Even after 35 trips around the Sun, I’m still left wondering what to do here. I hope that’s not a surprise. No one else has it figured out either.
Because of the Internet, though, we think we could know it all. Or at least we can look it up.
More than a decade ago, stand-up comic Pete Holmes was joking about this idea on Conan. He proposed that with everything at our fingertips, we’re not a lick smarter for it. Holmes said that “the time between not knowing and knowing is so brief that knowing feels exactly like not knowing. So life is meaningless.”
Jokes aside, Holmes drove home the point when he said, “There is no time for mystery or wonder.”
Or, as author Arthur Camus once wrote, “Something must happen – and that explains most human commitments. Something must happen, even loveless slavery, even war or death."
We’re supposed to do nothing but seize the day. Especially in America.
Food is fuel. Meditation is a productivity tool. And traveling for an engaging Instagram photo is a worthwhile pursuit. But taking the time to daydream or journal or, god forbid, be a little bored - well, that’s unacceptable.
This isn’t some elaborate way to say I didn’t celebrate turning 36 a few weeks back. I had a great time! Some of my bestest friends and I ate pizza and talked nonsense in the park. My girlfriend ordered me a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. The sun even cooperated and didn’t feel quite like a burning hot laser beam for an early September afternoon.
Now, though, there is time for mystery and wonder.
I’m curious how to define a good life going forward without being compelled to know everything all of the time?
Forget pedophilic pizza joints or pharmaceutical fortunes, the ultimate conspiracy is against the slightest bit of boredom. They used to want your money, now they want your attention. And in exchange, they give us everything we think we want. Or worse, what they think we think we want.
Author Mark Manson explained on his blog how endless information has jaded us and desensitized us with choice:
If I read an article today telling me that processed grains are harmful, there will be three articles telling me tomorrow that they’re fine, and then another article telling me why all of the previous articles were wrong. By now, I don’t even care anymore. I don’t trust any of them. The abundance of contradicting information scrambles my brain and makes me just want to go play Mario Kart for an hour.
We think we need the answers right now. All of them.
But they’re not always out there to discover. Sometimes they’re inside you.
And sometimes, on birthdays, you need to sit down and reflect.
Author and artist Austin Kleon wrote, "What you do determines what kind of attention you pay to the world. What kind of attention you pay to the world determines what you find in it."
There is time for mystery and wonder, if you make it.
And, hey, while we’re at it, I’m trying to figure something out without looking it up. You know that one-hit wonder by Harvey Wallbanger? It has the line - “I’m paranoid, I’m paranoid, that everybody’s coming to get me”? What movie was that featured in? Was it Can’t Hardly Wait? Or American Pie? Or some cool zombie movie I forget?
Let me know when you find some time.