awellreadman

[awellreadman]

One of the most valuable tings we learn from open sexual lifestyles is that our programming about love, intimacy, and sex can be rewritten. - Janet W. Hardy & Dossie Easton

[awellreadman]

[awellreadman]

I feel like the world wanted to remind me that it loves me; and so it gave me him.

Feyi; You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty; Akwaeke Emzi

[awellreadman]

[awellreadman]

We need to have a talk...

Look, i’e been having fun posting things, unloading things, creating things and realizing new things about myself through you, but it’s a good idea at some point in every budding relationship to ask yourself, what’s the consequences or hopeful expectations here?

Tumblr, I haven't really shared you, so my concern comes from a non-logistical perspective. Maybe it’s pathological, I wan’t you to be great and have a greater purpose; change is good. But to what and why? Originally we were on a quest to document all the books I read. so far we’ve identified four main pillars topic, and three paradigms to view them through with the intention of inspiring, imagination and innovation within the reader (me...!). What should I measure, the topics?

The quality vs. quantity? The quantity of sub topics to topics? the entirety of a particular duration likened to a life time. (don’t sound so bad.. nope.) 

Does this stand to represent myself, and brand as a writer well? Should I produce alt. Social media representation? Twitter paired with this?

Why I read and still decided to major in English..

Reading is a dying activity with all the audio books and phones, so I like to think it sets me apart. Although I may go back to audio books, the physical quality of the books create a sense of ownership. A sense of pride and property resides. Value. Reading has also changed my perceptions of important life components for the better.  

I like to think unlike, idk history.. that with this English degree, I can benefit from, legal, medical, creative and explore a whole other host of options too, just gotta be that creative self-starter. (..!) Flexibility, many options, just gotta DO THE WORK! 

[awellreadman]

Update: 3/27/19

What I’m reading now: I’m reading what’s been assigned. to me in class, and I’ve come across two stories I’ll share here shortly. The stories are written well, deal with some pretty captivating technique.. Verbal Irony. Me and words, gotta love them. Maybe poetry is something I should continue to look at and practice. Coltivo Una Rosa Blanca?  

What I’ve read: I’ve finished an article that talking about; contending and normalizing sex in literature. Article was written by a Cutis Sittenfeld. The two stories in question, one by the author of said Sittenfeld article. “The Prairie Wife” by Sittenfeld and “Where are you going, where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates. Both stories are full of dramatic irony, situational irony and just.. irony. I enjoyed stumbling upon the verbal irony after I defined a few words that stood out to me. I like the act of hiding something like that for prospective readers.. maybe My Dear Aunt Ida could use some. 

What I wanna’ read: I’m still undecided, honestly I’ve been eager to make money moves like my friends; as a product of big money. Maybe a book on the prospective industries and some article digs? Reading for business. any suggestions???

[awellreadman]

Stoicism isn’t Pessimistic. It’s Boldly Optimistic

TLDR: Stoicism isn’t a virtue signaling and ego boosting reason to be an edgy neckbeard. It promotes optimism. If you are interested in being more optimistic, you would want to practice optimism. If you want to practice optimism, you may do so by journaling, conversating optimistically and consuming positive materials with people who have the same goal in this open community I built.

Stoicism isn’t Pessimistic. It’s Boldly Optimistic by Ryan Holiday

When I was nineteen years old I was told to read a book: Meditations, by the stoic philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Of course, I didn’t fully understand it at the time, again I was a teenager, but I immediately tore the book apart and made a million notes on it. It was for me, what the economist Tyler Cowen calls a “Quake Book.” It shook my entire (albeit limited) world view.

Though this book changed my life, it was really a single passage inside that book that made the difference. It’s a passage that has struck and changed the lives of many people in the two thousand years since it’s been written. One I’ve turned to again and again–when I dropped out of school, when I had problems at work, problems in my relationships, problem with employees, and just normal life.

The passage goes like this:

“Our actions may be impeded…but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.

And then he concluded with powerful words destined for a maxim.

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

These words were scrawled by Marcus Aurelius himself, to himself, likely on the battlefront as he lead the Roman Army against barbarian tribes or possibly at the palace amongst the intrigue and pressure. Not exactly a happy or encouraging place to be.

