You've made me wonder if the goal here is never to become the best editor of our own stories. Even the most skilled writers, great self-editors by any measure, need another set of eyes (sometimes many) to edit their work. To your point, they're too close to their work.
It is the presence of other people in our lives that truly gives it meaning, but not passively. It's the ways they reflect our stories, and how they ask us to reconsider them.
An angle that becomes increasingly foregrounded for me in the conversation about self-worth and how we develop narratives around their sources is the role of culture and technology.
Culture, being the ever-present backdrop of experience that informs us of norms with which we can orient our behaviors. Technology, mostly in the form these days of algorithmically-driven platforms that incentivize our attention staying attuned to them.
We're swimming in these seas that we can't see like the fish that can't see the water they are always in. Culture is more a battleground these days than they used to be in the States, and technology platforms fragment and feed us stories that bombard our baser psychological structures with constant narratives about where we SHOULD attach our senses of worth.
I think it's wise to begin again, looking within, and looking directly at each other in our real, physical eyes to see how we matter to each other. There self-worth can be found in spades.
It’s a great point, JJ. It reminds me how some people thought movies would be the end of live theater.
Perhaps we’re just a little capture by all this digital convenience right now, and it might fade over time. Not for all of us, but for enough of us, like how some people wouldn’t be exposed to any entertainment without screens, and how some of us don’t even watch TV.
We seem to intuitively know, if not at least by its absence, that the presence of others is what makes any of this worth it.
Not far off this point, my friend Maureen published a piece that talks about feeling seen for our stories (my interpretation, not her words exactly). You might dig it.
Your friend Codin sounds like a gift - May we all be blessed with a Codin in our lives.
Someone who can see our success story when we're too close to it. We're often the worst editors of our own narratives. I am that for sure, Damon.
Yes. 100% he is.
You've made me wonder if the goal here is never to become the best editor of our own stories. Even the most skilled writers, great self-editors by any measure, need another set of eyes (sometimes many) to edit their work. To your point, they're too close to their work.
It is the presence of other people in our lives that truly gives it meaning, but not passively. It's the ways they reflect our stories, and how they ask us to reconsider them.
Yes! Even the best self editors hit blind spots. At least this is true for me.
Other people help me notice what I’ve edited out without even realizing it.
Happy Friday Damon.
An angle that becomes increasingly foregrounded for me in the conversation about self-worth and how we develop narratives around their sources is the role of culture and technology.
Culture, being the ever-present backdrop of experience that informs us of norms with which we can orient our behaviors. Technology, mostly in the form these days of algorithmically-driven platforms that incentivize our attention staying attuned to them.
We're swimming in these seas that we can't see like the fish that can't see the water they are always in. Culture is more a battleground these days than they used to be in the States, and technology platforms fragment and feed us stories that bombard our baser psychological structures with constant narratives about where we SHOULD attach our senses of worth.
I think it's wise to begin again, looking within, and looking directly at each other in our real, physical eyes to see how we matter to each other. There self-worth can be found in spades.
It’s a great point, JJ. It reminds me how some people thought movies would be the end of live theater.
Perhaps we’re just a little capture by all this digital convenience right now, and it might fade over time. Not for all of us, but for enough of us, like how some people wouldn’t be exposed to any entertainment without screens, and how some of us don’t even watch TV.
We seem to intuitively know, if not at least by its absence, that the presence of others is what makes any of this worth it.
Thanks for sharing more of your stories around success.
The stories we tell to ourselves and each other are really fascinating and deep.
Not far off this point, my friend Maureen published a piece that talks about feeling seen for our stories (my interpretation, not her words exactly). You might dig it.
https://notesmidlifecrisis.substack.com/p/who-did-you-tell