Good morning. We have another chance to make this the best day all over again, how wonderful is that? Anything could happen today. I do my best to visualize the best day I can imagine, everything coming up roses. On those great days, it seems like any past setbacks were actually setting you up for your current success, so in times of turbulence try tor remember that beautiful days lie ahead.

Recently I was reading or listening to something that was talking about what happens when we dream, what may be happening with our memories when we sleep. That things get filtered out for long term storage, our brain tries to remember the important memories. A lot of times what we think is important are the extremes, so the bad times can seem more bad, and the good times can seem more perfect. We can then idealize the good times in the past, and give more significance to challenging times. That’s not to diminish the feelings that we experienced it’s just to say we can forget the silver lining in certain challenging times and think that our best days are behind us, because we forget the parts that weren’t so good.

So trauma comes from something really bad that happened, but then becomes a toxic story that we tell ourselves over, and over again that ends up blocking us now. Let’s tell new stories. Let’s tell stories that help us heal from the pain in our past, and paint a picture of a future we want to move into now. We can make up any story we want, because the story that we’re telling ourselves by default is made up too. Tell better stories.

Liminal space is where I’ve been spending a lot of time lately, and time traveling. In the game of chess there are many different possibilities, make a wrong move and it might be checkmate, or you might find yourself in a bad situation and then be able to innovate your way to victory.

Liminality is the place that exists in the middle of a transformation where you’re not what you were, but not yet who you’ll be, your highest form. Life, death and everything in between, are we growing or are we dying, that is the question. It’s a choice, I choose growth, understanding that I won’t be here always.

Also, I’m starting to sound like a fortune cookie, so I’m gonna wish you a good night, but what dreams may come? While we’re here, let’s live it up. Life is but a dream, so let’s make it a good one, I’m so thankful for the journey so far, and excited for the next chapter.

If we all have empathetic abilities to some degree of another, we should be aware of the flip side. The concept of us being the sum of the 5 people we spend the most time with, might be because we let some of those people into who we are, they subconsciously shape our identity. There is some kind of network effect between humans, beyond the network that I’m writing this blog through. There is a collective consciousness of sorts, an energy field, the force, G.O.D., the universe, the food chain, there are forces that connect us, choose whichever name resonates with you.

I’m currently listening to the DTFH podcast right now, the latest episode featuring David Sauvage. If you haven’t seen Duncan Trussell’s Midnight Gospel on Netflix, I highly recommend it.

I’m kind of decompressing today, so I’m just gonna say, be careful who you let in and who you surround yourself with. Strive to stay open, but protect yourself from energy vampires, or those who want to bring your energy down.

Keep going.

When you are on your way, there will be hurdles that come up, they are there to teach you how to leap higher.

Do not stop at the first sign of resistance. Sometimes you feel the most resistance… right… before… you…

….Take…

…..

Kick it down the road, or get your feet under you. When rubber meets the road, be ready to go. Now is the moment you’ve been waiting for, there's not another now. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, there may be more, but don’t let this one pass you by. Don’t take things for granted, be grateful for what you have. It might not seem like a lot, but that’s all relative. You have your life, what a ghost wouldn’t give? Live your life, what’s the alternative?

For Optimists:

What’s the worst that can happen?

The worst case scenario for the risks that we take, is that we die as a result of something that we try. I don’t know the statistics on this, but I don’t think that most people die as a direct result of trying new things. I would venture to guess that for most of us, it's just dumb luck, the cosmic joke. Our time will come when it’s our time to come, not because of anything we say, do or don’t do.

To be clear, mask up, and get your vaccine shots when you can. Taking that kind of precaution, following traffic rules, preventing wars, these are about preventing unnecessary death for many people, not just about our individual lives. To be clear, I’m not a nihilist, I Alec The Third believe that there is a purpose to this life, but it is what you make it.

So I choose to be optimistic, while at the same time understanding that it won’t last forever. All the more reason to enjoy this moment. So if we know that the worst case scenario is death, because we can’t come back from that, and that most of our decisions aren’t actually life and death, then it leads to a question.

What are you waiting for, and why are you hedging your bets?

Most likely it’s F.O.P.O. a term Michael Gervais the sports and performance psychologist for the Seahawks coined, which means the Fear of Other People’s Opinions. The irony is that FOPO leads to FOMO, fear of missing out, or worse actually missing out on opportunities because you were too afraid to try. And who’s opinions are we afraid of? Who would actually ridicule you for trying something new?

Probably those who are too afraid to try themselves, and we don’t need to listen to those people. They aren’t in the arena, and they’ll never understand fully until they’re brave enough to join. And maybe they’ll join because they saw you. So take the first step.

….

Maybe they aren’t really there. If they are… don’t let them bring you down. I’m not checking for them.

Sure, some people live to see others fall, but that says more about them than anything else. Don’t get pulled into the negativity vortex, the enlightenment will not be found in there.

For Lovers:

I love you too!

I am Alec The Third, the Greatest Storyteller. I break generational curses through speaking, writing, acting, and music. And I curate and elevate the storytelling of others so that we can reclaim the narrative, and create a better world by telling better stories.

