Faith Venture

I picked up this list from a tweet by one of my favorite modern writers, Nassim Nicholas Taleb. He wrote Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, among other books. This is one of those lists you can tape above your desk and contemplate often.

TRUE WEALTH (2nd Ed)

• Worriless sleeping
• Clear conscience
• Reciprocal gratitude
• Absence of envy
• Foamy coffee
• Crusty bread
• Inexperienced enemies
• Frequent laughs
• No meals alone
• No gym classes
• Gravel bicycling
• Good digestive functions
• No Zoom meetings
• Periodic surprises
• Nothing to hide: financial and fiscal tranquility
• Muscular strength & endurance
• Ability to nap
• Access to a hammock

Note: That was from a tweet, as on Twitter. By the time you read this, Twitter may be X. Elon Musk seems to think X is a manly character. He says he’s changing the name of the service this week. Some people have more money than sense.

The publicist sent an early copy of a book for me to review. Wisdom Factory by Tim Dasey, Ph.D. He is an MIT professor (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) thinking about the future of work. 

I’ve not finished it, yet, but I just waded through a chapter on left brain/right brain physiology. You may have heard about left brain detail-oriented analytical thinking and right brain generalist whole scene thinking. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, but we needn’t delve further.

Dasey’s argument is that we need less detail-oriented analytical thinking (not none, just less) like your typical engineer, I guess and more what he calls wisdom or thinking more generally about why rather than what. Future workers—and not only managers—will need to incorporate more wisdom into their work.

Have you observed the phenomenon of detail-oriented versus big picture amongst people in the religious or spiritual life?

Some people have memorized huge chunks of the Bible, yet seem to have missed the theme. They know lots of “what” and little “why.”

Even worse than missing the “why” is failing to infuse the why into everyday life.

A flock of red-winged blackbirds with a few Brewer’s blackbirds covered the lawns outside my office window this morning. 

As if on a hidden signal, they all took off in flight.

Except for one. I saw a black head pop up above the grass. It looked around for a few seconds. The bird then took off in the same direction as its flock even though the flock was out of sight by that time.

How often we humans are like that. The flock takes off—say they all join an online social network. Those of us not in the main flock look up, wonder where they all went, then take off to join them.

I turned. On the bookcase opposite is a collection of books called the Great Books of the Western World. They are organized along a timeline from the ancient Greeks to William James and Freud. I noticed how some are grouped. There were Platonists/neo-Platonists and Aristotelians. Then the ones who shattered the idea of mind/body divorcing mind from spirit from body to those trying to reconnect. Sort of like following a new flock.

We think we have the final ideas, the final answers, the complete truth. Following a flock. Then the next generation comes along. A new flock that everyone will follow for a while.

Then there are those of us who just don’t feel like part of the flock pursuing new ideas.

I heard an interview with a former US Navy SEAL. He left me with a phrase that repeats in my mind.

Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.

This relates to other advice I’ve received and to my life experiences.

Once I rushed through everything trying to do three or four things at once. I was frustrated with progress as well as tired. Driving in traffic, I’d speed up only to be stopped at the next traffic light in the slow lane passed by the cars I’d just passed.

Rushing didn’t get me anywhere faster. Maybe just a speeding ticket.

I’ve not only learned that phrase, I have also learned to embody it.

I concentrate on one thing at a time. That doesn’t mean that a hundred thoughts don’t pop up. They do. But I’ve learned to move past and come back to task.

Don’t rush the conversation.

Allow time to get where I’m going. If circumstances make me late, well, then I’m late. That’s life.

Even eating. Chew more. Swallow less. Slow and smooth.

Even working out. Some things require intensity, but don’t rush through (well, unless you’re doing sprints!). I look at the dumbbells. Select the weights. Raise slowly to extension. Lower slowly and smoothly. Do my sets. Amazingly the workout is done before I know it.

In your spiritual life, it’s the same. When you read–read. When you meditate–meditate. Allow the time. Savor it even.