I'm staring this morning at my revolver of goal categories from May. Six chambers of my program of intentional living... but structured as habits.
The Six Chambers are:
Stay Healthy
Stay Connected
Stay Curious
Tend to Your Home
Practice your Music
Work (which doesn't have a habit-like name but could possibly be expressed as "Negotiate the Innovation/Order Dichotomy at Work")
I'm supposed to revisit these every 90 days but May was 6 months ago now. Where did the days go?
It feels less pressing to revisit your habits every 90 days during a self-imposed state of quasi-quarantine but I guess 180 days isn't too often. So I will begin soon.
For certain, a look at the last 180 days is a mixed bag. While I have excised Facebook from my life, I spend a fair amount of time distilling the national mood on Twitter. Twitter is an ugly place, but you expect it to be and therefore, it's a lot like getting a drink at the cantina of Mos Eisley (think: the bar scene in the first Star Wars movie).
Of course, I came across an article on Quillette which is unusual in that it is by the Editorial staff:
I highly recommend that you read that, because if you end up seeing what I see, you will see that a large number of your family and your friends are overtaken by the fundamental premise of the article. Some of my dear friends are clearly captured by "crude populism on the Right, and anti-liberal doctrines of race and gender on the Left". Many of my friends "highlight the irrational aspects of the other’s belief systems, while lacking self-awareness in regard to their own drift into radicalism."
I certainly do it. I drift from time to time into the pull of the partisan vortex. But I still do my best to maintain my independence from partisanship and the process of coming out of the vortex often starts with a position that comes across as "I'm not racist... I despise people equally".
But ultimately the goal is to end up reclaiming the archtype of the village elder: the person who is wise... the person who knows how to listen... the person who advises with a light touch and admonishes in a way that cuts through resistance.
Reclaiming that archtype is certainly something that needs to have prominent placement on my revolver.
Quillette's article is a perfect distillation of the national mood without the need for a trip to our many digital proxies for the cantina at Mos Eisley and I appreciate it as a reminder.
Ultimately, the question is "How would I spend my time differently?" That's what I seek to explore as I come up with my new revolver.
Fewer trips to Mos Eisley unless it's a paying stage gig.
With any luck, I'll be inspired by what I come up with. Maybe I'll even post it to my website this time.