Yet in the years since I first read it, I’ve started to understand is that this little paragraph is the perspective for a special kind of optimism. Stoic optimism.

I’m sure that sounds like an oxymoron, but stoicism gets a bad–and unfair–rap.

What Marcus was writing—reminding himself—is one of the core tenets of Stoicism. What it is prescribing is essentially this: in any and every situation—no matter how bad or seemingly undesirable it is—we have the opportunity to practice a virtue.

An example: I’m writing this article and I hope that it is received well. But it could very easily bomb or get a terrible response. Now this would be a minor but rather undesirable impediment or an obstacle.

That’s probably what I would think at first too. But seen another way it’s…a chance for me to remind myself of humility, or learn from the feedback and improve my writing or even just accept that I can’t please everyone all the time.

A Timeless Idea

Over the years since I first read the book (and in the course of researching my own), I studied people in history who had made this each decision–willingly or by force of circumstance. People who’d faced an obstacle but saw it as the way. Which makes sense because stoicism is ultimately an art that is designed to be practiced, not spoken about.

Take John D. Rockefeller before he was…well John D. Rockefeller as we knew him. He was just a kid with a deadbeat dad. At 16 he took his first job as bookkeeper and aspiring investor. He was making fifty cents a day. Less than two years later the Panic of 1857 struck. The result was a crippling national depression that lasted for several years.

Here was the greatest market depression in history and it hit Rockefeller just as he was finally getting the hang of things. It’s terrible right? Real investors who supposedly knew what they were doing lost everything. What is he supposed to do? Rockefeller later said that he was inclined to see the opportunity in every disaster. That’s exactly what he did.

Instead of complaining about this economic upheaval or quitting like his peers, Rockefeller chose to eagerly observe the events that unfolded. He looked at the panic as an opportunity to learn, a baptism in the market.

It was this intense self-discipline and objectivity that allowed Rockefeller to seize advantage from obstacle after obstacle in his life, during the Civil War, and the panics of 1873, 1907, and 1929. Within twenty years of that first crisis, Rockefeller would alone control 90 percent of the oil market. His greedy competitors had perished and his doubters had missed out.

It’s a two part mental shift. First, to see disaster rationally. To not panic, to not make rash decisions. And second, like Rockefeller, we can see opportunity in every disaster, and transform that negative situation into an education, a skill set, or a fortune.

Another example: General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

General Eisenhower—who men sniped behind his back was more of an organizer than a leader—had just pulled off the largest amphibious invasion in military history.

Slow going in the hedgerows of France had allowed the Germans to wage a series of counteroffensives—a final blitzkrieg of some 200,000 men. And now the Nazis threatened to throw them all back to the sea.

The Allies had a pretty understandable reaction: they just about freaked out.

But not Eisenhower. Striding into the conference room at headquarters in Malta, he made an announcement: He’d have no more of this quivering timidity from his deflated generals. “The present situation is to be regarded as opportunity for us and not disaster,” he commanded. “There will be only cheerful faces at this conference table.”

In the surging counteroffensive, Eisenhower was able to see the tactical solution that had been in front of them the entire time: the Nazi strategy carried its own destruction within itself.

Only then were the Allies able to see the opportunity inside the obstacle rather than simply the obstacle that threatened them. Properly seen, as long as the Allies could bend and not break, this attack would send more than fifty thousand Germans rushing headfirst into a net—or a “meat grinder,” as Patton eloquently put it.

Eisenhower’s ability to not be overwhelmed or discouraged by the German Blitzkrieg allowed him to see the weaknesses within it. By defusing his fear of the German counteroffensive he uses his optimistic attitude to find its weakness.

And then there is Thomas Edison. I don’t think that inventing the lightbulb was the craziest thing the guy ever did.

At age sixty-seven, Thomas Edison returned home one evening from another day at the laboratory. After dinner, a man came rushing into his house with urgent news: A fire had broken out at Edison’s research and production campus a few miles away.

Edison calmly but quickly made his way to the fire looking for his son. “Go get your mother and all her friends,” he told his son with childlike excitement. “They’ll never see a fire like this again.” Don’t worry, Edison calmed him. “It’s all right. We’ve just got rid of a lot of rubbish.”

