of applicable points, especially to this season of my life.
Well, where did that year go TB? As far as your posting about First World Problems, a good part of the world has trouble finding food on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, I have no idea where the year went - especially if I look for evidence of its having passed; there seems to be very little.
DeleteIt has been a long time - maybe the first time outside of Costa Rica in 2021 - that I have seen what true poverty looks like. It is sobering, especially coming from a land where all we argue about are "modern problems".
I haven't been overseas this year, but have never felt the urge to talk American politics when out and about. I'm usually on vacation so it seems counter productive to relaxing. Mostly, I like to inquire about the politics of the country I am in and do a lot of listening. Nearly always, I have left that conversation/listening session with the sense that perhaps our domestic politics are not as bad as people want us to believe. Every country has their own political problems.
ReplyDeleteI have thinned out my social media "friends" considerably, especially those who never post anything personal and just post political memes. Friends don't regularly insult my intelligence in person so why should I allow it to happen online? I couldn't come up with a good answer to that and so I took appropriate action. I even did a lighter pruning to my blog list. Many seem tone deaf to the mood in the room. The results have been great. I find after finishing my morning online reading, my mood is much better than it was.
Ed - You would be surprised how many people will drag their domestic politics along with them on vacation and start to discuss them at the drop of a hat. I remain grateful to all of our guides who both clearly ask people not to and have been more than willing to discuss politics in their own country. Understanding the politics of Greece, Turkey, and now Cambodia and Vietnam was quite enlightening.
DeleteI have almost completely thinned out my daily update of people in The Book of Face and to be honest with you, it now has me questioning why I am there at all (other than to post vacation pictures, which people seem grateful for). It is 95% either advertisements or benign sorts of things that neither improve nor ruin my life. My blog list, thankfully, keeps things well within my tolerances - but like you, that is because I have curated it appropriately. Also, these are the people that I really read when they have a new post.