Today — do not be angry.
Today — do not worry.
Today — be kind to yourself and others.
Today — be honest to yourself and others.
Today — work diligently.

-– Usui Sensei, 1865-1926

Riding my bike to work after a rain is a flight into alien landscape. Humid, cool air suppresses dust and desert sun. The pungent, surprising odors of plants rarely wetted, the miasma of decomposing matter suddenly rehydrated is both invigorating and repulsive.

The roads become dried oceans of sand. The rock yards become pock-marked, cratered beds left as evidence of the fury of desert rain.

As I rode the other day, enjoying the change, I had a particular clarity. It’s the sort that comes during an hour run; the sort encountered after a good hike into the mountains, sitting on a vista alone with the horizon.

Our homes our islands. Technology, the great enabler, turns our lairs into isolated ecosystems, complete with their own climates, work centers, theaters, grocery repositories, and a complex network of fictional interactions with the world.

I say fictional, because television and internet are just that. They are glimpses into a world, without the detail and the grit and the depth of real interactivity.

Our islands, though mere yards apart, remain a universe away from each other and, like my bike ride, carry us through the scenery at speeds too fast to touch, taste, smell, and feel the texture of the terrain.

At the end, I am left only with a collage of incomplete images of homes, where lives, families, and entire worlds existed.

What’s on the web this week?

Tracey Townsend quit her job and moved to New Zealand for a year. She learned a ton and writes some beautiful, well-analyzed prose on her experience.

Tech

3D printer makes a functional wrench (with moving parts) from a scan. Check out the amazing future (also terrifying) where machines will scan things and reproduce them.

The state of the web this summer. An eerilie accurate look at the absurdity and reality of the web’s evolution.

Martial Arts

Chris Smith at Lifehack writes about Seven Ways to Get Started. All the things discussed here are techniques used by martial arts instructors and creative writing professors.

Jack Montgomery, a pro MMA fighter I trained with in Tahoe, wrestled Jeff Munson (Abu Dhabi Champion) at Grapplers’ Quest. Pure magic and a great honor.

Now Munson is going to do a seminar at his school; this is how connections are made my friends. Humbly step up to the challenge; leave your fears and pride at the door. Get noticed.

Writing

Ms. Rachel Gardner talks about Writing a Terrific Author Bio. Like all her advice, this is pure gold.

K.M. Weiland writes about Lying to your readers with your awesome first line. She has some great insights to share.

In The Book of Secrets, Blagwan Shree Rajneesh points out that we get into the habit of not seeing familiar objects, friends, or family. “They say nothing is new under the sky. Really, nothing is old under the sky. Only the eyes become old, accustomed to things; then nothing is new. For children everything is new: that is why everything gives them excitement . . . ”

He ends the chapter with “Look freshly as if for the first time. . . This will give you a freshness to your look. Your eyes will become innocent. Those innocent eyes can see. Those innocent eyes can enter into the inner world.”

–My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton Erickson – Edited by Sidney Rosen

In martial arts, we rediscover techniques both of the body and mind. Each meditative session brings new insights into ourselves and the world. This habit, in fact, becomes the way we approach life: Always trying to find new depths within things we once confidently knew we had mastered.

Writers must also master this talent. They must look at things that others take for granted and see new things within them, explore new combinations and discover deeper meanings beneath words.

Your challenge: Take a moment to explore a mundane thing you take for granted. Learn something entirely new about its color, composition, density, flexibility, history, and ability.

If we could hold a word

against our ear, like a shell

We’d hear its sea–churning in its belly,

the size of blood in a mosquito

–Albert Goldbarth, MINNOWS, DARTERS, STURGEON

The Paris Review #195

Mr. Goldbarth has captured the essence of writing, of martial arts, of Christianity, of effective living. Some will think these words are fluff. So be it. In writing, the author discovers the depths of words and the vast ocean of meaning beneath each and the synergy made by combining two meanings in an unexpected way.

In martial arts, the practitioner discovers the cosmic waves created by each action or word and pursues understanding of the endless creativity and potential of the human body and mind. In Christianity, the disciple ponders God’s infinite nature, endless love, and the unbelievable depths and wonders made by his hands.

You could take this same principle and apply it to music, happiness, relationships, most anything. Mastering any craft, including one’s own happiness, begins by learning to reside in the vast ocean beneath the surface of a word, idea, note, or movement and then combine it with the endless wonder of another.

Your challenge: Take a single word, one that provokes you, and use it no less than 10 provocative, contradictory sentences. Preferably, the word would be both metaphor and symbol in each. Then take those ten sentences and write a flash fiction piece (500 words or so). You may use the sentences for the piece or discard them.