That’s a pretty amazing reaction. It’s what the stoics might refer to as amor fati–loving the things that happen to us.

Edison wasn’t heartbroken, not as he could have and probably should have been.

Instead, the fire invigorated him. As he told a reporter the next day, he wasn’t too old to make a fresh start. “I’ve been through a lot of things like this. It prevents a man from being afflicted with ennui.”

Within about three weeks, the factory was partially back up and running. Within a month, its men were working two shifts a day churning out new products the world had never seen. Despite a loss of almost $1 million dollars (more than $23 million in today’s dollars), Edison would marshal enough energy to make nearly $10 million dollars in revenue that year ($200-plus million today).

So…how can we cultivate this fortitude and ingenuity?

The answer, I say, is with philosophy–practical philosophy. With Stoic optimism, we can be Edison, our factory on fire, not bemoaning our fate but enjoying the spectacular scene. And then starting the recovery effort the very next day—roaring back soon enough.

How about a business decision that turned out to be a mistake? It was a hypothesis that turned out to be wrong, like a scientist you can learn from it and use it for your next experiment. Or that computer glitch that erased all your work? You will now be twice as good at it since you will do it again, this time more prepared.

Perhaps you were injured recently and are stuck in bed recovering. Now you have the time to start your blog or the screenplay you’ve been meaning to write. Maybe you’ve recently lost your job. Now you can teach yourself the skills to get the job you’ve always wanted. You can take a careless employee’s mistake that cost you business and turn it into a chance to teach a lesson that can only be learned from experience. When people question our abilities that means we can exceed their lowered expectations of us that much quicker.

Easier said than done, of course.

In each of the three situations above, the individuals faced real and potentially life-threatening adversity. But instead of despairing at the horrific situation—economic panic, being overrun by the enemy, a catastrophic fire—these men were actually optimistic. You could almost say they were happy about it.

Why? Because it was an opportunity for a different kind of excellence. As Laura Ingalls Wilder put it: “There is good in everything, if only we look for it.”

I’m not Eisenhower. You’re not Rockefeller. Our factory has never burned down, so we don’t know how we would react.

But I don’t think it’s as super-human as it seems at first glance. Because there is a method and a framework for understanding, appreciating, and acting upon the obstacles life throws at us. Like Rockefeller too we can perceive events rationally and find the fortune in downturns. Like Eisenhower, we can disengage from our fears and see the opportunity inside our obstacles. Like Edison we can choose to be energized by the unexpected circumstances we find ourselves in. We know it won’t be easy but we are prepared to give it everything we have regardless.

In our daily lives we forget that the things that seem to be blocking us are small and that the obstacles blocking us are actually providing us answers for where to go next. It’s a timeless formula that can be revisited again and again.

All I can say is that this attitude is something I try to think of always. I try to envision these people facing much more significant problems than me, and seeing it not only as not bad but as an opportunity.

We all face tough situations on a regular basis. But behind the circumstances and events that provoke an immediate negative reaction is something good—some exposed benefit that we can seize mentally and then act upon.We blame outside forces or other people and we write ourselves off as failures or our goals as impossible. But there is only one thing we really control: our attitude and approach

Which is why the stoics say that what blocks the path is the path. That what seems to impede action can actually advance it. And that everything is a chance to practice some virtue or something different than originally intended. And you never know what good will come of that.

The obstacle is the way.

Found here

[awellreadman]

Black Panther Curiosities

I wonder weather or not I will begin reading, recording and analyzing my Comic Book readings on here. I don’t see why not. It is literature, and art.. 

MBJ’s character Kill-monger posses’s a deep knowledge and understanding of military tactic.. knowledge like that I covet highly, and instead of getting it the traditional way.. years in servitude to the teaching of my country, I wonder if I can acquire the mental models and knowledge via books.. more reading.. FUCK

 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby drew a lot of inspiration from historical movements, leaders and factions. Malcolm X, Dr. King, & The Black Panther Party has moved up in my reading list. 

