Hey all, real john here (and I’ll verify that at the end if possible). Seven of spades today, if you know you know. Anyway, I am at a co-working space, to get out of the house today to experience something different.
Here’s what I did. Life is as fast as you want it to be. I went to starbucks and got a coffee. I went through the line, ordered it, said hi to the cashier and then the barista. I waited patiently for my drink to be made and then sat down by the front door and enjoyed my coffee. That is what I did, but here is what I observed:
A little girl came in with her mom and dropped her rubber duck, and I handed it back to her. She was probably 3 or 4 and simply smiled and then waved to me as she got in line with her mom.
A 20-something man came in with his airpod max wrapped around his head, quickly walked to the mobile pickup, grabbed his drink and left. Total time in store was 5-10 seconds.
A Hispanic family came in looking for a place to sit, I gave them an extra chair and got them settled in. The dad held the space while the rest of the family got in line.
A young couple came in, the woman was pregnant and was looking for a seat, the man ordered and waited for the drinks, she went to the window bar, but then I gave her my seat and she kindly smiled and sat down waiting for her husband to join her.
All of that in a matter of minutes. I saw all of it. I wasn’t on my phone, wasn’t worried about my next meeting, and wasn’t stressed about being late somewhere.
The one that stood at the most to me was the 20-something who was so efficient, yet so detached. We have created such a push for productivity, efficiency, and high-performers. At what cost? We have lost our manners, our courtesy, our kindness. We have lost so much in striving for something many of us never signed up for.
I walked the beach with my wife while she was looking for shells, watching the sunset, and we were talking about our childhood. I’ve known her for a VERY long time. It is a moment I’ll never forget because she wasn’t worried about anything at that moment other than the shell she found was cracked. That was her dilemma. That was it.
I recently released my book called “Refuse the Race”. I’ve been working on that for so long and there was a time I thought I’d never release it. I was wondering if it was too long then I edited it so much that it wasn’t long enough. But all of that didn’t matter to me when I finished it. What mattered was how that book made me feel. I finally conveyed the message I’ve been trying to say for so long. Then with Rhett Halden’s creation, I was able to convert some of that story telling into music. The emotion that music generated was from years of not being heard, not being seen, being pushed to succeed without knowing what it meant.
The point of this special edition (aka, mid-week), is to realize you are enough, you are amazing, and life is a crazy journey. Enjoy your time here. Sometimes right where you are at is enough.
