by David on March 11, 2010
A political victory, a rise in rents, the recovery of your sick, or return of your absent friend, or some other quite external event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, from “Self-Reliance”
It seems to me that circumstances, when they are agreeable, make it feel like we’re on the right path. Everything looks good and there seems to be no reason to make adjustments. Needs are hard to notice while they’re being met.
When circumstances go awry, we look for what we’re missing.
Maybe agreeable circumstances can be found, much of the time, along the wrong path too.
So maybe agreeability and ease are not such good signposts for finding the right path.
The path we’re on, then, isn’t what we do, or where we are. It’s why we do what we do, and how we got where we are.
Our principles define the path that’s right for us. We don’t choose them, we uncover them.
If we aren’t living up to our principles we are wandering off the path, even if circumstances still feel quite agreeable, for the moment.
When circumstances become disagreeable, clear principles will illuminate the right path. If better days happen to arrive on their own accord, they may only make you forget to look for it.
What do you think?
Photo by David Cain
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by David on March 8, 2010
This is part 2 of a two-part post. The first half is here.
Let’s continue, shall we? Things may get a bit rowdier here in the second half. But as before, there’s something for everyone.
“Need You Tonight” – INXS
Looking back to the decade that produced me, there was a point when all the ridiculous fluff of the mid-80s gave way to some really timeless, inspired tunes. I figure it was about the time Kick came out. Still one of the grooviest guitar riffs I know, this song was ultra-cool on arrival and still is. It makes non-dancers want to dance.
If you like it: The rest of Kick is worth a listen. Consult an INXS die-hard for further instruction.
“Jolene” – Dolly Parton
A heartbreaking song about a girl watching her man drift away to a woman she can’t compete with. There is something so refreshing and honest about a song that looks unflinchingly at personal powerlessness, without dolling it up by babbling about hope. We’ve all been devastated by a Jolene of some kind, in one way or another. Utter defeat is human too, and Dolly saw something meaningful in it.
If you like it: The White Stripes do a fantastic cover of this song, mercifully ignoring the obnoxious custom of changing the gender when a male sings it. Check it out. [click to continue…]
by David on March 4, 2010
One of my earliest (and to date most successful) posts was Six Songs that Illustrate What it Means to Be Human. Many readers said they hadn’t heard some of these tunes before, and really liked them. I’ve since received a number of requests to post a list of my favorite songs.
So here it is. But first a few quick things:
- Choosing my forty outright favorite songs is not really possible. I can’t recall every song I love at any given time, so I can never be sure I’m not omitting something. Therefore this is a list of forty of my favorite songs.
- Some songs are very well known. Most aren’t, but I didn’t take the indie-snob route and give you forty small-time artists you’ve never heard of and won’t “get” because you aren’t cool enough. I happily included songs and artists that are decidedly uncool. (You’ll see.)
- You’ll find this list to be a bit 90s-heavy, which just reflects my age and tastes. But there’s something for everyone.
Each song links to a place where you can listen to it. Most point to Youtube, and some are on Mp3Raid.com. On the latter site you just have to enter the code they show, no need for signing up or anything. Let me know if any links are broken.
This is part one of a two-part post. Part two will be posted on Monday.
Enjoy.
“Grandma’s Hands” – Bill Withers
An unbelievably catchy tune. Members of my generation might think they’re listening to Blackstreet for the first few bars. It will get stuck in your head, beware! You’ll be snapping, clapping, head-bobbing or shoulder-dipping to Billy’s vivid memories of his sweet old grandma.
If you like it: go find Bill Withers’ version of Use Me, probably better known as an Aaron Neville song. I think Bill did it best.
“The Seeker” – The Who
The taking-life-back anthem of Lester Burnham, the pot-smoking, career-ditching mid-life revolutionary from American Beauty. It’s a straight-laced rock tune, with a comedic take on the biggest of all human themes. It characterizes the search for life’s meaning as a mocking, hopeless conundrum, through the eyes of a regular joe who sees no reason why it shouldn’t make perfect sense. And with a guitar riff like that, it’s hard to see it any other way.
If you like it: I’m no Who expert, but you could do worse than giving My Generation (the album) a good listen. [click to continue…]
by David on March 1, 2010
Recently I remarked on Facebook how I’ve been using a lot of exclamation marks recently! I’m not sure why, I used to hate them, but in emails and tweets and other short correspondence they do add a touch of enthusiasm that would otherwise be missing!
