RAY'S REPORTS

Some people hate on sports. I get it. But I like it. Especially NBA basketball. There are hundreds of metaphors for “real” life in there. Joy vs suffering, work vs play, offense vs defense, team vs individual, mental vs physical, etc.

Spectator vs player is what I am thinking about today. This is a great model of dimensions. In the game of life, we are always a player. Born a player, die a player. But a lot of the time, sometimes not even knowing, we go outside our own perspective and take on the perspective of a coach, a ref, or a spectator in the stands.

Even further, through the cameras and into the dimension of the broadcasters and commentators and even past that as the viewers at home on the couch around the world.

All these perspectives make it easy to get lost. This exploration could provide useful analysis to improve our game. On the shadow side it is an escape from this now moment in our game, in this case not useful at all.

This exploration also leads us to the reminder that we were in fact born in the arena and that we are vulnerable. We are in the big game. And it’s go time.

Check ball.

In biz to stay organized we have to compartmentalize. In my case as a publisher I move from creation mode to production mode to distribution mode. This sort of thing helps to focus on the task at hand.

We do this in life too. Work mode, play mode, sleep mode. Another obvious example, family mode vs friends mode. We have a whole set of behaviors around family and a whole other set of behaviors around friends. Sure there’s overlap, but you can see where I am going with this.

Creating these compartments creates a disconnect. It’s nice to know you can deal with something later, it relieves pressure, but with more compartments comes more disconnect. You act one way for one group and another way for the other group thus alienating both groups.

As you get older the walls of some of these compartments dissolve naturally. Work mode blends with play mode, family and friends mix and mingle, etc. But some of these walls strengthen. They beef up and you can’t see over them. You lose vision. Soon after boundaries internalized become externalized. Lines are drawn, territories are colonized.

Self observe and adjust these compartments, save the world.

There is that perfect time we are waiting for to pull the trigger, set the timer for detonation, or breach that next level.

Guess what it happened already. It’s been happening. There is no flip to switch, no door to be unlocked, no activation to be activated. You have already been cleared for take off and you are already airborne. You are flying!

This is not about optimization. This is about evolution. Your only mission is to be. Be yourself. Be well. Be easy about it.

You know when you’re sitting there and all of a sudden you get a great idea or solve a problem or have an epiphany or realization or even just a little nugget of wisdom? Some people refer to this occurrence as a “download”. Like it came from somewhere else other than your own mind.

And when you need a great idea or problem solved or an epiphany or realization or little nugget of wisdom, no one talks about this, I call it an “upload”. Like you put it out there and wait, you send an email with proposed questions or desires attached and you sleep on it until the response and download comes.

I think awareness of this cycle is croosh (slang for crucial).

To take this computering reference even further, with all that’s going on in the world recently we are forced to “reset”. But beyond the reset, it’s a whole other thing to delete files, delete folders, and even “wipe” the hard drive.

I am not saying we need to induce amnesia, but I am saying some of the systems we are running are outdated. It doesn’t always work to install an upgrade on top of an old program. You have to install the new stuff on a clean drive. This will also make lots of room for new downloads.

Sometimes we are the rejected and sometimes we are the rejector. It sucks to be either actually. It could be as simple as frequencies matching or not, but let’s make it more complicated.

Rejection has something to do with worthiness. We are either on the sending end or receiving end of it. Worthiness has something to do with comparison. “Comparison is the thief of joy,” heard this quote on an NBA broadcast of all places and it is what sparked this post. Great quote.

Comparison has something to do with standards based on past experiences or future ideals. Thus, comparison has something to do with analysis which leads to judgement which leads to division or unity.

Of course we have to have our standards, our non negotiables, and our red flags. But the planet could use more unity right about now. Our actions can influence our neighbors, our neighbors can influence their neighbors, and those neighbors can influence racists.

We have to leave some room for that influence to take place. That room or time or space needed is created by staying out of judgement, comparison, worthiness, and rejection. Not easy I know. But we were all little brats at one time, new info and guidance was provided. We were given time and space to evolve for the better. It’s possible.

Gonna try to separate the photos from the words. I tried it before, going to try it again. I know it doesn’t matter but usually the random photos have nothing to do with illustrating the random words and vice versa. Starting today all future writings will go in the “REPORTS” section and all future photos in the “RESEARCH” section. To make it more confusing, all past posts will be have to be listed in both sections but eventually it will self organize. I think.

OMG how we organize things. We need boundaries, walls, categories, labels, etc. It’s just how our brains work. And when people, places, or things act outside of our given labels then wires are crossed and we spazz out.

On the other hand, when we label ourselves we assume an identity and along with that identity comes belief systems and behaviors. When that identity is challenged, we try selling the belief systems and behaviors in order to recruit. It becomes a safety in numbers survival based situation. More spazzing basically.

This leads to polarity and has gotten us in this mess we are in now. (It’s been kind of the plan all along if you ever read Machiavelli.)(“Divide and conquer” was his whole jam. Remember when Tupac got out of jail after reading his book and recorded an album under that name and then all of a sudden West Coast vs East Coast.)

The sooner we can honor and appreciate 7 billion perspectives, the sooner we can get out of this mess.

Note: I think we are not supposed to say “spazz” anymore. If you are offended, please leave a comment and I will remove the word(s) in question.