Living on the Edge
I've been contemplating the concept of the edge. The leading edge, the bleeding edge, the edge of darkness. And there's always the possibility of going over the edge--being pushed, losing my grip or aligning too closely with the crowd and rushing off terra firma into the abyss. Like the Gadarene swine.
I'm captivated with the idea of using those doomed piggies as an adjective or a morality metaphor, rather than just as a biblical tale. Ever since I started looking into that trough of meaning, I have found so many circumstances where it fits. "No, you may not have an iphone just because all of your friends have one."
I've been editing our Zen book. It touches on the idea that as cultures spin and change faster and faster, our inner equilibrium--our strong grip on what has value and what matters--is upset. That disequilibrium leads to all kinds of negativity and unrest--personally and culturally. Of course the Abbott explains these concepts far more profoundly than I can, but the book will be out this fall, so no worries; no one will have to rely on me to be their Zen master.
The books I am currently working on create a lens through which I see my own life--shades of meaning. Sometimes I see through a barbecue lens, sometimes a motherhood lens, and sometimes Sam Houston's spectacles. So right now, I'm looking at cultural change through a Zen lens--not just the aspects of change that suggest I need to be social media savvy or get all of our books digitized or answer emails 24/7 from one device or another, but also the ones that make it apparent that I need to master some new definitions about how the world works.
There is rich vocabulary associated with this new world order: explorer, pioneer, settler, squatter, claim-jumper, guru, shaman, messiah, Luddite, philistine, early adapter, hold-out...the list goes on, sounding suspiciously similar to the language in every history text I ever read about any revolution, any era of change.
For so long, cultural change was accompanied by the cry, "Go west!." Once we smacked up against that shining sea that crashes so majestically against the California coast, that cry diverged; with some people looking up, and others looking further in. And whether people identified with the NASA types saying "Go to the Moon!", the psychologists saying ""Go to the couch!" or the Lit majors saying "Look Homeward, Angel!" it was pretty much agreed that there were still new frontiers to conquer and to settle.
Now there's a new cry. I'm not sure just what it is: "Go Digital?" "Go 2.0?" I'm trying to make sense of this new world that has evolved around my ink on paper self, doing a little exploring and trying to figure out what my role is in it. I don't have the full answer yet, but I know it's based on helping people bring their stories into the world; I know it's based on words.
I also know that I'm not on the bleeding edge or even the leading edge of this revolution. But I want to be a part of it. I'm ready to move beyond the inland amber waves of grain and the old gray factories further east, towards an energetic coastline, with a great unknown sea in front of it.
Where am I now on my digital journey? Not in the water, not even on the rocky beach with the crashing waves. I'm still up on the cliffs overlooking this sea change. The powerful possibilities look beautiful from up here. Through my various lenses I can watch the brave explorers map the territory ahead. I have so much respect for them, but explorer is not the best role for me. Watching and learning, I'm preparing for the next leg of the adventure. And as soon as I figure out my best course into this unknown, I'll set out.
In the meantime, I'll try not to get so close to the edge that I lose my balance.
Passionate Living
"Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion." Hegel
by Dwight Edwards
Passion normally arises from two separate but united fronts. One is being on the edge. The other is being in the center. Today we will look at being on the edge. What I mean by this is the high adventure of being on the cutting edge of a new endeavor. Or it can be the excitement of infusing an old endeavor with brand new possibilities.
There is something innately exhilarating about going where no man has gone before, of blazing a brand new path, or risking reputation for the sake of a radically new venture. Ask Galileo, Michelangelo, Edison, Einstein, Gates, and a host of lesser lights about the internal ignition of "on the edge" living. Certainly it will be frightening, certainly it will be risky; but it will also be exhilarating. As Mark Twain put it, "To do something, say something, see something, before anybody else - these are things that confer a pleasure compared with which other pleasures are tame and commonplace, other cheap and trivial." How true!
It is on the edge that life upgrades to the point of true exhilaration. And this exhilaration helps fuel the passion to make something extraordinary of our lives. Hegel is exactly right - "Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion." And passion normally blossoms most bountifully along the ridges of innovation.
Flashpoint: Passion is often found at the edges.
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FYI: If you like that magical picture of the California coast, you can get a poster of it at All Posters. I might just do that myself.
