Feral Choirs, Floating Dairies, and Precision Walking 🎤 🐄 👯

Expand your mind and reap the rewards.

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Waddle-a-Hoo, M’Friends!

It’s a great day to get brought to your knees and clobbered over the head with a shovel of perspective.

Ok. That doesn’t sound too appealing. And who’s to say your perspective needs changing?

Maybe it doesn’t. But it does need a looksee now and then. And kicking the tires of a new perspective doesn’t hurt. More often than not, we find that we could benefit from an upgrade.

Here’s the thing, though. We all believe that our point of view is right. Or true, anyway. Seeing life through a different lens is often the last thing we consider.

But then along comes a wrecking ball of pain and destruction. Could be divorce, or a lay-off, or a nasty diagnosis... Our knees buckle and everything we thought to be true is obliterated. And only then, when the paper-thin walls of your existing perspective crash down, can you see with fresh eyes.

I know. Because it happened to me this week.

My body shook with sobs and I cried out from the deepest part of my soul. Literally. It lasted over an hour. It was the most emotional upheaval I’ve had in my adult life.

It was about money. And career. And relationships. And how I show up in life. How I serve others. How I live as authentically as possible.

And there I was. All six feet, 200 lbs. of me, collapsed on the floor, barely able to form words. Just. Bawling. And heaving with the weight of it all.

In the vernacular, it was my “come to Jesus” moment. Not a pretty sight.

But in order to rise from the ashes, you have to be in the ashes. And sure enough, as painful and embareassing and damning as it was to my sense of self, it was accompanied by redemption. I could see myself more clearly. I could see how I was keeping myself small. Not living my truth.

The craziest thing? A day later, after the shaking - real and metaphorical - had ceased, I wanted to return to that moment. Not for the pain. For the breakthrough.

I think I had the biggest headspank of my life.

As rough as it was, I now stand, er, write before you wielding a renewed vigor. I feel excited. Positive. Electric. And it’s because, with my new perspective, only days old, my world’s become supercharged.

Hallelujah.

Your Minister of Mindblowing,
Sean

P.S. I'm sure you noticed. You're receiving this on Sunday instead of Saturday. Kick back and enjoy. May this be the perfect timing for whatever you have in store.

TRY ON A NEW SELF

The elephant in the room whenever we’re talking about seeing the world differently is the transitory, matter-less, indefinable Self. You can slice open the body a billion different ways and you’ll never find the thing that is you. And even if you could, your Self is constantly changing. Of course, even when you have an Aha! moment, you change. So, if your Self is fluid anyway, it can be anything you want! I propose seeding the clouds to make it rain. Here's how: Act like someone else. Talk the way they do, dress like them, walk like them. Eat and talk and smile like them. And see how this affects your perspective. You might find yourself growing out of your own skin.

FERAL CHOIRS

Phil Minton started this over 25 years ago. And I love, love, love the idea. When we think about making music, many of us are prone to “Oh, I can’t do that” or “I don’t have a talented bone in my body”. But when you boil it down, we’ve only collectively decided what sounds good and what doesn’t. Even then, for every fan of Susan Boyle there’s another who loves Tuvan throat singers. That’s why it’s positively extraordinary - and relieving! - to see groups of non-singers coming together to, well, “sing”. If you want to call it singing. There’s whistling, and grunting, and vocalizing in unusual ways. And then there’s the coming together as a group, the purpose of creation, the performance... And ultimately, there’s artistry - even if it’s different from what we normally accept as artistic. Does this make you see hear music in a new way?

KIO STARK - STRANGER ENTHUSIAST

The world is so vast, with so much complexity and, if you can think about it this way, gifts available around every corner. Oftentimes, the one thing we can do to help ourselves is to rub up against it. Only then will we be able to receive those gifts. (If Einstein’s right, and “The definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting different results”, then he’d certainly approve of a little experiential novelty.) One of the simplest, and most convenient, ways of igniting a new perspective is talking to strangers. You really never know who you’ll meet and what will come of it. Check out Kio Stark’s TED talk and get inspired to connect with people you’ve never met.

LONELINESS AS CHARACTER-BUILDER?

I’m sure I’ll get no pushback from the introverts out there. But speaking as someone who thrives on social interaction, it is revelatory to consider how loneliness can be beneficial. Yes, there’s plenty about how you frame it: being alone, in solitude, is not necessarily the same thing. But that said, what does it do for us? How can it instruct us to be better at this whole game of life? What do we gain from it? Long article but worth the read.

THE FLOATING DAIRY -
ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

As urbanization disconnects citizens from the source of their food; as coastal cities grow susceptible to food shortages due to flooding and storms; and as these cities push farmers further away from consumers, there is a strong need to find alternatives for food production. Enter the floating dairy: 40 cows on a 1200 sq. meter platform producing 1000 liters of milk daily, pasteurized and processed on the floor below. Amazing use of space with many benefits. But some have concerns over the smell and others wonder if the cows get seasick. I’m curious about their grazing abilities. But the developers are milking it for all it’s worth.

PRECISION WALKING

I remember scoffing when I first heard about synchronized swimming. It seemed more a waterborne, Rockettes-worthy choreography than an Olympic sporting event. Nonetheless, the lockstep (lockswim?) movements still managed to amaze and impress. Now, there's precision walking, which brings the same kinetic discipline to the stage. One the one hand, it’s just a group of people walking. But how they walk?! If you’re like me, you won’t be able to look away.

Header photo via Martin de Pasquale | Experiment gif via imgur.com | Who screengrab photo via TED2016 | Where screengrab gif via Eline Wieland | Treats screengrab gif via tvasahi

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