The prelude

Who reads blogs anymore? I don’t. But I’m writing one because I think I have something to say. (Did you see that Andre 3000 made a flute album because he felt he had nothing to say in rap? Respect). More to the point, I started a blog because I think you have something to say: the blog is called “Interviewing my friends'' because that’s what I plan to do. Why? Well, I’ve been facilitating a self-inquiry group and going to philosophical meetings for over six years. I love those conversations; they invite vulnerability, openness, clarity and insights about how people live life, and why. They are conversations about values, beliefs and ideals. Sometimes they drift towards cosmology or psychology, but most of the time they are rooted in the daily work of bringing ourselves to life. What we do everyday, what makes us feel alive, and what’s at stake if we don’t.

There’s a James Baldwin quote that captures this combination of inspiration and harrow: “People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.” Damn. 

Who am I becoming? The more I ask myself this question, the more I realize that me and everybody else is already answering it in precisely the way Baldwin describes: by living life. So asking a friend why he took that job, or what she's been reading lately, is another way of asking, “who are you?” - in maybe a similar way to Louis Armstrong when he sang that “friends shaking hands, saying, ‘How do you do?’ [are] really saying ‘I love you.’”

Hot take: I believe everyone has learned something at some point. What you’ve learned can be valuable to share with me if I haven't. We all have different experiences. We only have so much time. The best guidance I’ve heard for asking questions is to do so with a sincere desire to understand (credit: Art Ticknor). No agenda, no judgment.

The Hindu mystic Patanjali supposedly advised that we “always talk to everyone about God.” But if God, Whatever, or the present moment is always here, then we talk about it whenever we talk about anything; toothpaste, workouts, dinner prep. So let’s talk about it all. And watch and see what happens.