Oak
@oaknotes
Oak
You might say to yourself, using your food money on a pipe dream is crazy. Why do you need to build a library? Why do you need to farm rice? I would respond: is it not so marvelous? To want the world you see in your head more than you want the food here on the ground? I didn’t know it was possible to want a dream more than I could want food. What... See more
The strip club did indeed make me bonkers!
The biggest lesson I got from the strip club was this: money is everywhere. Especially in this world making, where dollars (or other currencies of the nation-state) are backed up by nothing but belief, money is truly limitless. If that is the case: why would I hoard it? What would happen if I focused on learning how to conduct its movement as a... See more
The strip club did indeed make me bonkers!
Time freedom, time sovereignty, goes beyond spending it on loved ones or pleasures. In terms of first priority, I am in need of time to pray. Do you see the feedback loop? I get time; I gift it to my imagination. Me and my mind and my Benevolent Divine, we sit in contemplative prayer and focused acquisition of our greater desires. The focus yields... See more
The strip club did indeed make me bonkers!
I am not crazy. Or maybe I am. It doesn’t matter. This is what matters.
That’s a better way to describe wealth, actually: the ability to bend time to your liking. However, there are many ways we can seize back our time. I believe this bit was the most radicalizing thing about working in the strip club: learning that nothing was more important to me than sovereignty over the way I spent my time.
... See moreif you want that which feels insurmountable, you must move towards those boundary points of insanity with a peaceful and persistent curiosity. You must inquire as to why you ever thought it was impossible in the first place. Who told you that? Why? What stake did that person or belief system or institution have in making sure that you never... See more
From Ismatu Gwendolyn’s The strip club did indeed make me bonkers!
In this world making, maladies really only become problems when they interfere with one's ability to perform their daily job. So, I'm not supposed to write to insurance and say, “Hey, this person is working too much. And that's really the cause of all of the things that they come to see me for." I'm supposed to give you tools on how to cope with... See more
The strip club did indeed make me bonkers!
The striving creatures of our souls are in existential threat. Simply breathing without the permission of capital is an offense. If you have not earned your breath it is offensive. You enter the world on loan — someone will cover your debts for now but one day you are expected to pay up or perish, and none will be so sorry if you haven’t demonstrated yourself to be hardworking enough, earnest enough in the face of a system that simply doesn’t care. You would simply be, waste.
To refuse the premise of this type of existence is severely radical in its humanity.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
The Summer Day — Mary Oliver
Science requires deviant thinking.
Compare with “The Geography of Nowhere”
This Substack essay is focused on the culture-wide phaseout of the weirdo, standout design, and counter-culture behavior, using architecture as a touchstone to demonstrate. The point is fair, and I’m curious how it compares to Geography of Nowhere’s culture-wide analysis of soulless architecture and deprioritization of humans via architecture and city planning.