As the scholastics used to say: ‘Homo non proprie humanus sed superhumanus est’: which means that to be properly human you must go beyond the merely human.*
Eugene Peterson

What appears our doomed fate, in reality is a choice … Urgency and convenience are dictators of decisions large and small … In our era we are frequently distracted from our future selves and the future of our society by what we need to accomplish now.**
Bina Venkataraman

We want this to be pain-free,
We want to be special,
We don’t want others to get in the way,
We want to be in charge and others to follow,
We don’t want to think about the endgame;
We rush ahead with so little and
leave so much behind.

*Eugene Peterson’s Run With the Horses;
**Bina Venkataraman’s The Optimist’s Telescope.

I believe with unshakeable faith that there will always be something in the box.*
Steven Pressfield

Everyone has something in their box –
Though, it may not be what they thought they wanted,
It often turns out to be just what they need it to be to
make their difference;
This is my work, peering into the boxes, believing
there’ll always be something astonishing to find –
Am I made to believe this?

*Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.*
Carl Sagan

It’s unlikely anything we build is going to built from scratch. But with time and focus, we can find leverage to alter systems we care about.*
Seth Godin

“If I only had more resources, I could make something amazing,”
“I want to make/do something no one else has thought of” –
Possibility requires that we get imaginative with what we have got,
With what others have left for us, and
it’s likely that someone else had the same idea as you but didn’t bother
to begin – but you can.

*Seth Godin’s This is Strategy;

You write a line that requires the future to reveal its meaning.*
Nick Cave

If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.**
Lilla Watson

Repeating yesterday is always an option – and
so is provoking the future to reveal itself as something
different, hopeful, better, and beginning
to build it;
Through our powers, energies, and values,
We each know how to do this,
Connect to these and we become
future-makers, but
better still is bringing our perspectives
together, the more diverse the merrier^ –
Even to connect in this way is to begin
creating.

This is what we need more of. Determined, caring, creative people building things that take a while.^^

*Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage;
**Rohit Bhargava and Jennifer Brown’s Beyond Diversity;
^Studies are showing that non-homogenous teams produce better results, avoiding blindspots;
^^Gabe Anderson’s Things That Take a While.

Another way to try to discern your destiny – your myth – would be to follow [Carl] Jung‘s example: observe your dreams, observe your conscious choice, keep a journal, and see which images surface and resurface. Look at stories and symbols and see which ones resonate.*
Joseph Campbell

To know her well, you would need to know her identity – you would need to know what it is about her life that provides her with meaning, unity, and purpose … It is story. To know my wife well, you have to know her life story.**
Dan McAdams

In the United States in 1948,^ followed by
the UK in 1955, This Is Your Life began to map the
lives of guest celebrities from different walks of life
for their audiences;
The franchises have long since gone, but
we haven’t missed the opportunity to
hear our own story.

It’s unlikely that the original participants heard
anything to surprise them, but our own stories can do exactly this
when we focus on their meaning, unity, and purpose;
In my work with people concerning these dimensions of their lives,
I may be an audience of one, thrilled
by all that emerges, but the real audience is made up of those
these dreamwhisperers^^ will come to serve:
the good life story is
one of the most important gifts
we can ever offer each other.**

*Joseph Campbell’s Pathways to Bliss;
**Dan McAdams’ The Stories We Live By;
^Firstly on radio;
^^My name for those I work with on their dreams, listening to the whispers of their lives.

The first thing I learned is that what a seed looks like depends on what it does to survive.*
Austin Kleon

Our self-understanding has a thoroughly narrative character. The self we know is a self on the way, a self in the midst of its passage.**
James Carse

Perhaps we are seeds,
Our shells protecting us, their nature surprising us:
Life is hard,
We’re not as special as we think,
Our life is not about us,
We are not in control,
We are going to die^ –
Embrace these and we are strong.

Within lies the imagination, the possibility:
Life is hard, but we have each other to overcome,
We are not so special, but there is something each can do that no one else can,
Our life is not about us, but what we do is a gift of service expressing joy,
We’re not in control of much, but we can fully determine how we live in this moment,
We are going to die, but before this, we have so many ways to live.

*Austin Kleon’s blog: What does a seed look like?;
**James Carse’s Breakfast At the Victory;
^Here are Richard Rohr’s five elemental truths again.

every individual story holds the power to change the world and inspire people*
Rohit Bhargava and Jennifer Brown

Now I just assume that I’m below average. It serves me well. I listen more. I ask a lot of questions. I’ve stopped thinking others are stupid. I assume most people are smarter than me. To assume you’re below average is to admit you’re still learning.**
Derek Sivers

To claim that we are average, or,
To give it more edge,
Below average, feels like
an admission of failure, but it can be
the beginnings of a better story,
The kind of story that makes a happy dent in the world,
At least one person’s world.

*Rohit Bhargava and Jennifer Brown’s Beyond Diversity;
**Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah or No.

Words make worlds.*
Krista Tippett

Without a name made in our mouths, an animal or place struggles to find purchase in our minds and in our hearts.**
Tim Dee

Not only do we require a vast ocean of words to
understand the world around us, but
we also need a multiplicity of words
to describe ourselves, to
create our worlds of
who we are and what
we can do – and they’re not
far away, they’re within us
waiting to be uncovered –
Though some are still to be discovered.^

*Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise;
**Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks;
^These words don’t only have to describe us, but also be the words that fascinate us and drive us; I have to keep twenty six lists of words (a-z) that are important to me, with all the quotes that describe them). It’s a simple system, but it’s working for now..

What you’re advocating can’t be just relevant to your audience’s life; it must be relevant to their story.*
Lisa Cron

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit.**
The Teacher

We’re still adding to our stories,
Story is how we work imaginatively with reality,
How we create freedom within limitation;
We don’t want a story that repeats each day,
Neither do we want for one that gets stuck in
its beginning or middle –
Beyond explanation,
We desire exploration.

*Lisa Cron’s Story or Die;
**Ecclesiastes 7:8

we must never forget that all human freedom is contingent upon destiny to the extent that it can unfold only within destiny and by working upon it*
Viktor Frankl

If I no longer have to fight against the sheer fact of encountering problems, because that’s a battle I’ll never win, I get to dive more fully, perhaps even with relish, into the problems I actually have.**
Oliver Burkeman

The problem with life …
Is that life is a problem –
Remember the five elemental truths?:^
Life is hard
You’re not as special as you think
Your life is not about you
You are not in control
You are going to die;
Don’t be despondent, these truths are
foundational for a most splendid life,
They are the necessary limitations or constraints
leading us towards a more imaginative and creative life, if
we learn how to play with them;
This is where the three responses of
humility, gratitude, and faithfulness turn up as
playmasters:
To be most fully who we are, and not who we are not,
To notice what we have, rather than what we lack – and to share,
To play with these daily in small ways, on our own and together,
Noticing where these lead so we might follow.

*Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul;
**Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals;
^I often refer to these from Richard Rohr’s Adam’s Return.