[awellreadman]

UPDATE: 2/21/18

Earlier this month I’d ordered a book, Sapiens: A History of Humankind. But to my amazement I ordered the Summary text. this was a sucky discovery since I originally wanted to read the original text, and not a summary. I’d hope to come to the same realizations that the summary would offer me with no help, but now I’m stuck with a summary. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad to read this to prime my mind for understanding the book, but I’m still bitter about my mistake. 

What I have been reading is a play by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire. It’s been assigned to me via the English class I’m currently taking at my local junior college. The first assignment is to read the first six scenes and discuss the conflict and the catalysts for conflict. 

My instructor poses a question for the first discussion, Q: Without Blanche, would their even be a play?

Blanche is a character we meet immediately in the beginning and learn more about via the assigned 6 scenes. Blanche is the bougie baby sister of Stella, the main character in all this. Blanche arrives via a streetcar named desire, and is immediately put off by the raffish charm of the sisters neighborhood, Elysium Fields. Blanche displays a superior attitude towards the neighborhood, her sister Stella, Stella’s husband Stanley. The attitude however is a facade. I believe this because she often has to regain her composure and calm her nerves after interacting with other characters with alcohol or pitiful self talk. Blance comes bearing bad news to Stella about their old home Bella Reve, and how it’s “lost”. Blanche guilt's Stella with the stories of how she had to stay back home and care for the land and their now deceased relatives. The bad news in turn, rattles Stanley’s, Stella’s husband, cage, and shows us his true colors despite how he was told to us through narration and Stella’s eyes. 

When reviewing the types of characters writers tend to use in their stories, I find Blanche to be the challenge, or foil, character. She’s brought out something else in all the people she’s interacted with. She challenges their feelings or beliefs about each other or the word they live in. Blanche challenges what little peace Stella may have found by moving away from Bella Reve and making a home for herself in Elysium Fields with the sob story of what she’s had to deal with in Stella’s absence. Blanche ruffles Stanley’s feathers with the possible fate of Belle Reve, and whether or not Stanley, by marriage, receives ownership of the land or its value. Blanche also gaslights an inevitable fight between the husband and wife with a radio and beguiling one of Stanley’s friends. And furthermore Blanche increases the possibility of another dispute between Stanley and the sisters by insisting that the marriage Stella is in is a bad one and criticizing Stanley who’s in unknown earshot. Blanches character is a necessary one, because without her their’d be no rising action or conflict, or visible tension between the character. She even hints at the title, which kinda reveals some character motivations. So without Blanche, there may still have been a play, a boring and static one. 

[awellreadman]

Admirable. Lately, I’ve been thinking on things like anger, and aggression. I recognize that these emotions are more useful than others. These emotions get shit done. and should we not let them out? Should we not stoke and fan an inner flame for fear of suffocating that oh so important inner child of ours? 

Marcus Aurelius on Anger Found here

[awellreadman]

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.

The Art Of Living; The Right Use of Books

Per my previous post I’ve did my best to streamline the thought process I had. Feel free to improve, or criticize where you see fit. 

[awellreadman]

So, reading is a habit I’ve been happy to pick up. Reading is something I plan to do for the remainder of my life. But I don’t want to be careless with the things I read. I want to take something from each book to make my life better. I want to be more methodical with the literature I choose and the information I hope to gain. This is how I think I’ll accomplish that goal...

Does The Book Satisfy The Three I’s?

Inspiration: I’ve been inspired to be and do better by some of the books I’ve read thus far, but it’s recognized more as an afterthought instead of intention. Maybe that’s the nature of the beast tho.

Innovation: Changing whats established is the concept here. I change my mind and my environment a lot. I suppose the point here is to do so for the betterment of all affected.  

Imagination: I’ve already seen the limits of my imagination through some of my reading. I’d think the lack of real world experiences are the result. But aside from constructing remote environments in my mind, how else can an improvement be measured?

Do Any Of The Books  Fall Within These Categories?

Money: Money management. I’ve dipped into this category, and can’t say I did not benefit from the knowledge and the lessons taught to me. Money was never really on my home training curriculum while I did my time in public school. So I see myself having a lot to learn. 

Life: Real life stories be the goal here. Reading things that don’t necessarily pertain to me is the key, or so I’ve been told. 

