Traversing the space between one location and another can be exciting, but it can also be agonizingly boring.
Much of the superficial excitement we get from such a journey is anticipatory rather than experiential: we’re looking forward to what’s coming, but not as keen about what we must go through to get there.
Waiting to arrive at our destination, then, is often difficult, regardless of whether we’re crossing literal, geographic distances or the liminal space between one way of living and another.
The perception of interstitial periods as things to be survived, though, rather than moments to be fully experienced, can be antagonistic to the full realization of the destination we hope to reach, whether that’s an adventure in an unfamiliar place, a change to our societal status quo, or an internal evolution of some kind.
The wait can, and at times should, be participatory.
We’re often best-served by engaging with that ephemeral moment no matter how mind-numbing, frustrating, and infuriating doing so can sometimes be.
The mundanity of waiting belies the intensity of frenzied change happening just beneath the surface and our ability to tap into that potential energy and influence its eventual resting state.
The tedium of intervalistic downtime can make stepping aside, disengaging, and waiting for everything to settle into a new, knowable default can be appealing.
But psychologically and behaviorally checking out can leave us without a firsthand understanding of that transition, which can make such shifts seem unrealistically destined, in retrospect, robbing the variables and individuals who contributed to that new reality of due credit.
Keeping our eyes open and minds active, even when we’d rather not—and even when we’re consciously and correctly stepping back from some aspects of our normal behavior—reminds us of our own capacity to instigate change, even (or perhaps especially) mid-evolution.
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Wellington, New Zealand.
Updates
This week on Brain Lenses I published an essay about the Ostrich Effect, and a podcast episode about the Halo Effect. (Paid supporters also received an essay about Executive Functions and an extra episode about the Spotlight Effect.)
This week’s episode of Let’s Know Things is about some bizarre happenings in the world of stocks and folks who are Playing the Market.
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I’ve rebuild my Curiosity Gadget project, and a rough version is now available if you’d like to check it out. Although the curated sections are limited at the moment, they’ll grow over time, and I’ll be tweaking the overall format in the coming weeks.
My hope is that if you give it a try you’ll discover something interesting you wouldn’t have otherwise known about :)
Community
Stop by the forum if you’re keen to respond to the weekly prompt, or just want to share/chat/lurk: NeverNotCurious.com/forum
This week’s prompt is to share a valuable lesson you’ve learned at some point in your life.
Interesting & Useful
Some neat things:
How We Are Going to the Moon(video)
JazzKeys(such a neat/fun concept)
I’ve been experimenting with a light therapy lamp in the morning before having a cup of coffee, and though I have no idea if it’s at all effective at this point, the off-key instructional wording on the packaging was good for a laugh.
Outro
As you may have guessed from this week’s essay, I’ve been thinking a lot about waiting, and how we respond to various types of forced stasis, of late.
I find it helpful to remind myself that all things are temporary (“this too shall pass”) and that civilizational progress has been relatively steady—at least across long enough time spans.
But it can still be difficult to wait for that progress to be made (societally and personally), and to look around and see all the tumult roused and damage caused, in the meantime; on the way to what I hope will be an improved set of circumstances.
Most of my work is meant to serve as a reminder to me as much as anyone else, and this is definitely one of those topics that I’m hitching my mental wagon to, daily: we’re moving forward even if it doesn’t seem like it, sometimes. And staying engaged as much as possible based on my circumstances allows me to potentially play a role in that progress.
What’s been happening in your world, lately? What’ve you been up to, what’ve you been thinking about, and what’ve you learned that you wish other people knew?
Also: how’re you and yours faring, amidst all this transitionary turbulence?
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Consider writing me an email and telling me something about yourself, what’s been going on, and what you’re looking forward to at the moment.
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You can also reach out via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or subliminal messages in music.
If you’re finding some value in what I’m doing here, consider supporting my work by becoming a patron of my writing, buying a book, or becoming a supporter of Let’s Know Things or Brain Lenses. You can also buy me a coffee.