A lesson:
Something is collapsing, and something else is rising anew.
Not the economic system. Not trust in institutions. Not the college education or the morality of society. Not the idea of nation-states.
It’s love - and not love for one another.
Love for oneself.
I’ve witnessed the pain one endures from hating themselves, first-hand and at a distance. Thankfully, I’ve been party to it’s opposite as well.
Maybe I’ve seen it enough to sense a pattern. How does it end?
You love yourself when you value yourself.
And why is that so difficult today, moreso than before?
It used to be your time alone was spent alone. And in that time, you grew to know yourself.
Now solitude is spent in the company of those who have more: more attention, more money, more looks…more talent.
Comparison costs you your self-worth. The natural outgrowth of time with oneself is to make friends with your demons. Maybe you first have to shout em down, but since you’re alone - you’ve got the pipes for it.
But when you invite in the world…that’s just too many voices in the devil’s choir.
Shut it off. Shut it out. Go inside.
I was gonna put “Go inside yourself” but I know alot of you wouldn’t be able to help yourselves.
Smile - you have value.
a thought:
Kissing under a public fountain - classy.
Showering in one - less so.
a picture:
One of my favorite photos from The Network School. My “Man Camp” class and I learned to light a fire with a flint and make fire-starters out of toilet paper rolls and candlewax. Teaching has been the most rewarding path I’ve ever wandered down.
a song:
The Kansas Cartel band played this 100x better than the studio version - the way it builds, hits, climaxes, and then rolls into a double-time INCREDIBLE guitar solo by Nick Schlyer.
I thought of this song because it was the only master track I could find yesterday when uploading my first track to fountain.fm, an app built on nostr.
I’m so excited about the reality of playing music to new crowds - primarily bitcoiners, the kindest, coolest group of folks I’ve ever known.
Artists - move to nostr. Do it now. If you don’t know what it is, find out. Do the work, ask the questions. Ask me.
If you are on nostr, here’s the link.
ps…
As I clicked out of here to get the link for that video, I saw that I’ve just received my first value-for-value exchange for music, delivered straight to my lightning wallet. It’s only been up 48 hours and has less than twenty listens - but someone liked it.
This is what is incredible about nostr.
A hundred thousand people could have listened to that on spotify or amazon - all every one of them could have loved it - and I wouldn’t have gotten that much in exchange for my work.
This is truly incredible.