No more FOMO
#68: Lessons of quarantine and the generosity of truth, wisdom from basketball, and photos from Shell Beach
In our internet-age, FOMO became a novelty of unprecedented access into the social lives of friends and acquaintances. The presentation of life as a multiverse of un-lived realities, it tickles our imagination for a better time and place to be than our actual present.
I’ve been thinking about those early pandemic days. I remembered how I felt a few weeks into quarantine, wrapped up in the easy crawl of here and now. In a global moment of fear and missing out, no fear of missing out. Baking bread, backyard boozing, board-games and books. A thorough affirmation of presence.
I want to carry that with me. How did we come to believe that being at home was enough? How did we adopt the freedom to become creative in the simplicity of our daily living?
Forced into the moment, we tapped into depth of our human experience. There was a core benevolence to those days — an innocent compassion that transcended the uncertainty. The thing about being present is that it grounds us in our selves and wakes us to our humanity and togetherness. We are inseparable. There is no missing out.
It feels novice to note that the antidote to FOMO is presence. But the purest truth is the most difficult to contain. Thankfully, the generosity of truth is that it comes again and again, like waves on the shores of our souls. Truth laps up on our dry sands and weighs us with water, pulling us deeper again into the sea of its substance.
WE ARE GROWING
Gaining 7 subscribers feels great — that’s almost a subscriber a day! Much love to the handful of you that shared. Miscellanea now has 242 readers, and we’re well on our way to my goal of 260 by the end of August. That said, if you’ve got a friend you feel this would hit home with, please do send it their way.
Think about it 🔗
🔊 “Most of us go from day to day just coasting on the status quo. If it ain’t broke, why fix it—right? But when routines just get too mundane or systems stop making sense, sometimes you just have to hold your breath and jump. People who leap from their lives, their comfort zones, even through time.”
The Leap – This American Life
📹 Wisdom from the Greek Freak:
For your pleasure 💆
Hovvdy’s new single True Love is on repeat lately:
If you want more of these vibes, check out one-half of Hovvdy’s Charlie Martin’s new album Imaginary People (my favorite track is Madison):
Extra, extra 🎉
Saturday evening spent at friend’s camp in Shell Beach, Louisiana.
“When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see.”
BALTASAR GRACIAN