“to strive, to seek, to find”

as stated in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Ulysses. A semi daily mantra for myself.
“Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of their relatedness. All things are implicated in one another and in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together and are one.”
Marcus Aurelius
As I go about doing my Daily Creative Work….
I also need to remind myself…..
“How beautiful it is to get up and go out and do something. We are on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.”
Kurt Vonnegut

I also keep coming back to Bruce Lee’s writing and his concept of “Be Water”. I think it is a mental antidote for these days. I have been calling them the Abbey Normal Hazy Days. For me it covers the time from 2020 through to the present moment. It is also a way to use my “sense of humor” to deal with the world around me. Because many of the people I have to deal with have practically lost their ability to laugh.


Now, I find myself at Unexpected Crossroad. It may have been part my fault. I didn’t read the signs and benchmarks that were happening around me. I am not going to spell it out here either. As Henry Rollins said “It will destroy you if you try to make it mean anything to anyone but yourself.” And what James Altucher repeatedly reminds people. “Explaining is draining”.
This all leads into another concept source I have been contemplating along with “Be Water”
And that is “Oxygen”…

I never thought about this. And I forgot where I heard this idea from.
You have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first. Before you can help others.
Every day, as I try to do my Daily Creative Work. I ask myself.”Is this giving me the ‘Oxygen’ I need?”
It is my Internal Question. And I ask it to No One but Myself. Because the Abbey Normal Days made too many people into hypercriticals that seem to want to test apart the efforts of others. Plus it is more about them than me. So why fuel an argument with them? Also I never realized that there were so many people who seem to make an effort to rip off the “Oxygen Masks” of other people.
Why?
To What End?
As I was making the notes I came back to this clip from the late comedian Patrice O’Neal about trying to being “Righteous”.
And secretly admit that there are times when no one is looking that I sound like “Vic” too.

Thanks a lot Abbey.

Music:
The Reds, The Pinks, The Purples – “Too Late For an Early Grave”