💡🧐 Curiosities | Round 7
On the "in-between," big dreams, "breathing truth into" life, and more
Welcome back to The Comma Project - a place for leaders and seekers, where I share the stories and insights that guide me along the way, in hopes that they might matter to you, too.
I’m back with round 7 of Curiosities - where I unearth and round up digestible gems of insight on the art of seeking, becoming, and building a life of significance.
I hope you enjoy - and if you do, I’d be grateful if you pressed the little ❤️ button at the top left corner of this piece, and shared it with a few people you think would also enjoy it.
Reply to this email and let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Devin
This book was recommended to me while I was processing a death in the family. I was told it would bring me peace through the process.
It did all that, and more.
I tore through it in just a couple of days. I couldn’t put it down. It’s perhaps the most impactful book I’ve read in several years.
Hadley's stories of her patients’ experiences through end-of-life treatment are infused with such deep, enriching, and inspiring humanity. It’s anchored me to remain closer to the things that truly matter in life, as well as the power of all of life’s ups and downs to guide us through our own transformations - including through to whatever is in store for us on the other side of death.
I do in fact believe, as her website says, that this book “shows that end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to live as it does about how we die.”
This book has changed and inspired me.
I think it will do the same for you, too.
*Long quote incoming*
As I explore, as I document, everything I do feels more consequential.
…Every building I start to rehab becomes imbued with more meaning, which means they become more meaningful to me.
And together, that gives my life more meaning, because it puts even the most laborious tasks I have to complete in the larger historical context.
It makes my dream less about me, and more about the town, and those who will, hopefully, come after me.
The joy of discovery that comes with exploration has always been a powerful force in my life. Once I got to Cerro Gordo, and that force was animated by a desire to increase my understanding of the place so I could preserve it and share it with people, it became my guiding light.
I followed the joy, and focused on the history, because I knew it would clarify why I was here, and deepen my appreciation for the work left to do.
It can be the same for anyone working on a big project, or a big dream.
In fact, I think that kind of clarity and appreciation is necessary, expecially when you consider how recent generations, mine included, tend to think about doing big things. They design “disruptive” products or technology, like they’re wiping the slate clean. Like they’re starting over.
They behave as if the past doesn’t exist, or doesn’t matter. Nor the future, either. The number of founding stories I’ve heard that begin with an “exit plan” is more than I can count.
All that does is bake impermanence, and irrelevance, and obselescence into things, and makes dreams disposable.
That can’t be good.
In the pursuit of big dreams, an appreciation for the past, for those who have “walked the wash” before you, helps you understand where you fit in in the grand scheme of things.
It shows you that you are part of a lineage. That there is wisdom and guidance to be had from those who built that lineage. It gives you someone to look up to, and something to live up to.
When you’re having doubts, it gives you inspiration. It makes you part of history. And that is a position worth protecting and embracing, even when things go horribly wrong.
I first heard about Brett Underwood several years ago during COVID, but became obsessed about a month ago when his name and story resurfaced on a podcast I was listening to.
This guy bought a WHOLE FREAKIN’ ABANDONED MINING TOWN in California called Cerro Gordo, with visions of further documenting and celebrating its history of human hardship, commitment, and perseverance and rehabbing it into a hospitality destination.
Along the way, he’s been documenting his journey on YouTube, and boy is it captivating.
He also wrote a book that just came out last month, and in a rare turn of events, I listened to it, rather than read a hard copy.
I’m moved by people with courage who work to bring a vision into the world, especially when it’s unique and authentic. Brett’s story, intertwined with the story of this town that helped support LA’s rise in the late 19th and early 20th century, paints a beautiful picture of life and work, with wise insights about both throughout.
The audiobook is included in the Spotify premium subscription - for free. Give it a listen.
It certainly inspired me.
To inspire is to “breathe truth into”
[YouTube]
Le Youth live set in Venice
This is a fun, groovy, energetic listen. I’ve looped it a couple times in the past several days, both while working and while chilling.
[Essay]
Ken Wilber on truth and spirituality
...in any case there is no room for timidity.
The fact that you might be wrong is simply no excuse: You might be right in your communication, and you might be wrong, but that doesn’t matter.
What does matter, as Kierkegaard so rudely reminded us, is that only by investing and speaking your vision with passion, can the truth, one way or another, finally penetrate the reluctance of the world.
If you are right, or if you are wrong, it is only your passion that will force either to be discovered.
It is your duty to promote that discovery—either way—and therefore it is your duty to speak your truth with whatever passion and courage you can find in your heart.
You must shout, in whatever way you can.
Let’s shout our truth, with all our courage and passion.
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