Good Norning: The Anechoic Hell Chamber™ Part 3

I woke up this morning feeling lost once again. I had trouble sleeping and found myself awake at 3:26 and again at 4:38. No reason to try and sleep. I started the coffee pot early. I sat with my coffee and my laptop and read some stuff on the Internet. One Substack post in particular made me stop and think more than the others. It brought tears to my eyes. It was about something that I already forgot. But damn it was good. Went for a walk. Listened to my footsteps crunch on the gravel and stopped for a bit by a smelly pond. Listened to the birds chirping away and felt good about that. They sounded beautiful. Walked into a quiet house and talked with Jess for a while. She made me feel less lost than I did when I couldn’t sleep. It’s not good to be alone. It makes me sad when I am, but at the same time I feel the need to seek solitude. It doesn’t make sense to me. But it doesn’t really have to. Life seems to work this way. Everything is a giant paradox. I read a lot of things on Substack. Most of it is people trying to extract meaning from ordinary things. This is a paradox. I am doing it right now. My morning walk is both impregnated with universal meaning and just a morning walk at the same time. It’s existential magnificence that offers no value to anyone except me, unless I extract value to share with someone else like I’m doing now.The Kingdom is near at hand. So is Hell.I woke up sad. Walking helped. Jess was there and that was good too. Hell, then Heaven, then Heaven again. Then a little more Hell when I checked my calendar. Then a lot of Heaven when my 3 year-old woke up and smiled and said “Good Norning.” Microdoses of each throughout the day. What microdose did you wake up to? A “Good Norning?” A crummy one? It probably set you off in one direction or the other. There is no other proper response to a three-year old’s “Good Norning” other than love. Anything other than that is Hell. Deservedly so. It’s clear when they are three. It’s not so clear when they are 42, or seventy-four. When they cut you off in the fast lane or take credit for your work. When they cheat on you. When you find out how long they have been cheating for.Other people can do some heinous things. So can you. Me too. But the rules don’t apply when it comes to us, does it? Or maybe they do. Maybe they do. Actually, they should. Yes, they definitely should. They most definitely, absolutely should. What rules are we talking about again? Oh yeah, the Personalist Norm. The what? What is the Personalist Norm?I’m glad you asked.It’s the escape hatch from the Anechoic Hell Chamber.It’s seeing the three-year-old in the seventy-four year old, and they are saying “Good Norning” and it’s not weird, it’s their real personhood shining through. Peace to you,MaxP.S. Please listen to the Audio. The Very End will Make You Smile. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thinklikeadirector.substack.com