Best Posts of 2015

Productivity to Leave Productivity

Procrastination Chronicles #9:  Dishes, Always Dishes

Procrastination Chronicles #10: Reading Walden (with an new Update)

My Walden Years

How to have a Perfect Day (For Me)

Go Into the Silence

Another Take on Beating Procrastination

Dvorak

An Unspeakable Dream
Get the Dao Where I Can

Obituary for My Father

The Playlist at My Father's Funeral

Eulogy for My Uncle

The activity of filtering through my posts this year to make this list has been deeply meaningful for me.  It's a shame that I end on the notes of these deaths, but they were, after all the biggest developments of this year.

It was also the year of Thoreau, as well as putting down to paper the deeply spiritual value of silence, stillness, and a connection to nature.  I learned to use productivity to leave productivity.

And for good measure I had fun starting and failing at a lot of other little projects (those posts didn't make this cut) , but I did end up learning Dvorak typing.

Cheap over Free Hobby

I have now taken to doing my long-form writing in my sloppy cursive, in paper notebooks.

To me, this is a case of frugality trumping cheapness (in other words, a frugal person will for value, but nothing else, a cheap person tries to never pay).. Backgammon, for example, is free, once the cost of the computer is taken into account (okay, electricity as well).  Notebooks, on the other hand, cost money.

But there is value in a notebook -- in the same way that there is value in a paper book.  They are environments that allow for the words and ideas to be the only focus of the experience.  E-readers and writing on computers allow for too many distractions. Paper has a value not in what is on it, but also in what it keeps out.

So far, it has taken a few weeks to go through a notebook, but I could see in the summer going through one a week, or more.  This hobby would then end up costing $0.30 - $1.00 a week.  I think that is well worth-it to be able to get a handle on my own thoughts, and perhaps make things that could change other's lives.

Why I Write

Purpose 1. To Share What is Important

One of my biggest motivations to write is to make some pieces to help others gain some mastery over life -- even better, mastery over skills that help them be in the service of the situations the world presents.  And I believe those skills should be freely given, as a gift.

I believe all of this is tied to spirituality, or at least wisdom.  Either these terms are in practice the same thing or most people need spirituality to move along the path of wisdom.

I have moved down a path, going from early retirement (Extreme) and Mark Boyle's Moneyless Manifesto, to Daniel Suelo, and then through Suelo, I was introduced to Peace Pilgrim.  Each step along the way, I see more clearly the need for spirit, and how money really is its antithesis.

That wording about "service of the situation" comes from the writings of Peace Pilgrim:

Q: How can I begin to really live life?A: I began to really live life when I began to look at every situation and think about how I could be of service in that situation. I learned that I should not be pushy about helping, but just willing. Often I could give a helping hand - or perhaps a loving smile or a word of cheer. I learned it is through giving that we receive the worthwhile things of life.

I can find no truer words for dealing with the day to day of life.  Peace Pilgrim also shows me why my most important writings, the best gifts I can give, must remain free:

Q: Why don't you accept money? Because I talk about spiritual truth, and spiritual truth should never be sold - those who sell it injure themselves spiritually. . . Those who attempt to buy spiritual truth are trying to get it before they are ready. In this wonderfully well-ordered universe, when they are ready, it will be given.

Maybe I do prefer the term "wisdom."  If you are seen loving wisdom enough, perhaps you can be seen as a philosopher.  

So I'll re-write that passage, changing it for my message: 

Q:Why do you think all wisdom writing should be free?  Because I talk of wisdom and the good life, and these things should never be sold -- those who sell them injure their own wisdom and ability to live the good life. . . Those who attempt to buy the wise, good life are trying to get it before they are ready.  In this wonderfully well-ordered universe, when they are ready, it will be given they will notice it was already around them.

The good life is around us, and is always available for the right price: free.  When you have it, pay it forward.

Purpose 2. To Record My Life

I also write to leave a legacy of who I was.  The process of writing my memoirs starts now, as does a more accurate job of journaling.   My memories will be preserved better for having them written, as I have seen through the example of my wife's discipline of writing a sentence a day in a journal. If I can make one treasure for a family member, then it worth many hours of time (and even a few dollars of money for paper). 

Also, by giving shape to my memories, writing is an activity that will add more life to my years, which is probably more important than our cultural obsession with adding years to life, quality be damned.

3. To Have a Craft

I believe that life is best when we can get into some kind of flow, much like the concept of Zen in the art of _____.   (And I do recommend Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing) 

Writing, especially on paper, is one of the very best activities I have discovered for leaving myself open and responsive to the world.  Other things I have tried to make my main hobby have left me obsessed and withdrawn.  Writing connects me to others.  

And better yet that connect is a my best self, born out of more than one draft.