It might have been the right thing to do.
Category: Choices
Micro-Memoir
I went to a micro-memoir workshop this last weekend at the Southern California Writers Conference. What is a micro or flash-memoir? Short lives? No, Judy Reeves, author and memoirist actually says that mini-memoirs can be anything from sentences to short paragraphs, and combined into works of various sizes from small books to larger works, usually with a theme.
So, I didn’t even know it was a genre. It is! There are tons of people who write and publish micro memoirs. Beth Ann Fennelly, for instance, published Heating & Cooling–52 Micro-Memoirs (Norton & Co. 2017). There are dozens of others. Who knew?
How do you choose a theme for your life? Ah, well, that is part of the discovery, which is the fun of writing. In the pre-dawn hours of your memoir or micro-memoir planning, you use this quiet time to discover your theme. I’m still in the dark, as it were, but the first few rays of sunlight are breaking through, and the threads of my life are beginning to weave themselves into a fabric that I may be able to put on. I may wear them for a while, or I may toss them. The process is the thing.
And the discovery.
Enjoy finding yourself, and then share if you dare, or keep it to yourself for a journey you’ll not regret.
Age
“Age doesn’t matter.”
Les Snead, General Manager of the Rams talking about then 30-year-old Ram’s Head Coach Sean McVay
Let me start by saying I am not a football junkie. In fact, I largely limit my viewing to the Super Bowl.
But as we find out, the Head Coach for one of this year’s Super Bowl teams, the Rams, was 30 years old when he was hired. He is now a whopping 33. So let me say this about that.
Age is a number.
A state of mind.
I could be seven.
I could be ninety-nine.
When I wake up.
I can choose. It’s free!
I can be an age.
Or.
I can be me.
© 2019, Kathryn Atkins
Be you. I’m already taken.
Moderation
“Nobody does moderation well.”
–Greg McKeown (@GregoryMcKeown) author of “Essentialism, the Disciplined Pursuit of Less”
- When moderation doesn’t work.
Author, speaker Greg McKeown revealed during a Tim Ferriss Show that he gave up sugar for a year. It was reportedly easier than cutting back, a.k.a. moderation.
The folks at Alcoholics Anonymous know moderation doesn’t work. An alcoholic cannot ‘pick up.’ Not even once, or they’re back to day one. A newcomer. AA has been around since 1935 and it has worked for a lot of people.
2. Moderation takes discipline.
Seems crazy in a way, but sometimes it’s easier to never start than it is to start and stop. One bite of that cherry pie leads to two. Then, “Ah heck. I’ll just finish the whole piece and start on my diet tomorrow.”
3. Moderation leads to decision fatigue.
We have a big toe in the water, but we haven’t moved to the immersion stage. We’re on the fence. It’s a kind of decision fatigue that author Gretchen Rubin discusses in her book “Better Than Before.” We can’t move forward or backward because we have not made up our minds. I’m tired just thinking about it.
4. Moderation undermines good habits.
Abstinence sounds monkish, but if it invokes a good habit, it’s freeing. Habit-supported abstinence eliminates temptation and saves the right kind of energy for more creative endeavors.
Lastly, we cannot forget this quote:
5. “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” ~ Oscar Wilde
Excuses
Don’t make excuses.
Boarding Pass
Hand it over. Step across the little gap, and climb aboard the future. You’re on your way.
Possibility
I stand at the edge of possibility. It takes my breath away.
Every single moment of every single day, we can choose to be the person we were meant to be. I think it’s simple. Mostly, we have to get out of our own way.
I’m reading The Art of Possibility for the third time. I am convinced that we must commit to being open to the universe, as the authors Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander state. We have to be prepared to receive; able to live in the present; willing to slide through our mistakes on our way to a hope (but not a guarantee) of perfection because we are one of the lucky ones that get to do our life’s work.
I love the idea of a happiness that we can obtain by the way we approach our days. Here’s a great suggestion from the book. Rule No. 6 says,
“Don’t take yourself so seriously.”
What a great concept. Yes, but how do I slow down enough to inhale possibility on the days when I am just not feeling it? I can always start by counting my blessings. I have lots.
Then I will close my eyes and imagine myself on the boat pictured below. It’s always there: Possibility.