Business: As a prospective business owner, what I can learn first hand and vicariously is paramount. 

Health: Perhaps reading texts about medical anomalies, or the nature of the human body is the concept here. I imagine these readings to be dense. Maybe with thyme i’ll have medical diction that’ll rival the most seasoned healthcare professional, or Hugh Laurie.

Whats next?

I’ll filter the books i choose to read through those four categories above.During and after the reading, I’ll make note of the 3 I’s and share them on here. 

[awellreadman]

Update: 1/29/18

What I’m Reading: So, I’ve decided to leisurely read this book I got when I was into conspiracies and considering a career in government. It’s called The Secret History Of The CIA by Joseph J. Trento, an investigatory journalist. I’m hoping to get some good ol’ espionage-y drama from these stories. Maybe even a few tricks up my sleeve to use when I’m in a bind. It’d be a real treat to invigorate whatever interest I have left in the tank regarding working for the govt. I don’t expect to post any quotations from the book, but my eyes are peeled.   

What I’ve Read: I’ve spent a considerable amount of time on Medium.com reading the articles written by journalist, entrepreneurs, average joes and the like. I may even begin publishing my thoughts on their site too. Check out the most recent posts of mine and read those article if your curious about site. I’ve also spent some time on reddit to post, read, and interact with that vast community as well.

What To Read Next: I still have an amazon cart full of novels and such. When I get the coin to indulge, best believe I will, and I’m gonna tell you allllllll about it. I’m also looking to structure my reading around Money, Finances, Business, Health, and Human Nature, Maybe I can make a special note to find these things in whatever I read. 

[awellreadman]

Post googling.. the three I’s are: Inspiration, Innovation and Imagination

Read this and It kinda made me feel better about life and all my woes and such. The 2nd tip of course made me smile. Also, does anybody know what the 3 I’s of reading are? I haven’t googled it yet… 

[awellreadman]

Read this and It kinda made me feel better about life and all my woes and such. The 2nd tip of course made me smile. Also, does anybody know what the 3 I’s of reading are? I haven’t googled it yet... 

[awellreadman]

As it stands...

I’m not reading anything rite nao, and it’s a little troubling to my spirit. I have books and anthologies to dive in to, but none of them really call out to me. I know what books I want to read, a whole Amazon list full of them, but very little disposable income. Maybe I’ll put together another reading list, and continue to construct those micro curriculum's.. I like those. Makes me feel like a teacher. 

[awellreadman]

Mind of A Man: 001: So would I ever want to be associated with the mob?

After finishing my latest book, I’m left with a literary appetite and a whiff of a particular theme. Just today I got the idea to point my nose in the direction of a book that could satisfy my curiosity with the mob. How did the god father become the godfather? what does it mean to be the godfather? Whats it like to be apart of the godfathers literal and metaphorical family? What objective benefits are seen in the lives of the ones that play this role in society? These are the questions I have and curiosities I recognize in everyday life. Can I find books to educate and satisfy the peculiar appetite? Can I satiate myself on this particular flavor of ‘vicarious-ity’?  

Id want to expose myself to any theories promoting the life or knowledge of a such a particular role. This I’d decide to judge a book by it’s cover and go with a book by one Louis Ferrante. Titled Mob Rules: What The Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman. I would then investigate the life of the author in hopes of validity. Lucky us, Louis has a book titled Unlocked: The Life and Crimes of A Mafia Insider. This book allows us to explore his credibility and get a sense of the Mobs sociological purposes. If still curious about the roles and images, I explore real and fictional text like the work and life of Mario Puzo author of The Godfather, the classic saga of the american crime family. The Sicilian and the works of Nicholas Pileggi author of Wise Guy, the true-crime drama responsible for another classic rendition of the American Crime Family. biographies of Al Capone and other famous american mobsters should be expected too.

This lesson plan alone should uncover the quarks and esoteric knowledge of the American Mob Family phenomenon. Looking into the current five families should serve as the indication of biting off more than one can chew, as too much of any one thing can be detrimental to one health. I’d hope to emerge with  profound understanding enabling me to theorize on earlier questioning from a relatively informed position.