"On Success"
Written for "Integration of the Honors Curriculum"
I’m reminded of my feeling that there has already been so much written about success, both as defined traditionally and alternatively, that it feels somewhat unhelpful for me to write on the topic too. That said, it’s an important thing to address and define for myself. Keep Reading
Over the summer, I had some downtime between jobs and started to get anxious about whether I was on the “right path” or doing the things I needed to be doing in order to secure one of my ideal jobs in the long term. In fact, I didn’t feel like I had a grip on what a "good" job for me would actually entail, which made me feel even worse about the whole thing. But my Mom, who is a yoga teacher and bottomless source of wisdom, gave me a great activity that helped though it sounds kind of morbid: she told me to write my own obituary. The point of this was to get me to think about what I would want people to say about me at the end of my life. What would I want to have accomplished? I did a little spin on her prompt, and imagined what I would want to be written about me in a short bio if I were to give a speech or write a book or something (mid-life). I'm including some excerpts below. Clearly you can tell how unsure I felt about my career goals: “An outspoken feminist, fluent in Spanish and conversational in Arabic, she loves to celebrate and experience other cultures, and understand other communities in order to be able to serve them... Her family will remember/acknowledge her as an incredibly loving wife, mother, sister and daughter. She is known for for her patience, kindness, balance, sense of justice + fairness, spirituality, and resilience. Finally, while she loved to tackle ambitious objectives in the mountains and in complex societal structuring, she never forgot to emphasize a few key simple pleasures + have gratitude for the quieter moments in life: we will remember her for her love of dogs, of plants, swimming, running, for being an enthusiastic if occasionally confused gardener, and an only slightly better than average cook.” I feel content using this little guide for how I define success. From here I’d actually also assert that to me, having a successful life is to have a life that you feel fulfills you as opposed to fitting somebody else's image of success. That said, that could change. As a climber, I know a few people (myself included) who had their lives drastically altered by traumatic accidents. Should something like that happen to me again, in a really traumatic way, my definition of success might change to something a little closer to feeling like I was happy every day rather than fulfilled by a life of “accomplishments”. How I define success remains somewhat undetermined for me. Some try for the "American Dream", which I understand to mean “doing better” than your parents and being able to manifest a career you’re proud of. I think that for many people that path has been closed off by neoliberal policies that oppress the working class. I’m not sure what replacing the “American Dream” might look like for me: I feel most comfortable with the aim of trying to live in balance, both referring to a balance between working for others and taking care of myself, and living sustainably in a way that keeps me in "balance" with nature. In my version of the American Dream, I’d like to be involved with politics either directly or indirectly, and I’d like to contribute to the efforts of the left as we advocate for policies that promote common freedoms. |
"The Rose Bush" (1926) is my all-time favorite painting: it was Monet's last. It feels like an appropriate image to accompany a discussion of what I want out of life. I love the arc of the flowers, and I love that the dramatic flower arrangement balance can feel both chaotic and peaceful at the same time. I also love the contrast of the left, which feels fresh, bright and suggestive of new life with the deeper, more subdued and calm right of the painting.
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[Ongoing]: Pieces + perspectives that have shaped me (that I recommend to everybody)
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/rioting-george-floyd-liberals-black-lives-matter
Good ol' hardcovers + paperbacks
Film
Entertainment
Essays
Plays
Speeches
...to be continued. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/western-style-democracy-in-africa-is-just-a-way-of-pushing-the-neoliberal-agenda/ |
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12/2019: On food - A list for later elaboration
We need to:
1) understand that how we participate in the food system is based on privilege, and inextricably linked to legacies of colonialism 2) understand that we vote with our food dollars 3) buy local food from non-corporate entities, emphasizing food that is in season 4) waste less and buy items with less packaging 5) understand that veganism is reductive and animals are important for our ecology because of the role they serve through nutrient recycling 6) all be more involved in our food system (farm! weed! cook and grow your own food please!) 7) disrupt corporations that infringe on worker's and farmer's rights 8) pay attention to land use and its social + ecological impacts 9) eat less red meat 10) stress less, eat slower in general, cut the judgement, stay open and figure out what works for us given all of the above: "everything in moderation". |
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