Kindness
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~ Plato
Kindness. What is it? Is it a thing? No. It’s an attitude. Or an aptitude. Kindness is something we have or we don’t. But if we don’t have it naturally, it’s hopefully something we can learn.
It can be one of those things you learn at home. Your mom and dad might have been kind. Or not. We have some much baggage from our families, don’t we? I know I do. We take the good things and mistrust them. We take the bad things and dwell on them. It’s almost impossible to see how people grow up to be kind, even if they don’t have it modeled for them as children. But they do. Somehow, there are many people who understand Plato’s sentiment. We are all fighting this battle called life. We need to treat each other with the kindness of a soft bunny.
Wouldn’t that be a lovely world to inhabit? I wonder how that would be. I am hoping to find out by starting to be kinder to myself. Selfish? I don’t think so. I think I would treat people more kindly if I had a softer spot for my spirit to enjoy.
Kindness is easier if we’re grateful. For more on being grateful, check out my blog on enough.
Thank you. Kindly.
Enough
I Wish You Enough
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.
*
I think we need to talk about “enough” today. I feel like our society does not ever have enough. We don’t have enough money. Time. Love. Youth. “Soul.” Well, that’s simply not true, is it? We have all we need. We can choose to have enough of all of those. We may not know it when our bills don’t get paid. Or we are out of time to do the things we want. We may feel unloved today. Or we may feel old. We may not have “soul” as we approach the written page or the musical paper or the dance floor. “I got nuthin’.” Or “I don’t have enough of what it takes,” we say to ourselves.
That may be true today. But tomorrow, we may have that glimmer. That spark. That patience. Or we may have a way to save or make money. Find time to do what we want. Or we stop to feel a little extra sliver of appreciation for the few things we have. Even an old beat up pair of shoes is actually pretty sweet if we stop to be grateful, and not compare ourselves to someone down the block or around the corner. We may choose to be glad to have any shoes at all. Or feet.
That’s it. We can do so much if we stop, take stock, and appreciate who we are and how lucky we are. Our attitude determines our life view. And of course, everything is relative. We didn’t know we had enough until we wake up one morning and we’re out of whatever “that” was. Food. Money. Time. Because if you don’t wake up, for instance, you are definitely out of time. But for today . . .
. . . you have enough.
The poem above is published in my collection, Giving My Self to the Wind.
ROBOTS and AI
ROBOTS & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Elon Musk thinks people everywhere should be frightened of AI.
Bill Gates told Charlie Rose that AI was potentially more dangerous than a nuclear catastrophe.
Even the recently deceased Stephen Hawking said, “I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
What do you think? Here’s what I don’t like. I don’t like that the first few volleys of conversation in the chat room are AI. Maybe from a robot. I don’t know!
“How can I help you today?”
“I’m sorry you’re having that problem.”
“Let me see if we can find someone to get you an answer.”
“Could you describe the situation in more detail so we can route you to the right person?”
In fact, as I type this, my AI helper here inside my computer is fixing my spelling, anticipating my words, and adding and subtracting commas.
My AI person is cute, but he’s kind of a badass, don’t you think? He’s shooting me a dirty look because he’s not pleased that he’s been discovered. Ungrateful little wretch. And here I’m giving him the limelight, too. It’s so hard to get good help.
I get it. AI buys big companies some time on the phone. And it might save them money.
AI might also make it so you’re not needed anymore.
That’s okay. If you’re lucky you can go flip burgers. Wait. They have AI-assisted robots that are flipping burgers. Well, maybe you can pick fruit. Nope. They have AI-assisted robots that are picking the fruit. Ahem. Make that the ripe fruit, as AI bots can figure that out, too. Wait. Is AI bot redundant? No. And it’s not even new. I just saw a post: “AI bots are getting more dates than you.” It’s simply wonderful that technology has made finding a soul mate easier. The good news: We have lots of choices these days. The bad news: They might not be human.
I do feel that my AI bot in my computer here is great eye candy, but I have to say that I agree with Elon, Bill, and Stephen. We’d better be careful. The sci-fi dystopias where the machines take over, the computers outthink our best thinkers, and the fruits pick themselves may not be science fiction at all. Someone needs to have their finger on the “Hold-On-Just-A-Minute-There-Pardner” button. Let’s hope that person is someone on our side and not a robot in human skin.