my life

Home is a Small Place, a Dot on the Globe, Especially the More You Travel.

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Home is a small place, a dot on the globe, especially the more you travel. Let me explain.

I’m in Northern New Mexico for a while. In a remote oasis, 50 acres with streams and ponds and trees, tucked between a number of snowcapped mountains, one being the renowned Cerro Pedernal. It’s rural out here. But there are some gems given the beauty of this kind of rural topography. The great late artist Georgia O’Keeffe, perhaps the most influential female artist of the past century, left her home in New York to retire here. Retire in the sense of allowing the raw and rugged landscape to shape her art, shape her mind, shape her soul. New York City is big, the biggest city in the world some say. Northern New Mexico? A different kind of expanse, and appeal. Arthur Newton Pack — a wealthy American naturalist and writer living during the early 20th century founded the American Nature Association and the periodical Nature Magazine. He understood, and called this area “the best place in the world.”

I’m from Southern California, just south of Los Angeles. Orange County. Born and raised. “Home” has so much to offer, the least not being its beautiful beaches, Los Angeles up the freeway, and Holywood. Until I moved to London, where I lived for a few years. That new home in England was large also, in a different kind of way. Cape Town South Africa has a largeness about it, Tokyo in many ways, too.

I had previously thought there was nothing like Orange County — actually, that it was the best place in the country to live. But the more we travel the more we come to realize that home can be nice and all, but the world is a very big place, and home, wherever it is, is always a dot on a map. And we always tend to think our thing is the best thing.

 

 

I took this shot during yesterday’s drive with my Leica q2. No filters or anything here. I pulled my old Land Rover Discovery II to the side of a very long and very remote two-lane highway. I actually left the car running for some reason. Climbed through a barbed wire fence. And took a dozen or so shots in that kind of silence — the kind where only the wind is heard and you feel really alone and small.

New Mexico in my mind is one of the most underrated states in the country.

Home is a small place, a dot on the globe, especially the more you travel.

I Make New Year’s Resolutions. Plural. You Should Too.

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I never make a new year’s resolution. I make new year’s resolutions. Plural. And don’t usually give up anything. I prefer adding things. Over the years it’s been writing, learning about the Ottoman Empire, photography, Greek cooking, Lebanese cooking, French cooking, learning Arabic, Russian history, yoga and dozens of other new ventures.

In 2016 I had 33 new year’s resolutions. I posted them. At the end of the year, I gave myself a grade for each one.

 

 

The more resolutions you have, the better the chance of achieving one or two or more of them. You improve your odds of getting something done, learning something new.

Sometimes you end up planting a seed in your mind by failing at a resolution. That year, in 2016, Resolution #18 was “Begin video posts even though I don’t have the technology to make them professional.”  Nothing much happened. But seven years later — this year — voila!

This year I’m committing to just one. I guess you could say it’s two, but they are opposite sides of the same coin.

It’s about going deeper as a human. That’s my resolution for 2023 — to stretch myself, broaden my aptitudes, mentally and spiritually. Or, if you will, head and heart.

If things go as planned, I will end 2023 smarter, sharper, more knowledgeable, wiser. AND, kinder, more caring, more aware, more giving to others, spiritually grounded.

Tomorrow I will talk more about my resolution in an Instagram reel, and a longer YouTube video. I’d love for you to join me in going deeper in 2023. And let me know how it goes.

Happy new year!

When Wisdom Grabbed Me

By in Uncategorized, Culture, Philosophy, Politics, Relationships, Spirituality Tags: , ,

 

When Wisdom grabbed me my life changed. Let me explain.

I was a horrible student as a kid. When I say “horrible,” I mean horrible. My third-grade teacher once called my parents and told them, flat out, “Paul is dumb.” I barely graduated high school. My GPA was around 2.0.

I didn’t become interested in learning until my 20s. I enrolled in a psychology class when I was 22. Not to pursue a degree, but to learn more about psychology, of which I knew nothing. After that, it was a western civilization class. Then music history.

When Wisdom grabbed me my life changed.

Later, via C.S. Lewis I was introduced to some philosophers: Plato and Aristotle, mostly, but later Augustine and Descartes. I started reading them. Man, that was tough! I knew I needed help, like a coach. So in my 20s, I audited philosophy courses at UCI Irvine. Eventually, I got serious, and I ended up with a BA in philosophy from UCLA. I then received a second degree in philosophy and MA from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.

 

At shot this on my Leica Q2 last week. Royce Hall, UCLA

C.S. Lewis helped me stay determined with his words, “The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”

All this work was done while I had a flourishing career.

Over the years some have asked why I didn’t get more “practical” degrees. More than a few men have said, “You could have done an MBA.”

Wasn’t interested.

Philosophy doesn’t teach you what to think – facts, data, information – it teaches you how to think. Moreover, education should never be a means to an end — it’s an end in itself.

Too many today view education as a task you must “get through,” so you can go get a better job. Parents teach their children this canard, drilling into their young minds the importance of good grades and test scores and extra cirriculars, so the kids go get into a “top university.”

I get it; we want our children to get decent jobs, which, we’re told, leads to better lives. Makes sense. Fact is though, studies show the “American dream” often doesn’t work. Making more money does not always lead to greater fulfillment.

