The Champagne of Beers

“Watch where you’re FUCKING driving!” 

Standing in the middle of a crosswalk, I threw my hands up as a car cut me off. 

I’m tired. 

I’m tired of walking back and forth to the freaking store. I want a car. 

Of course, I had to pick out the heaviest possible groceries – whole wheat flour, plain yogurt, dried beans, six-pack of Miller High Life. 

My back hurts. This can’t be good for me. 

-- 

Sidenote – one of my top 2 influences is David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water, a commencement speech he gave at Kenyon. Sidenote-within-a-sidenote – the other, Mountains Beyond Mountain. Anyways, This Is Water is about two young fish swimming in a hurry. They run across an older fish that asks, “Howdy boys, how’s the water?” The fish continue on their way, but after a minute, one of the younger fish asks the other, “What’s water?” 

I loved the connection to Kenyon, I loved what DFW stood for, and I loved his edge, so I gave This Is Water to all my groomsmen as a wedding gift. I’ve been emailing with one of them about the significance of the book. For me, it boils down to the word, “This.” 

“This” represents the act of pausing and seeing the water around us. The currents flowing, krill swimming, whales giving chase.  

Sidenote2 - I read a couple of Bulls/Lakers/future-Heat coach Phil Jackson’s memoirs. My favorite was Sacred Hoops, a great read about the intersection of spirituality and basketball. What I took from it: 

The 90’s Bulls said the Lord’s Prayer before every game. I figured if it worked for the Bulls it would work for me, so I’ve been saying the Lord’s Prayer every time I shower. I imagine it helps me in the same way it helped the Bulls. Obviously, life gets tough for everyone - even the Bulls had tough losses, but at their core they were twelve guys that wanted to go down in the history books. With the Prayer, Jackson gave the team a few precious seconds to remember that they had to push through the struggle, and keep playing their game. 

That’s why the best part of This Is Water, is “This.” DFW knew the tough moments in life were the most crucial - that’s where the battle between good and evil exists. But sometimes, the hard part is noticing when we’re engaged in that battle. Sometimes it’s about taking that second to see the battle. 

-- 

After a grueling walk I made it home. I slammed my sweaty clothes in the laundry basket, still pissed off about everything. 

I wish I could just buy frozen burritos like my roommates. I wish I could drive to the store like them. 

As I turned on the shower I remembered. 

This is water. 

No, wait. I walked to the fridge. 

This is beer. 

Shower beers. Ah.

See you on the other side, 

from ken 

Feel free to comment! I would love to hear your thoughts.

Disconnecting from technology

I recently read a timely New York Times column about how technology deprives our brains of well-deserved rest.

The article explained that people are obsessing over new technology, taking multi-tasking to a whole new level by reading an e-book while watching the news and ellipticalling. It sure sounds efficient, but the article argues that without some down time, our brain doesn’t have the time to consolidate the information and learn from it, so our brain just gets overwhelmed.

It seems like it makes sense. From a physiological standpoint, new synapses take time to grow and if our neurons are overstimulated, they won’t have time to grow. I think it makes even more sense from an anecdotal standpoint, whenever I multi-task and try to listen to a book-on-tape while I workout I never really remember it.

So to avoid being overly busy, I’m trying to simplify my life and disconnect from technology a little bit. I'm hoping this will help me to focus on whatever environment I happen to be in, and whatever I am doing now. I decided not to buy a TV or get internet at my apartment, because I figured those would be easy distractions to cut out. I try to avoid having my phone on my person to evade the easy habit of flipping open my phone every few minutes to check for new text messages.

Of course, if you have a reason to always be connected, or just want to be, that can totally work too. But for me, I wanted to make myself more able to connect with my current environment. This isn’t without flaws, of course, as I often miss phone calls and occasionally I will have to go out of my way to send a quick email, but it’s what I chose.

I still go to the coffee shop to use their internet, and I still always keep my phone in my backpack, which is almost always around me. But without that easy convenience of just reaching into my pocket to have texting power at my fingertips, or being able to quickly flip open my laptop to see that I, for the fifth time this hour, have no new emails, it makes it easier for me to focus on other things I want to spend my time on, like reading, talking to the people around me, or just taking some quiet time for myself.

from ken

Are you trying to change your life? I'd love to hear about it! ken.e.noguchi@gmail.com

photo by Esther Gibbons

Listening to quiet inspiration

“None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I think that whisper Emerson is referring to is inspiration, and what inspiration can do is refocus us. Inspiration can come from anywhere, as long as we are willing to pay attention to it. Recently, I’ve been trying to make more of a conscious effort to slow down, which has really helped me to refocus on what I’m trying to do with my life.

My commute is a great example of how I make my life too busy and block out that gentle whisper of inspiration. In the past I spent my commute trying to make every minute “productive,” listening to various podcasts or skimming through books I would never remember, but lately I’ve been trying to just sit tight and take in my surroundings. So, the other day on my commute I was zoning out and blankly looking out on the city and all the huge apartment complexes.

Those big apartment complexes have always fascinated me for some reason. I think it’s because it reminds me of how big the world is, seeing all those dimly lit windows with people I’ll never meet. The strangest part is that every person in every one of those windows has an incredible story and is fighting a great battle. It really reminded me of the importance of every single person.

Yesterday I saw an old friend from high school that I hadn’t seen in probably five years or so. We’re both pretty easy going, so we re-connected quickly and smoothly, as we reminisced on old times and shared our lives for the past few years. It felt great to remember the past and how lucky I was to grow up with such great friends.

It also made me excited for all there is to still discover in the world, and to realize I still had so many more great friends to make. All those unknown rooms in those huge apartments, filled with perspectives I would have never even imagined and conversations yet to happen. All that from a morning commute!

from ken

Are you trying to change your life? I'd love to hear about it! ken.e.noguchi@gmail.com

photo by williamcho