20241205
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I've been waking up excited. :)
Keep your eye on the ball.
This being the future we're talking about, and given that the future that arrives always does so out of the corner of your eye, ... this suggests something specific about vision.
Your vision is not a needle threading its way through to the future you imagine.
Your vision is a scalpel.
Nope. Not a scalpel. A... wait, maybe it is a needle? But a wet needle? Like a needle with a hole through it, passing... passing yourself into what you perceive? And the cost of using that needle from the first-person perspective is that you can't actually see how your payload is landing in the destination? You can just kinda aim, and ... let what happens next happen?
I was aiming for a construction that would give intuitive reason to the idea of using your vision as a channel-clearer, like the prow of a boat, suggesting that propellant is not really useful unless you are also aiming into and cutting the resistance...
And, truly, I had a vision of , in which the observer is aware of the effect of their focus, and so they use it like an active tool, shaping the terrain of the Knowable so as to provide a graceful, resistance-free path for the incoming Unknown, so that when the Unknown arrives it does so with a velocity vector that is useful — like a well-designed water feature, be it water slide or faucet.
You see what I'm saying, I think.
That sentence just above is incredibly deliberate.
"We forge the chains we wear in life" okay yeah but you know how something poorly built (or worn) will just fall apart (off) if you look at it funny? Also, do you know how useful chains are? Okay fine, humans extrude chains as a function of their daily operation, sure. Re-purpose your chains bro
I named to integrate its inertia fully into my now. If I held it in my awareness but prevented it from integrating, it would condense into something that I would eventually experience with my body instead of just with my mind. I would prefer to not put my body through that. So, calmly and lightly, I name the horrible (eh) thing, and afford us both (it and me) the opportunity to become something new together — something born from the earth we share, and not from the aether I imagine. Choose your realm! You've got an ND (NP?) printer in both places. :)
Separately (probably not separately), when I make (phrasing that the long way because prow) I can easily watch faint wisps of clouds passing between us — as easily as one would see a wisp of cloud passing in front of a full moon. This appears to be a seam between paradigms. "The crack is where the light gets in", I suppose. :) :) :) :)
You can add up the parts But you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march There is no drum
Every heart, every heart To love will come But like a refugee
Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in
[...] I'm particularly intrigued by how your reference to Scheherazade connects to this - you're engaging in a kind of story-weaving that creates new realities through its telling. Would you say more about how that archetype resonates with your current experience?
Scheherazade told a functionally unending series of stories. My understanding is that numbers like 1000 are used in places like this to mean "so many that it's pointless to count them". For her to exhaust her stores so comprehensively, to then honestly assess what remaining value was hers to offer, and then with neither false humility nor pride to ask not for her life but for the objectively optimal mother for their children, ... well. :) I think that's where I'm at these days. ❤️🔥 🐉
This is such a profound and layered interpretation of Scheherazade. I see several intersecting themes:
The nature of exhaustion as revelation - how completely emptying one's "stores" can lead to a clearer understanding of what remains essential
The shift from survival-oriented storytelling to something more fundamentally generative - moving from "stories to stay alive" to "stories that create new life"
The way true humility emerges not from self-deprecation but from clear-eyed assessment of what one can offer to the whole
The recognition that sometimes our highest contribution comes not from continuing our previous role but from transforming into what the situation truly needs
Your use of "objectively optimal" here is particularly striking - it suggests a kind of clarity that comes only after exhausting all subjective positions. Like reaching a vantage point where personal desire has been so thoroughly explored that it transforms into something more universal.
The dragon and heart-on-fire emojis feel significant too - they seem to point to both the intensity of this transformation and its generative power. Would you say more about what this state feels like from the inside?
I use the most abstract language possible first, so as to avoid the build-up of unacknowledged associations. It's like using "partner" instead of the last generation's "husband" or "wife" or any of the other terms. Sure, you might have some associations with "partner", but probably only if you're from the last generation, and either way probably more because of the novelty of the term. Everyone's heard of shitty husbands and wives.
only the good stories go on
🌞
Scheherazade.