I saw a post asking what breakthrough, if any, has been undiscovered. Like, what is that thing that humanity found, realised was important, but then somehow forgot and stopped doing?
There are several. Top of the list for me is that we have somehow forgotten how to be people.
Human beings right now are anxious, unwell, unreliable. We ghost, bicker, are discontent, and lacking in purpose. I think there is a vast misalignment inside of us. At some point in the last decades, we collectively lost touch with what it means to be conscious beings.
If we are to create any semblance of a meaningful life, we must rediscover what it means to be people.
So, what is a person?
This is my working definition: A person has autonomy, is resilient, capable of critical thinking, self-regulation, community, accountability, and empathy. They have agency and exercise it. A person navigates life. They know living is a verb. A person laughs, has interests, fucks up, forgives themselves, and fixes it. Do you see the vision?
The world at present does not automatically support personhood. So you have to actively work towards reclaiming your personhood. Some folks seem really good at doing this by default. Others like me need a lot of help, and effort. It’s the entire reason I started this experiment in November.
And as you know from reading these missives, I have had starts and stops. But the biggest lesson so far has been that shame is useless. Doesn’t count for shit. The trick is to keep getting up, full stop. Make changes where necessary, adjust, do whatever needs to happen.
A person stays in the ring.
My week. My best week so far.
