Thinking is man’s only basic virtue, from which all the others proceed. And his basic vice, the source of all his evils, is that nameless act which all of you practice, but struggle never to admit: the act of blanking out, the willful suspension of one’s consciousness, the refusal to think—not blindness, but the refusal to see; not ignorance, but the refusal to know. It is the act of unfocusing your mind and inducing an inner fog to escape the responsibility of judgment—on the unstated premise that a thing will not exist if only you refuse to identify it, that A will not be A so long as you do not pronounce the verdict “It is.” Non-thinking is an act of annihilation, a wish to negate existence, an attempt to wipe out reality. But existence exists; reality is not to be wiped out, it will merely wipe out the wiper. By refusing to say “It is,” you are refusing to say “I am.” By suspending your judgment, you are negating your person. When a man declares: “Who am I to know?” he is declaring: “Who am I to live?” –Ayn Rand (from Galt’s Speech, The New Intellectual)

Guilty. I know I think. I know I use my brain *sometimes*. But am I turning it on just long enough for basic necessities and then shutting it back off?

“My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake, and they live in a state of constant, total amazement.” Patricia, Joe Versus the Volcano

I spent some time looking at what my blog was like 8 years ago to the month. I loved blogging back then. I wrote about the most trivial things– whatever was on my mind. Posted a random photo if there wasn’t one to go with the subject of the post. Posted pics of food gratuitously. And I suppose what helped keep it going was the small but devoted community of people– family and friends– who read and commented and conversed. Most of them blogged, too. You spoke your mind and there were people who actually gave a damn, no matter how trivial.

Tangent to the original subject, but I don’t think I’ve ever placed enough value on friendship, come to think of it. Friends who helped keep me awake, helped keep my brain on, and perhaps even my heart beating.

I look at today and why don’t I write the mundane amusing experiences and details of life anymore? What has changed? Has everything been documented? Is life that repetitive that there’s nothing left to write? Nah… as mundane as life can be, as repetitive as it can be, the beauty is in the details. The brief moments. The conversations. The laughter. The heartache. And everything in between.

Could be that my “falling asleep” coincides with becoming more and more withdrawn from life in general. Or maybe they’re the same thing.

For life cannot always be made of grand experiences and massive break-throughs. But then, in a way, those aren’t terribly interesting anyways, are they?

And so I task myself with turning my brain back on. With waking up. With seeing beauty in the details. With striving to live in that state of constant, total amazement. With putting off intellectual laziness of all kinds. Not 100% sure how this is done… but life will be better if I do. Taking time is going to mean blogging. For me, anyways. Takes more work than a quick post to instagram or a status update on Facebook. Let’s make this something I can enjoy reflecting on in 8 years.

Speaking of change… I need to actually spend some time and make my own wordpress theme. I’m not feeling this particular theme right now other than the built in picture frames.

Anyways, this is only a tangent to the topic I wanted to write about.

A few weeks back an iPad app started making some waves online. It’s called “Paper by 53″ (it’d just be called Paper but there were some other apps released prior to it also with the name paper, I think). The idea behind paper was to let me people draw and sketch naturally. The interface is elegant and simple– it gets out of your way so you can simply create.

Well it was a quote from one of the creators of this app, Georg Petschnigg, that got me thinking and connecting some dots. I was reading a review of the app, and he was quoted thusly:

“People are at their best when they’re creating.”

Bam. The truth of this statement resonated instantly, and struck me as being terribly profound.

Some people think that “creatives” are artists and musicians, or at the least, “right-brained”. But everyone creates– whether or not it takes the form of “the arts”. I really believe it’s our nature as humans to create– to produce, if you will. To take what’s around us and make from those materials something greater than what the original parts were by themselves. Ideas, raw materials, organizing the talents of others– whatever it may be.

Initially I thought, “Yes, I’m at my best when I’m creating. That is when I feel the most alive, the most energized, the most satisfied.” But then I thought of the world we live in. The following scenario passed quickly through my mind: a company goes out of business. Everyone there “loses their jobs.” Are there just that many fewer jobs in the world now? That much less to do? No. We are creators. We are builders. We are organizers. We are growers and cultivators. We are producers.

Some will wallow in unproductively– they are obviously not at their best. Perhaps they have been deceived and believe happiness and satisfaction come from somewhere besides creating.

Not too many days later, someone posted a John Stossel report from a little over a year ago about “freeloaders”. Though this person only posted the clip having to do with those who pose as pan handlers to make an easy living, I found the rest of the program and this same thought about creating came back to me as I watched John make a real world comparison between those who are entitled and primarily consume, and those who strive to create and build:

I watched this and realized it was a perfect illustration. Now, certainly this is a piece produced by the mainstream media to illustrate a certain point of view– but it rings true to me in general. The group that is spoon fed is worse off for being so, and the group that expects no one else to support them actually really prospers and has a much better life.

I don’t really have anything profound to conclude this rambling with– just the observation that a major factor in the health of our nation depends just how many people buy into the lie of happiness by consuming, vs the truth happiness by creating. The pie is infinite, it can only get bigger. There is no finite amount of prosperity to go around– only people who would stand in our way of freely creating and producing for their own selfish purposes.

If you didn’t see or watch this video I posted on Facebook a couple days ago, take a minute and watch it. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched creativity and passion work at such a young age. This kid is a builder, a creator, a producer. He has an awesome life ahead of him.

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Can you just tell how much she’s enjoying dancing here? She’s totally into it and totally having fun.