But as you can see, they are also heavy-handed and become obnoxious quickly! After only three sentences, I’m sure some people have already decided not to continue reading today’s post! Their loss! Regular readers will suspect I’m getting to a point here, but how long can they tolerate the extremely inappropriate — yet very tiny — extra vertical line I am appending to these otherwise peaceful sentences?!
With such casual, terrible ease I’ve made today’s post rude and strangely upsetting! [click to continue…]
by David on February 25, 2010
I’ve made a terrible miscalculation. Have you ever been so sure you knew someone inside and out, and then you discover something about them that completely contradicts everything you thought you knew? Denial can make you blind to it, especially if you’ve really been counting on that particular person to fill a certain role in your life. Well, that happened to me last week.
The great majority of you only know me through what I write, but that’s probably given you a pretty revealing view of my outlook on life. By now you know what I think about humanity and the potential of individuals. I get gushing emails and comments from all sorts of people thanking me for showing them a positive perspective or helping them out of a bad mood.
Raptitude has always been about empowerment and happiness. My interest is finding more skillful ways to cultivate joy and appreciate life. I write about gratitude and wisdom and all things positive. But you knew that.
If you haven’t guessed yet, the person I was mistaken about was me. Recently I learned something about myself that I never suspected, and it was a bit of a shock. [click to continue…]
by David on February 22, 2010
A private room at a mansion-turned-hostel in Nelson
Since I left home four months ago I’ve slept on 49 different beds, couches and other horizontal surfaces. I never quite know what the conditions will be like next, and sometimes I have to contend with an unexpected absence of privacy, internet access, or some other ingredient that is crucial to timely blogging. I think I’ve mentioned this once or twice. Attitudes and moods, too, are constantly in flux, with the plot and cast of my little adventure here changing all the time.
I’m typing this post quietly on while sitting on bed #49 (a creaky bunk in a small hostel room.) A Japanese teenager is sleeping on the other bunk, and my internet connection keeps going in and out.
So that’s my way of saying that today’s post will just be a post (as in “to keep you posted”), not the article I was planning. Thursday’s article, which was to be today’s, is important to me and I wanted to give it due attention.
But I do have a few things worth mentioning in the mean time:
Experiment No. 5 is going about as well as expected. My effort to stop griping is slowly working, but I’m discovering a lot about myself, as well as the nature of negativity itself. This one is going to be interesting. My progress is being recorded in the progress log.
Thursday’s article will contain a shocking revelation (!) about myself. Or maybe it’s not so shocking. Be sure to tune in.
The deadline is extended for the The Book of Awesome contest! To recap, I’m going to be interviewing Neil Pasricha, the man behind 1000 Awesome Things, for his book release this April 15. All you have to do is send me an interesting, thoughtful, or otherwise awesome interview question, via the Contact page. If I pick your question Neil will send you an autographed copy of the book, made out to anyone you like. You don’t have to do anything else!
I’m loving the entries so far, but I would like a few more so I can stitch together a consistent tone throughout this Frankenstein of an interview. So the new deadline is March 8, that’s two more weeks. Full details are here.
Raptitude’s first birthday is coming up. March 15th was a bad day for Julius Caesar, but I’ll always remember that date as the day I launched this blog. Hard to believe it’s only been a year. Thanks so much for reading! And your emails and comments! I always love hearing from you.
Photo by David Cain
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by David on February 15, 2010
New Zealand is a black sheep among nations. Having spent the last 60 million years isolated from the rest of the continents — longer than any other major land mass — life has had a long time to do its own thing here. The vast majority of native trees and animals are found nowhere else. They’ve all learned their own tricks for contending with their unique surroundings. In particular, many birds, including the iconic Kiwi, found no reason to bother flying because there was nothing on the ground that would eat them.
An important lesson from a clever plant
One of the more unusual New Zealand plants is the Lancewood. Most of the specimens you’ll encounter look something like a tall broomstick decorated with menacing, saw-like leaves. They are rigid and serrated, and angled downwards towards you or any other potential assailant.
A young Lancewood
The Lancewood has a very bizarre feature: It completely transforms itself after reaching a certain level of maturity. Its long, toothed leaves give way to more lush, more conventional broad leaves. It actually begins to look like other trees. The plant’s two forms are so unlike each other biologists once thought they were two totally different trees.
