I am re-reading Atlas Shrugged.
When the first two times I read it, I knew it was very important. but an essential aspect was missing for me. an aspect I just got a week or so ago.
This aspect, the difference between ambition and desire. that goes, hand in hand, with the word pairs, producer vs second hander, vertical plane existence vs horizontal plane.
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I wrote this article in 2017. It has some truth, but not all that much… I am fat again, and the weight, this time, doesn’t want to move. I don’t walk… so take it with a grain of salt… Please.
I went grocery shopping today on my own. I was carrying some 20 lbs of groceries up the steps to get home.
This was the first time in maybe 6-7 years. I don’t drive. So I walked and took the bus and walked some more.
Why am I doing this?
Life tends to make us soft, complacent, comfortable, and comfortable people don’t grow, don’t evolve. In fact they devolve, they shrink.
So when I first had this brought to my attention, in one of the steps of the 67 steps, I set out to make life and myself comfortable with nob being comfortable… and I started to devise new and newer ways to toughen up.
I keep the house at a steady 47 degrees. I walk. I now walk to get my grocery. I walked this week to get a haircut. I refrain from palliative remedies.
It is a great idea to read Freud’s ‘Civilization and its discontents’ to see what you, humans do to deal with the fact that life is hard.
He says: Life, as we find it, is too hard for us; it brings us too many pains, disappointments and impossible tasks. In order to bear it we cannot dispense with palliative measures
Life is hard, but you can start dealing with life instead of running from the hardness, instead: dealing with the hardness. Dealing with life.
The benefits are immeasurable, whereas the palliative measures benefits are tiny.
One benefit is developing, opening up new spiritual capacities. The ones that will, eventually, lift you to the next evolutionary stage: human being.
When you start directing and controlling your epigenetic shifts where you actually cause your genetics change, its exhilarating. And change you to in ways you have always hoped you would change.
I ran into Leo, my musician friend. I explained to him that carrying those 20 lbs of groceries illustrated to me what it was like to climb the steps a year ago, when I was about 20 lbs heavier. In 18 months I shed 40 lbs.
He said: Losing 40 pounds is hard work.
I said ‘no it isn’t…’ He wanted to know how, and I told him that is what I get paid the big bucks for. He laughed, but it got me thinking.
There is a secret that is worth a lot of money:
As long as you eat food that isn’t compatible with your body and wants more of itself… and as long as you eat in a way that isn’t working for your body, you are going to suffer from deprivation… And although that is not work, not in the strict sense of the word, losing weight while you are dealing with a sense of deprivation, hunger, cravings is hard.
The two components of a successful and easy eating regimen, 1. what you eat, and 2. how you eat are equally important.
I haven’t written about the eating styles lately, even though, I see that eating according to your eating style is about 50% of success.
I am still not 100% adhering to mine, by
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I have found, that the biggest ‘deterrent’ for me from getting something new done is a version of visual/mental overwhelm: when my wires get crossed.
Any occurrence of not understanding something begins the process.
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As a “writer” I struggle with one thing: It is hard to be funny in writing. For me.
I can be funny in conversation, but writing is different: I imagine the echo. And imaginary echo doesn’t echo, does it? While when I talk to a living breathing human, it is in a particular state of emotions, so I know where I throw my volley… and I know what havoc it wreaks… so it is easy for me. I can shock, I can mortify, I can wake up, I can do a lot of things that make what funny does… make you pay attention by jolting you.
I am in the process of downloading nine seasons of Seinfeld. My teacher says that a lot of his funniness in writing comes from Seinfeld. We shall see. One thing is for sure: Seinfeld, the person, can be funny. Exactly that “jolting you” kind of way.
Muscle test I am funny-ish, 40% on the funny scale. Jerry Seinfeld, on the other hand is 70%. Continue reading Should I be funny? Should I be kind to get you to do what is in your self interest?
