It’s the Journey Not the destination That Matters — Featured Writers
The 3 X 3
April 29th marks the beginning of Golden Week here in Japan, a week-long national holiday. It is a time when people take the opportunity to go out, socialize with friends and enjoy the spring weather. It is the first time in a long while that people will actually be able to do that.
It seems like a good time for long walks along the river, meditating on the beauty of nature as I pass the wildlife on my treks, and getting up even earlier. The sunrise today was at 4:55! And when I stepped out for a breath of fresh air at 5:30, my neighbor was already hanging their wash.
Rising earlier provides time for two of my favorite pastimes, reading, and meditation. I’m getting better at meditation. On the reading front, I keep reminding myself to stop scrolling news and social media and to spend more time here on Medium immersed in the stories. Even a few minutes here makes me happier than endlessly checking stuff anywhere else.
This week’s 3X3 is deeply rooted in philosophy, and I encourage you, after reading these, to take time to sit alone with your thoughts and meditate on how the combination of your past experiences has prepared you for what comes next.
Chad Gates has a technical background, but that doesn’t limit his ability to see life abstractly. In this short-form story, he explains how our greatest strengths can also be our biggest weaknesses until we learn to control them.
Too often, the debate about how to live as the best versions of ourselves is of one side needing to be right, and thus the other being wrong. Instead, the truth is that each person’s solutions are theirs alone. Devised from individual life experiences and perspectives, it is what is right for them.
However, that doesn’t have to mean it is right for you. In his story Can We Resolve the Never-Ending Tension Between Science and Religion? Chad considers that the battle for supremacy may not be between individuals but different parts of ourselves.
I’ve read many stories that offer up seemingly simple solutions to life’s difficulties, but while a solution may seem to fit the problem at hand, applying that advice is something which takes years to get right. Just trying has the potential to be the pinnacle of our success.
If you want to take a writing challenge, I suggest you try to be like Sean Cordes. Sean is continually growing as a writer by pursuing new objectives, using different styles and techniques, and he can entertain and educate at the same time. One of the techniques he suggests is writing a six-word story. I can’t write a six-word sentence! Much less a six-word story. This one seems more like a headline than a story:
Boy wants love, chooses partner carefully.
I think I need more practice :-)
Messing ‘Round the Sugar Shack relies on dialogue to share a lifetime of wisdom.
And in How Failing to Call Fair Catch Made Me Amazing, he writes a memoir of a high school experience that helped to shape his adult life.
Christina Sponias is a Brazilian mental therapist, philosopher, and writer who has traveled the world. I find her stories about dream interpretation and philosophy quite engaging. For example, in How I Found Explanations for Unexplained Phenomena and Learned to Change Predictions she talks about dreams as warning signs of what is to come if we continue down the same path.
The 7 Most Important Factors in Your Life is about the different types of health we should pursue to live balanced and happy lives, starting with mental health.
Finally, How to Behave Like a Sage is a read for practicing thinking deeply and contributing fully to the lives we hope to live. As Chad said, “Improving ourselves — our character, our spirit, our soul — represents the most valuable purpose we could ever dare move toward” I think Christina would agree with that.
Thank you for sharing a bit of time with me and these fantastic writers. I am grateful to you.
Win the Day!
John
Here is my collection of other featured writer essays.