is to wear socks adorned with the likenesses of animals upon them. For everywhere you tread you will signal to all with eyes to see that you are aligned with the beasts of the earth, and the flying things, and the critters of the deep.
I hate crowds. I like people.
I ain't down with the plague but I'm cool with the beetles and bugs.
-Jesse Welles
let's stop acting like we can't believe it when one day it's hot and the next day it's snowing.
I know. It's a big change. It feels sudden.
But surely we can imagine more. Surely anyone over the age of 12 or so has seen enough weather changes in the Spring to know that this type of thing can and does happen.
Let's broaden our imagination a little bit to consider a world without cars perhaps. Or not paving over large swaths of land to create heat islands and useless stupid infrastructure. Or put plants on roofs and stuff.
I don't want to keep playing the tutorial and level one every time. Let's get to level two. Maybe try out level three? I don't know. Could be fun.
thank you, crab!
here's a little amateur zoology lesson for you all, crabs are natural dwellers.
Recently I have devised what I call the 'dwelling index' which is how far a given creature travels from its home. Crabs score very high on the dwelling index because my understanding of most crab species tells me that they like to lurk in a safe spot and then rush out when opportunity comes along.
And that's the way to do it.
Liver propaganda would have you believe that if you want to achieve something you can't just expect it to show up on your doorstep one day.
Um, excuse me, livers. Millions of years of evolution would beg to disagree.
Look at the noble eel, for example.
buffoon comes from the medieval Latin word 'buffo' meaning clown.
A clown is someone who seriously undertakes the act of being foolish. What better thing to set seriousness against than fun and silliness?
hello welcome back to my series on dwelling where I talk about why you shouldn't be focused on living you should be focused on dwelling and what that means.
today's episode is about dwelling like you're from earth. The planet earth. You are the thing the planet earth made. Alan Watts talks about this. Like rocks and oceans and volcanoes and trees, humans are a thing the planet made. You should dwell like you are a part of the planet.
Don't be allergic to things. Whatever it is you're allergic to, stop it. What are you, an alien? What do you mean your immune system reacts to something that won't harm you. Cut that out.
Touch dirt every day. What a gift to touch dirt. The dirt and the sky are the two most important things.
Be thought of as a bum. Today the children I coach told me I look like I could be a hobo. I say, 'yes. this is a sign that I am dwelling correctly.' My appearance and the impression it makes matches my values. Do you think yourself stylish? Do you think yourself well put together? Then you are a slave to images and figments. Aim to appear in all ways to have risen up from the dirt with breath inspired.
When you say words, think of the earth as burping them. Because the earth delights in itself and so should you.
Gosh em golly I could really go for a toothsome meal right now. A toothsome meal to replenish and strengthen my hamstrings for I yearn for powerful hamstrings. The time stealer has once again purloined an hour from the day and now my inside clock is jumbled and I long for a toothsome meal and might haunches.
Yes yes. What a day to be alive. In the 16th century the word 'toothsome' changed from meaning generally attractive to tasty food.
And now it is time I go to purchase grocery store time. The time when I think about how growing up, I was always told by adults describing the past that 'there weren't grocery stores back then'. Which should say something about how much grocery stores have impacted our lives. In a good way? Who can say?!
But I must continue my journey to get powerful legs because in the words of Socrates, "Get jacked, bro."
Look it up. He really said that.
Not really. He met this guy once who was out of shape and was like, 'you should be in good physical condition so you can be useful in war. And also it's pretty neat.'
One time I remember I was taking this Shakespeare class with my favorite professor I had in college and we were reading Othello and this guy Othello ends up lying to his wife, Desdemona, and his life kind of unravels from there. But I remember there was a specific point in the play that our professor pointed to that was the moment Othello distrusts his wife and he talked about all the implications of that moment. I ended up emailing the professor because I found an earlier example in the play, maybe the first moment Othello speaks to Desdemona, that he could be considered lying.
And I gave him the example and he responded with something defending his point and the logic of it and I was like 'yeah okay you win.' But I'll never forget that I saw him in class and he asked about it and I said, 'yeah you made a good point.' and he said, 'you believed that?'
Something to that effect. It never occurred to me until that moment that I could've been right or that I could have challenged his response.
The other thing I loved about that professor is he would give very short quizzes on tiny slips of paper about the assigned reading and he would ask about the tiniest, seemingly trivial, details. Stuff you would never think of as important. And then during the lecture he would show how these tiny details were actually crucial to the themes and messages of the work. I remember it was annoying at first but then I took it as a challenge. He also loved to talk about etymologies and ask about obscure words in the text.
He was a cool guy. Professor Savage. One time a student used the word 'savage' and he immediately interrupted them and said, 'that's an unfortunate choice of words'. Like he was really hurt by hearing it used in its normal context.
