Hi, I'm Anna living in France and, like you all, I really appreciate Marya's work. And that's what is happening in this post--the work to write it, alongside the work it describes. I'm struck by the fruit that calm and honesty can procure. Once you're afraid, you can't deal with the dark, the crazy and enraged man, the solitude. But, as this post beautifully underscores, there is a place of safety in self-awareness. And others sense it.
Anna—you are among the wisest people I've ever encountered, and that I've had the opportunity to work with you is my uncanny good luck. I am honored to have you here, and I hope you'll keep commenting as we go.
Many, many thanks, Marya. I think wisdom has something to do with humility, so I humbly thank you for your words and am honored to be part of this adventure!
There is a theoretical question in physics "What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?" The inclination is to think there will be a fantastic big bang. But the actual answer is simple. If one or the other prevails, then it wasn't an unstoppable force or an immovable object.
The man thought he was an unstoppable force, but that was simply because he probably never encountered a woman (or feral child) who was unperturbed by his blubbering, blustery assaults. He found out that he was not an unstoppable force.
I sense the default human impulse is to try to overcome what troubles us, no matter how large or small, by noise, by force, by making ourselves look or sound larger than we are; it's somehow anticlimactic to realize that most of what troubles us can be dealt with more effectively, often, by doing something calmly, or doing nothing at all. I don't know why it's taken me half a century to even begin to wrap my head around this.
New here and I love everything about this, your writing and honesty and what you've chosen to undertake in your travels around America
I also live on the road. I am always aware that my sense of safety is directly related to the $25 that buys me the right, as you say, to "exist in a given place." I'm also aware that the way I look and the condition and age of my rig gives me the ability to travel unbothered in a way others can't. There are a lot of ways of being a nomad in America, some are scarier than others.
Hi, I'm Anna living in France and, like you all, I really appreciate Marya's work. And that's what is happening in this post--the work to write it, alongside the work it describes. I'm struck by the fruit that calm and honesty can procure. Once you're afraid, you can't deal with the dark, the crazy and enraged man, the solitude. But, as this post beautifully underscores, there is a place of safety in self-awareness. And others sense it.
Anna—you are among the wisest people I've ever encountered, and that I've had the opportunity to work with you is my uncanny good luck. I am honored to have you here, and I hope you'll keep commenting as we go.
Many, many thanks, Marya. I think wisdom has something to do with humility, so I humbly thank you for your words and am honored to be part of this adventure!
There is a theoretical question in physics "What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?" The inclination is to think there will be a fantastic big bang. But the actual answer is simple. If one or the other prevails, then it wasn't an unstoppable force or an immovable object.
The man thought he was an unstoppable force, but that was simply because he probably never encountered a woman (or feral child) who was unperturbed by his blubbering, blustery assaults. He found out that he was not an unstoppable force.
I sense the default human impulse is to try to overcome what troubles us, no matter how large or small, by noise, by force, by making ourselves look or sound larger than we are; it's somehow anticlimactic to realize that most of what troubles us can be dealt with more effectively, often, by doing something calmly, or doing nothing at all. I don't know why it's taken me half a century to even begin to wrap my head around this.
This reminds me of the Jordan Peterson quote "if you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of."
New here and I love everything about this, your writing and honesty and what you've chosen to undertake in your travels around America
I also live on the road. I am always aware that my sense of safety is directly related to the $25 that buys me the right, as you say, to "exist in a given place." I'm also aware that the way I look and the condition and age of my rig gives me the ability to travel unbothered in a way others can't. There are a lot of ways of being a nomad in America, some are scarier than others.