containers

As Thoughts Occur

All the entries in ‘Getting Directions’ are included in ‘As Thoughts Occur’. This container is the all-encompassing one. As the name suggests, these are all added simply as they occur and I’ve been able to write them down. There is no hierarchy other than creation date.

Colour Asides

As soon as I started looking for directions I was overwhelmed. There was too much that might be relevant, too much that might not be. To try and cope I looked at colours, hoping they would provide some respite from looking for what I’d been or done.

I was hoping they would be neutral – safe. But they came with their own emotions, their own associations. I’ve persisted with looking at colours because they can be interesting – even if what they stir up is negative. Good, bad or inconsequential, at least they can prompt new thoughts.

Now and Recent

All the things I think of as formative that have been brought into sharp relief over the last few years, since my crash. Some are specific events or people, some are more general.

Often, even things that are event-specific or people-specific come with lessons that can resonate far beyond my personal experience, one way or another.

Of Things and People

At the outset, this is the container I’m most uncertain about. I think the defining element is that these are things and/or people that I’ve encountered that are in some way striking. Or, at least, striking to me.

I’m mindful that what’s striking will be a variable, moderated by both time and experience.

If people or events potentially cross-over with those that come up in other containers, then I’ve tried to differentiate by their currency: whether they loom large now, or whether they were always large in my thoughts.

Potential; Hope

While I’m looking back to get directions now, I’m sure my deep-seated focus needs to remain forwards. It’s an attitude that’s always served me well in the past.

There’s nothing wrong with getting ‘old’ (however that’s judged). You can’t avoid it anyway and, while it’s a bit glib, on the whole the downsides are out weighed by the positives.

But in a lot of cultures, including large swathes of ‘The West’, the emphasis is on youth. Being old is seen as negative, problematic – by governments and by society but often by individuals too. That negativity permeates all age groups, and that is sappingly destructive.

I’ve long thought a key factor in finding life worthwhile, however old you are, lies in keeping your focus on future potentials. And if you’re not sure what the future holds, then the onus becomes trying to shape it yourself. Don’t let the weight of your memories exceed the potential of your hopes.

The Universal Human Animal.

Whenever I think about day-to-day life and lives, I’m struck more by what we all have in common than our differences. That reality shouts loudly to me – but I’ve realised it’s a bit strange.

It’s counter-intuitive because our brains have to focus on the unusual. We could not function if we encompassed everything. We would be paralysed, overcome. And so we forget that we have so much in common.

By dint of our very nature we remember unusual events, facts, people and what-have-you. But if you take humanity’s collective experience, in reality there’s a huge amount of commonality.

That’s true because we all have a common foundation. The experiences we all will have are acted out against that shared foundation. If you like, we are all humans together. Hence our experiences are inherently common and are inherently limited.

Love, death, family, tragedy, suffering and more. Whoever you are and where ever you live, whatever you experience you can be sure you’ll have it in common with countless others.

Time Spent

When I’m looking at what’s made me who and how I am now, I have to look at how I spend my time by choice – the things I do out of free will.