Listen. I need to listen more. I want to get the '“umms”, “ahhs”, and “likes” out of my speech pattern, but mostly I want to learn how to listen better.

One day at a time.

Speaking of time, did I mention that it’s time for me to get a new computer? This one is on borrowed time. It’s past time I got a new one. I am grateful for what I’ve done with this one over time, but I look forward to having one that doesn’t take 30 minutes to wake up every time I go to use it, robbing me of my precious time.

Still, I am grateful that my time problem is solvable, and in the scheme of things isn’t so bad at all. I am excited for this time right now, I just want to use my time better while I’m fortunate enough to have it.

Muhammad Ali declared “I am the greatest” before he knew and ultimately proved he was, he named himself. We can name ourselves. In the spirit of Muhammad Ali, I’ve started naming myself The Great Storyteller. Knowing the times, I quickly did a search online to see if the domain name was available. It wasn’t, however The Greatest Storyteller was.

There is power in naming things, because there is a risk that you will fail. But as I’ve learned, failure is one of the greatest teachers, and a necessary factor on the road to greatness. And I want to be great. The Greatest. We can grow into names. The Greatest Storyteller.

If you don’t like the story you believe about yourself or the world, it’s time to tell better stories. -The Great Storyteller

Getting out of town can make you realize that you need to get out of town more. It can also make you realize that you need to schedule actual down time into your schedule. I came back into town yesterday morning and immediately went into work mode, errands, unpacking, classes, go go go.

Breathe.

I woke up this morning realizing that I owed pages, so here we are, the morning edition. Today’s schedule is no lighter.

Time is fleeting. Let us make the most of it. Let us also make sure we are regularly charging our batteries, so that we aren’t forced to recharge because we don’t have any juice left.

It’s amazing how music can transport you through time. My mind has completely shifted recently about my beliefs surrounding time, and about how beliefs can change our very reality.

I’m a time traveler. But traveling through time has taught me the value of right now, and that the past is still happening right now.

People give you clues along the way, but we miss them so many times that the universe starts sending more direct flares. Sometimes through our ancestors, sometimes through signs, sometimes through memories of those now departed handing you a book that had all the answers you’ve been looking for all along. It just finally revealed itself now. Be Here Now.

So this is my wife’s computer.

Further proving how dire my computer is becoming. It is on borrowed time at this point. But it is taking time. And now it’s not connecting to the world wide web, even though the wifi is connecting.

So… that’s it for this post… hot tub to enjoy… rest to get.

Many blessings on our journeys.

Rest and recovery.

When we train hard, when we go hard, and when we just get through this thing called life we need to remember to rest. Stop and smell the roses. Take moments to pause, reflect, and have the chance to really see all that we have to be grateful for. Maybe drive upstate to stay at some dear friends’ house who you were going to visit, but one of them just got a film job, so they actually won’t be there this time but they still extended their welcome to you anyway… hypothetically.

Well, I have some packing to do. It’s been quite the year, and I mean the past 12 months. What a journey. Time to take a moment to recharge. I wish you all the rest and recovery, it’s just as important and facilitates the deeper work. Take care.

Happy V Day! We got our first round of vaccine shots today! Side effects are a bit of sore arms, with a whole lot of peace of mind for the potential of heading into a brighter future where we can hug people freely. I miss hugging people. I know not everybody is a hugger, I am, so when we can, I’m gonna be open for hugs.

If you are reading this right now, please know that you are loved. I know that this day can be a hard day, and trust me, I’ve had my share. Remember to love yourself. The more you can do that, whether you are in a romantic relationship right now or not, the more you can love and be loved by others. Also, romantic love is great, but it is just a part of love.

I love you. I promise you, I do.

Get your shots, ASAP. While I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve had to find clarity, to develop a writing practice, and to slow down. I would love to be in theaters again to see movies and plays, and to make and be in them. So, please, get your vaccines.

Stories need to be told, so that people understand what happened before, so that we can break the cycle of repeating our mistakes.

Kind of a long run on sentence, but I just watched Judas and The Black Messiah, the story about Fred Hampton’s murder.

The movie focuses on Bill O’Neal who was an FBI informant, and who I remember seeing in Eyes On The Prize as a child. If you don’t know this story, a story very important to me, watch Judas and The Black Messiah.

People won’t find us if we don’t tell people who we are. We want our work to speak for ourselves, but how does our work speak if nobody knows our work exists? If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? It’s a silly question on the surface, but it gets at existential questions: are we the observer or the observed and who is telling the narrative? In “The Untethered Soul,” Michael A. Singer talks about how a lot of us have a voice or voices in our heads and how we think that that is our true self, but that actually our deepest self is the one who hears the voice. If we don’t like the voice or the story we are hearing, we actually have it in us to change the narrative and tell new stories that serve us and how we want to show up in the world.

Where do we go from here?

Conversations are happening. On Clubhouse, in real life (with proper CoVid preventative measures, I hope), in organizations, and amongst friends, conversations are happening. About race in America and around the world, on economics, and on what kind of legacy we want to leave as humanity on this planet.

I heard somebody said that they are part of the problem and also part of the solution, and to me that means they are part of the conversation. And the solution is to be in conversation. So let’s keep having conversations.