Reading. Writing,
Earlier this year, my son encouraged me to read a fiction book he new I would love.
I don't read fiction. Ever. Everything I read and the majority of what I listen to is education; history, economics, real estate, psychology. Additional topics range from Scripture, to birds, to whiskey and distilling, to archeology and a few other topics.
The list of topics has grown every year. (Half of what I watch is educational and the rest is comedy).
My reading list started from a mindset of survival and has grown into a list of topics ranging from survival from the present to legacy in the future, a mental process that often pushes consequently through experiencing the present.
Chains
"Dad, you should read this book" my son suggested.
I was reading "When I was a Slave" a short book compiling letters from slaves during the earlier years of America. This small book brought tears, empathy, and once in a while great laugh as the stories carry periodic bits of humor and levity among heavy themes. Something about putting yourself in someone else’s position at a different point of history, in a drastically different environment, with less rights, deferred but resilient hopes, more obstacles, and less certainty helps you appreciate both their story and the privilege of your own position.
Over the years, I’ve become increasingly curious and cognizant of what others are going through and how they experience the world.
“How are they feeling? Why would they feel that way? What led to the way they process and determine their perspectives? Why is that important? Where are they heading? What are they hoping for? Who are they when everyone is watching? When no one is watching? What pain are they processing? What joy is sustaining them?” and lastly “How do I play a role in their story?”
On one hand this thought process can lead quickly into enabling. When processed with reason and boundaries, it can be transformational.
Reading provides the words directly from someone’s experience or imagination. Watching someone is a form of reading with much more interpretation (and judgment), and less certainty.
I’ve become vigilant at watching people and processing my environment since I was young. Something about living in uncertainty creates a necessity for constantly evaluating your environment - at times to survive and make it through the day and at other times to just make friends.
You can watch a lot and learn nothing without thinking through what you’re seeing, hearing, and experiencing, or you can watch with intentionality.
I think a lot. I have characteristics of someone who is OCD, ADD and at times nearly autistic. I’ve never been diagnosed and don’t identify as any of those specifically, but recognize patterns. I tic periodically and have since a young age. I obsess about a thought or word until I feel I’ve understood it. I tend to repeat a physical behavior like a tap of pull or facial tic until I feel I’ve satisfied the need for movement. My mind moves at a fast pace, processing my environment and my reactions to my environment, and then back to my environment’s reactions to my reactions about the environment. I’ve created a habit of obsessing over details, small and large, moving from one topic to another at a rapid pace considering the impact of each word, change of tone, movement of eyes, placement of hands, motives and emotions, accessories and preferences.
It can be as exhausting as it is constructive.
As a child it was unorganized and exploratory. By my teenage years, it started to become orderly, operational and productive.
Reading has helped it immensely.
I’d love to boast that I am a better reader than I am, but the reality is that I listen to a book or two a month, start reading a new book once a week, and finish a book every couple months. If you do the math, there’s a lot of books that never get finished.
Most of my life is deeply structured. It's how I prefer experiencing life - most of the time. It allows me to fit in what feels like more life with each day, which is more important as I recognize how each day is shorter than the day before. Every week, I am practicing fitting more productivity into fewer hours in business while improving experiences for our partners and clients, and being more intentionally present in relationships.
When I was younger, the days felt like they were eternal and extended as far those rolling bluegrass hills just outside of Richmond, Kentucky. Coming back to that property decades later in 2019, confirmed that property was smaller than I remembered. I soaked the memories in on the good days and did my best to push past the difficult days, along with the disorganization of an impoverished kid in a large family, while asking “How did I experience this then?” and “What has led to how I experience that differently now?”
Writing has been a neglected art of putting order to that which I’m reading and observing, in an effort to understand it better and share what might help other process what they are experiencing.
This blog is an effort towards more consistent and constructive writing.
I hope you’ll continue to join me as I share thoughts across a myriad of topics, sometimes following a deliberate sequence and other times simply writing what I’m processing, beyond the usual business updates and nonchalant niceties.
