I have been living out of my truck for a few weeks now, and sparing you all the details, every once in a while I am a little embarrassed while doing a dry scrub of my armpits with Dr. Bronner's in the parking lot of a WalMart.
But this morning I had a revelation.
I was making tea for myself and didn’t use my fancy Aeropress because I wanted to try out another method with a home-made filter I created.
It didn’t work at all; the small leaf bits slipped through and were still in my tea. I took a sip, scrunched my face in disgust, and thought about re-filtering with the Aeropress.
But a thought came creeping into my mind... why is it so disgusting to have small tea leaves still floating in my tea? If I didn’t live in the U.S. where nice filters are easily accessible, would I totally cherish the chance to have tea with small bits of leaves still floating in it? Probably.
Is it possible that the only reason we (as a society) think tea should be small-leaf-free is because it shows that we have somehow 'evolved' to the point where we are complete masters over the tea leaves such that we can completely separate them from the tea?
The point here is that I drank the tea with the leaves still in it... and it was delicious. That is, it was delicious after I got over society's convention about the way tea 'should' be.
So society’s convention that tea should be leaf-free interfered with my enjoyment of it. The same is true of living passionately, living stoked. Society wants us to believe that we must follow a certain path, we must live in a house and work 5 or more days a week doing a job that we don't necessarily like so that we can afford the house that we have to live in and the stuff that we don't really need but society tells us we should have.
Don't allow society’s conventions to interfere with your enjoyment of living passionately.
As Fitz Cahall - founder of The Dirtbag Diaries - noted, "You have to do the thing that makes you tick. Do it on a daily basis. Do it unapologetically. Do it with love."
So WalMart, I'm sorry I'm not sorry I scrub my armpits in your parking lot. I do it with love, because it lets me do the things that make me tick - to write, produce a podcast, and see places and have experiences most people have on their wish lists for their entire lives. It makes my life into more than life... it makes it into art.
But this morning I had a revelation.
I was making tea for myself and didn’t use my fancy Aeropress because I wanted to try out another method with a home-made filter I created.
It didn’t work at all; the small leaf bits slipped through and were still in my tea. I took a sip, scrunched my face in disgust, and thought about re-filtering with the Aeropress.
But a thought came creeping into my mind... why is it so disgusting to have small tea leaves still floating in my tea? If I didn’t live in the U.S. where nice filters are easily accessible, would I totally cherish the chance to have tea with small bits of leaves still floating in it? Probably.
Is it possible that the only reason we (as a society) think tea should be small-leaf-free is because it shows that we have somehow 'evolved' to the point where we are complete masters over the tea leaves such that we can completely separate them from the tea?
The point here is that I drank the tea with the leaves still in it... and it was delicious. That is, it was delicious after I got over society's convention about the way tea 'should' be.
So society’s convention that tea should be leaf-free interfered with my enjoyment of it. The same is true of living passionately, living stoked. Society wants us to believe that we must follow a certain path, we must live in a house and work 5 or more days a week doing a job that we don't necessarily like so that we can afford the house that we have to live in and the stuff that we don't really need but society tells us we should have.
Don't allow society’s conventions to interfere with your enjoyment of living passionately.
As Fitz Cahall - founder of The Dirtbag Diaries - noted, "You have to do the thing that makes you tick. Do it on a daily basis. Do it unapologetically. Do it with love."
So WalMart, I'm sorry I'm not sorry I scrub my armpits in your parking lot. I do it with love, because it lets me do the things that make me tick - to write, produce a podcast, and see places and have experiences most people have on their wish lists for their entire lives. It makes my life into more than life... it makes it into art.
