No Leaders Please

"November 5 is the last day of our pretend election. The real election starts on December 11, and Republican officials and judges will have to be forced to honor the results of the pretend election for Harris to have any shot of winning the real one." - The Nation (via Kottke)

I can't believe the scenarios I'm reading these days, and the reasonable probability of them happening. Be sure to vote, and then be ready for anything, I guess. WTF?!

I'm writing this from a southbound Amtrak train, the Cascades 503 from Olympia, Washington to Eugene, Oregon. I'm heading down to see my folks for a few days. This is my second time taking the train down, and I love it. The route is beautiful right now, with all of the trees changing colors. It's all oranges and reds, and then deep blue of the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers.

It's also quiet time and focus time. The seats are comfortable, and I've always had both seats in my row to myself. Connectivity drops in and out, but that's a good thing. I don't want to be connected all the time (more on that in some longer form posts, soon). I'd like to take some longer train trips, but those can be pricey. The Olympia to Eugene route is typically around $40, which is about the amount I'd spend in gas, and I don't have to drive. So, if I'm not planning side excursions or van life exploring, the train is a great option.

Recently, I've been reflecting on time, energy, and where we direct it, and spend it. What happens next week (and really, in the next two months) is mostly out of my control at this point. I hope you find ways to break away from the election cycle madness and take good care of yourselves. Some of the books I've been reading are interrelated around the idea of time. Mostly, about how fleeting our time on this planet is, and how incredible it is that we exist at all.

I'm in the middle of a quiet, personal project to revamp Drifter Life. I'm excited to be wrapping up week three of Dave Gray's Project Studio. I've known Dave since the first Up to All of Us event in 2012, and sincerely appreciate the effort he's put into setting up this cohort-based accountability, learning, and sharing model.

I highly recommend reading up on Dave's School of the Possible.

I have not been writing here, but I have been writing (journaling, mostly). I have a lot to share, but I have long felt that I needed more channels for my generalist, drifter mindset, so I don't bore people with content they don't care about, and so I can more acutely discuss topics and hobbies I value. I'm not sure what this will mean in the new design, but I'll try to provide useful options to you lovely readers.

I recently came across this Charles Bukowski poem on life and reinvention that really resonated with me (via Pocket Mindfulness):

No Leaders Please

invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
don’t swim in the same slough.
invent yourself and then reinvent yourself
and
stay out of the clutches of mediocrity.

invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
change your tone and shape so often that they can
never
categorize you.

reinvigorate yourself and
accept what is
but only on the terms that you have invented
and reinvented.

be self-taught.

and reinvent your life because you must;
it is your life and
its history
and the present
belong only to
you.

Charles Bukowski

I've also been doing a lot of hiking and exploring in the beautiful Pacific Northwest (PNW). While there are three or four things I miss about Texas 😏, I am so freakin' happy to live in a place with so much blue and green on the map. Stay tuned for more trip reports, serendipitous experiences, and some amazing photos.

📘What I'm Reading:

• Seven Summers (And A Few Bummers) by Bob Welch
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
• The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
• Winter Blues: Seasonal Affective Disorder by Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D.

🎧 What I'm Listening To:

• Instrumental: Arc De Soleil is excellent. Start with "Got Caught in Amsterdam."
• Gregory Alan Isakov - we saw them at Chateau St. Michelle this summer. Awesome live.

📺 What I'm Watching:

• The new season of Shrinking - so good.
• I enjoyed Joker: Folie à Deux, unlike a lot of you.

🧠 What I'm Learning:

• I'm in the last class of my MSW program, Trauma and Social Work. It's heavy, but I'm learning a lot. I appreciate that one of our readings is Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others - I recommend it.
• I'm wrapping up the prep course and body of knowledge review for my Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) exam.
• I learned about this awesome DIY van bed setup that I'm going to try out for the Adventure Van during "the big dark."

⌛ Worth Your Time:

• Photographer Captures Life in Old Growth Forests
  We recently went on a Capitol State Forest Legacy Forest Walk with the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition to learn about old growth forests and how and why we should protect them. Fascinating.
• More of this, please. Results of Paris' closing streets to cars (via Kottke):
  "Changes designed to encourage people to take other forms of transportation have contributed to a 40% decline in air pollution, according to city officials."

Photo of the Week

☮️❤️