A mature Lancewood
Biologists couldn’t understand why a plant would evolve to do that. When an organism develops a distinct quirk like that, there tends to be an evolutionary reason for it. In other words, it must help the life form out somehow.
Some scientists guessed that the serrated, downward-pointing leaves served as a defence against large, ground-dwelling plant-eaters while it was still small enough to be vulnerable. But there was a problem with this theory: New Zealand doesn’t have any large, ground-dwelling plant-eaters. The island nation doesn’t have any native land mammals at all, only chicken-sized flightless birds that couldn’t pose a threat to a plant that size.
The Lancewood’s odd behavior remained a mystery for some time. [click to continue…]
by David on February 11, 2010
Once upon a time…
At 3:45pm Friday afternoon, the corner of Fermor and St Mary’s was a busy place. The intersection is dominated by Glenlawn Collegiate, a brown brick complex that happens to be my alma mater. It’s one of the division’s two high schools, virtually unchanged in the eleven years since I graduated except for the addition of red LEDs on the sign outside.
I happened to be passing by right at that time for no particular reason.
The teenagers in the giddy mob at the bus stop looked a lot younger than I remember being in high school. At the time I figured seventeen was about a year away from being a proper adult, but these kids were definitely children. Loud and aimless. Maybe we were too.
The number fourteen and the number fifty-five rolled in one behind the other, brakes whining, and most of the mob funneled in. When the light changed, both buses pulled away, and that’s when I spotted him.
His identity didn’t register for a moment, but his hurried, self-conscious gait appeared so shockingly familiar to me that I froze. He was wearing grey, baggy cargo pants with ragged bottoms and a drab green t-shirt that was too big for him. His hair was a half-messed mop of gel-hardened spikes.
He was walking towards me, looking over at the departing buses, and we almost collided. When he caught my bewildered stare, I realized who he was.
It was me. At eighteen.
He was stunned too, but clearly knew who I was. Suddenly I felt a lot older than my twenty-nine years. Knowing him, I knew I would have to take the initiative here. I recovered, and smiled. He didn’t.
“You missed the fourteen.”
“Yeah I know.”
“We’ve got twenty minutes or so till the next one. We should talk,” I said, hopeful.
“Sure.”
***
Imagine if you had a golden opportunity to talk to your eighteen year-old self. [click to continue…]
by David on February 8, 2010
If you haven’t yet stumbled across a remarkable blog called 1000 Awesome Things, you may want to check your internet connection. Each weekday since June 2008, blogger Neil Pasricha has been celebrating one undeniably awesome thing everyone knows. Not awesome like the Hindenburg explosion awesome, but awesome like the first shower you take after not showering for a really long time awesome. Or the moment at the concert when the crowd figures out what song they’re playing awesome.
Neil has an incredible knack for identifying the tiny unsung miracles that make our lives glimmer, so it’s no surprise he’s struck a chord with a lot of people. 1000 Awesome Things has featured on such media heavyweights as CNN, CBC Radio, the BBC, Wired Magazine, and a humbling list of others.
Back in May, I wrote a post about three notable blogs, one of which was Neil’s. He paid a visit to Raptitude, apparently liked what he saw and dropped me a line, and we’ve been back-and-forthing ever since.
This April, Neil and his awesome things will emerge in book form as THE BOOK OF AWESOME, and he’s giving a few lucky Raptitude readers a chance to win their very own autographed copy. And not a Lotto 649 kind of chance, a seriously decent chance.
Here’s how it works:
To commemorate the April 15 release of THE BOOK OF AWESOME, I will be conducting a short interview with Neil.
I have often remarked that Raptitude’s readership is one of the most thoughtful and interesting groups of people in these parts of the internet, and Neil agrees. So we’ve decided to let YOU interview Neil.
I am seeking a few (3-5) interesting, intriguing or otherwise AWESOME questions to ask Neil during the interview. Send your question to me (one question only please) and I’ll pick my interview questions from the entries I receive. I’m looking for questions that will make for an awesome interview, so be creative. [click to continue…]
by David on February 4, 2010
Time for another experiment. This one I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. The idea behind it has made the rounds for a few years now and I’m not the first to do it, but I think the concept is fascinating and brimming with potential.
One day Will Bowen, a mild-mannered Missouri Reverend, challenged his congregation to develop their habit of gratitude by going 21 consecutive days without complaining or criticizing.
His method was quite simple and ingenious: [click to continue…]
