Season 2 Recap
Excavating, in the Heat
The blistering heat gives me headaches sometimes. But it’s usually only when I’m dumb enough to run midday in this Austin summer. With the sun beating down ferociously on the American south and many other rumblings in life, the past several weeks have been challenging.
Planning a wedding is easier than I thought it would be, logistically, but harder than I thought it would be, emotionally. Aligning family members, friends, and ourselves with all the details isn’t for the faint of heart. Jackie and I have learned a lot about ourselves (and each other) through the process. I plan on writing more about these learnings in the coming season.
Lately I’ve been thinking about how I want to craft my future. It’s a fun and exciting process, but it requires making decisions and tradeoffs. Their weight can be overwhelming at times.
I’m feel like I’m excavating large areas of life that still need clarity. Writing these essays and having insightful conversations allow me to dig into what these mean.
This season of the Spoonful, I wrote four pieces. Touching on experimentation, holding space, stillness, and learning, I’ve attempted to blend stories with truths about life and a dash about technology.
We Know Nothing Until We Pick Up a Shovel
There's effort and play that goes into learning something that we’re motivated to master. In this essay, I tell the story of how I learned web development by building my first website discreetly in a high school Java class.
This essay is a reflection of a trip I took with my friend into the woods of Central Texas. It’s a reflection of the stillness I found and commentary on why it’s worth pursuing moments of stillness in our lives.
We are conversational sorcerers, capable of creating forcefields that invite safety, respect, and trust into discussions we have with others. This piece explores that inner magic.
Life Experiments are Like Software Experiments
Building a life has some uncanny similarities to building software. I explore software development experimentation and how we can apply the same strategies to making life changes.
What I’m Jamming On
The Three Marriages by David Whyte
One of the best books I’ve read lately is The Three Marriages by the poet and author, David Whyte. A journey through relationships, work, and the self, I know I’ll be re-reading this book many times in the future.
Doing something innocent, dangerous and wonderful all at the same time may be the perfect metaphor for understanding one of the demands made by a marriage of marriages: the need to live in multiple contexts, multiple layers and with multiple people all at the same time without choosing between them.
~ From The Three Marriages.
The Way of Mediocre Man by
Paul’s writings have been inspiring me for the past several months. After reading his book The Pathless Path, I’ve been reflecting on what “work” means to me. I’ve been examining my path in life, the scripts I’ve been carrying with me, and the trails that I’m treading.
One of Paul’s recent essays, The Way of Mediocre Man, resonated with these reflections. As I read it, I found language for things I had felt but never knew how to explain.
The best way to use our effort is to “spend it” on daily, weekly, or monthly practices, which we can sustain longer than most others. This is the secret of mediocrity. It only appears mediocre from another person’s perspective. Over long enough time horizons, you can actually become one of the best in the world at your craft because of a simple truth: most people quit.
Read the full essay here:
Young the Giant
I was grateful to see my favorite band — Young the Giant — in concert this past weekend in Atlanta. It was even better that I got to see it with the friends who introduced them to me. Music is one of those inexplicable forces of human invention. Listening to YTG is nostalgic and expansive, all at once. Their art strikes me in ways I can’t yet express.
Although this is one of their slower songs, Commotion is one of my favorites on the new album.
It has a beautiful line: “I’m only happy when I’m looking in.”
Gratitude
I’m grateful for all the wonderful conversations and realizations I’ve experienced in the past few weeks. They’ve provided the impetus to write, share, and continue excavating.
This season, I’m especially grateful for the friendship of my college friends. They know me so well because they’ve helped me become who I am. Whenever I spend time with them, I find myself energized, inspired, and supported. I love them all dearly.
Finally, I’m grateful to all these amazing people for helping to edit and shape this season’s essays:
, Pratik,,, , Rick from , and. Thank you 🙏🏽Season 3 starts in a couple weeks!
Until then 👋
I enjoyed this reading in many ways.
I also enjoyed The Three Marriages. It helped give me courage to commit when I wasn't sure, and realize being sure isn't the point.