Daily pages - August 24, 2021

I’m riffing on this idea that the center of the book is Creative Practice and that the rest of the book flows from that solution, solving problems that arise as we look for clarification on the broader context as well as the details of exactly how to establish a creative practice.

So one problem is that making the world better is too big a problem for any one person to solve. That brings to mind a vision of the global civilization as a world-wide community of people all working toward this goal of creating a better world. With all the variety and diversity that you can imagine, not based on some grand master plan, but simply as part of living out their lives authentically as integrated individuals who want a world that works and a flourishing earth.

It’s not clear where to start, especially if you don’t have much experience to work from. That problem is addressed by creating a place where a novice can still make a contribution while growing as a person. I think of existing organizations like charities and NGOs, but also about Open Artifacts projects.

I don’t know how to design. Well, we all design, but if you want to design an a systemic level, you need to think about things in terms of creating greater livingness. That’s what meaningful design is. And as complex adaptive living creatures ourselves, we have the ability to recognize greater life when we see it. We can judge by comparing two options as Christopher Alexander posited. There are more detailed steps in the process, but those can be covered by more detailed patterns.

There are so many ways we can improve ourselves, it’s difficult to know what to focus on. This is where the personal universe comes in. All the things that we do contribute to our personal universe, so the key is to live a rich life and follow your curiosity where it leads. Pay attention to what you pay attention to and learn more about it. Travel. Explore where you live. Get a microscope and a telescope and see the world that exists beyond your everyday senses.

Most importantly, however, is pay attention to truth. Look for ways that you or others are deceiving you. Look for contradictions. Keep an open mind. Strive to expand your personal universe, but with meaningful and accurate understanding. Work to interconnect things so you can better understand when people declare that everything is connected.

Our personal universe is complex and parts of it operate without our conscious involvement, so it’s a life-long process to improve it. At the same time, you can correct a large amount of inaccuracy just by developing a habit of questioning what you think you know. Remember that it’s a fun process to understand the world. Your errors are not something to be ashamed of, but a source of endless mystery that fuels your curiosity.

Since none of us can do this alone, and we are social creatures, you will need to understand how to collaborate and cooperate with others. There are basic tools of human interaction that can maximize good outcomes instead of leaving a trail of hurt feelings or angry colleagues. Be polite; learn to listen; hear not just what people are saying but what they are trying to say; have courage; ask clarifying questions; and learn to engage in true dialogue.

If you’re having trouble understanding something or are getting stuck, get more playful and see if you can throw away the box you’re in. Gain insights though intentional practices that keep your attention in the right places so you can hear yourself better as well as those around you. As an article indicated in Wired magazine this month, science and other ways of knowing are just an API to reality. They are how we interact with reality, but they are human constructs. Our personal universe really is a simulation or model, and a specifically human model of Universe. It attempts to explain Universe in terms that we can understand based on how we experience it.

Motivation can be difficult when our human-made systems demand your time and energy to make a living. That is a sticky problem, and our best reason for participating in the global civilization is that it can take you closer to what it really means to be a whole human being than the life-sucking systems we’ve created. Most of us have forgotten, or maybe we never really ever knew what it was like to be a human being. I think childhood offers a glimpse of what it’s like. As children, we’re always creating because our bodies and minds are in a growth cycle. We mistakenly think that once we reach maturity that stops, but our mind can continually grow and change throughout our lives, and we just have to look around to realize that our bodies also do not stay stagnant. Just because we’ve grown up doesn’t mean we’ve stopped growing.