Being stuck in some field that you ultimately hate, having to live for the weekends and vacation – I question it.

Later in life, countless men (women less) wonder why they gave the best years of their lives, decades, to climbing the corporate ladder, the pursuit of wealth and status, “success” — only to find little meaning and sense of purpose.

Treating education and learning as a means to an end — and this sounds strong I realize — is destroying our nation today. Some talk about how we need a spiritual revival. Perhaps we do. But I’m certain we need a revival of thinking, reasoning, and the pursuit of education for the sake of learning, being well-informed and finding our true passions.

We need to be seeking wisdom. When Wisdom grabbed me my life changed.

If you want to learn more on this topic, watch my new video at the link below.

What is the USA?

By in Donald Trump, Culture, Lifestyle, Philosophy, Politics, Religion Tags: , ,

 

 

Millions celebrate the USA today. And, yes, I should, I suppose, be on the boat, or the wakeboard, or the paddleboard, or the kayak. Like everyone else, here in flawless Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where it’s a dry ninety degrees, the water as transparent as glass.

Millions celebrate the USA today.

I sit here instead. For now at least. On a patio chair, enviously listening to the sounds of boats and laughing, watching everyone frolic in the warm sun.

Have you ever taken a step back, ask what we celebrate on July 4th? I mean, of course, we celebrate the “birth of a nation.” But precisely what is the nation?

What is the USA?

Because when I was a kid, on Independence Day, everyone seemed to be on the same page. Like other national holidays like Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day or New Year’s Day — or even on a birthday or wedding anniversary — never debate about what you were celebrating.

Millions celebrate the USA today. And they ain’t celebrating the same thing.

In fact, tens of millions seem to be celebrating very different countries.

On the political left, a celebration of diversity. Not just celebration, pride in diversity. Giddiness. Glee. Jump up and down and scream hullaballoo.

Whether race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion, socioeconomic status — the more diverse, the better. Food and culture and music and language. The more diverse, the better. Black as much as white. Lesbian and gay and bisexual and transgender and queer, as much as straight. Muslim or atheist or Hindu as much as Christian. Equal rights for all.

To the question, What is the USA? the far left, its core — American means not just diversity, but a celebration of it.

What is the USA to the far right? Most certainly equal Independence Day celebration. Parties and trucks with flags — lots of flags. Lots said about patriotism. Songs and memes about being proud to be American. Most certainly pride in “America.” But not so much pride in diversity.

Perhaps even fear of that diversity.

To those on the far right, I’m afraid America means something very different than it does to those on the far left.

What is the USA? This is not a political question; today, it’s a question with no easy answer.

 

Are you a hack-of-all-trades, too?

By in Uncategorized, Personal, Philosophy Tags: ,

 

Jack-of-all-trades. Hack-of-all-Trades. That me, if you want to know the truth.

Today I will spend time with my Leica. I still barely know how to use it (not enough time learn), how to utilize natural light (not enough time to learn), how to capture the right blend of uniformity amidst variety (not enough time to learn), who to shoot (nobody willing).

For no other reason than nine lives lore, I can find myself wishing to be a cat. Why? How else to pursue the nagging passions?

In trying to cram them into this one, earthly, life, like today I’m  Paul-the-photographer, the result is the quintessential jack of all trades, master of none.

Paul, the hack-of-all-trades.

Fact is, I specialize at exactly nothing, other than the specialty of little bit of this and little bit of that.

Nine lives Paul, no doubt, would be posting today of the limitations of having only nine lives.

If I had to choose today? Most likely:

#1 Photographer: more of humanity than nature, in the Annie Leibovitz realm.

Are you a hack-of-all-trades, too?

#2 Revolutionary: Going all-in like  Jesus (more than anyone else) and MLK and Gandhi and Bob Dylan and Harriet Tubman and Wittgenstein and Saint Francis and Bonhoeffer and Luther and Céaser Chávez.  (Please visit forthechildren.org to sign the pledge and help me on this one.)

#3 Botanist/zoologist: Because Albert Schweitzer.

#4 Philosopher: In the spirit of Aristotle. My BA and MA helped greatly, but only almost scratched the surface of understanding metaphysics, epistemology, logic, aesthetics, ethics.

#5 Geologist: I know almost nothing about how the earth is composed nor how plate tectonics work, and that bugs me.

#6 Gypsy: A full-time observer. And truth-teller, no matter the cost. Just to travel to and from, to lick the globe, minus the encumbrances of money, schedules, social pressures to be “responsible.”

#7 Cook: Not a chef — a farmer who spends as much time attending to the ingredients (soil, sun, water, freshness) as much as the cooking part.

#8 Historian: Not sure which era nor region. Eighty-one lives wouldn’t be enough to satisfy my craving to learn about all those people from all those places during all those times.

#9 Musician: I play bass (decently), guitar (average at best), trumpet and piano (below average at best).

#10 Writer

Are you a hack-of-all-trades, too?

P.S. I forgot art historian, especially into the minds of Van Gogh, Chagall, Picasso… Oh, and a college professor (philosophy), oceanographer, architect, triathlete, yoga instructor, theologian, hermit.

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