Omar was a great optimist who made me think about possibility, and he made me want to do something great and live everything…
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the question now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually without even noticing it, live your way in to the answer. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Stephen Mitchell (via Kristen Collins)
I truly miss you, Omar. I truly do. And I still feel connected to you.
Thank you, Omar. You and Steve Jobs inspire me to do something great — to design something simple that brings great happiness to others with what is left of my life…
Almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
It’s worth repeating what Steve Jobs said. “There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
A friend asked a friend who is trained in the classics.
There’s “SIC FUTUE” which translates to “THUSLY, FUCK!” as if it were a command.
Which doesn’t seem quite right.
Nor does “COITUM ITA” which translates to “SEX YES” as if it were a lifestyle choice.
Not quite right, either.
Which brings us to “CONFACIMUS” which is literally, “Fuck it!” but in the first person plural, kind of like a royal “We fuck it!”, or “LET US FUCK
IT!!” …
“AMERICA, CONFACIMUS!!” has a nice ring to it as it rolls off the tongue…
“Sorta feels good. Sorta stiff and that, but once I get going… then I, like, forget everything. And… sorta disappear. Like I feel a change in my whole body. And I’ve got this fire in my body. I’m just there.”
Oprah opined, “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.“
“Good morning,” the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.
“I am right here,” the voice said, “under the apple tree.”
“Who are you?” asked the little prince, and added, “You are very pretty to look at.”
“I am a fox,” the fox said.
“Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince. “I am so unhappy.”
“I cannot play with you,” the fox said. “I am not tamed.”
“Ah! Please excuse me,” said the little prince.
But, after some thought, he added:
“What does that mean–‘tame’?”
“You do not live here,” said the fox. “What is it that you are looking for?”
“I am looking for men,” said the little prince. “What does that mean–‘tame’?”
“Men,” said the fox. “They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?”
“No,” said the little prince. “I am looking for friends. What does that mean–‘tame’?“
“It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. It means to establish ties.”
“‘To establish ties’?”
“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . .“
“I am beginning to understand,” said the little prince. “There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . .”
“It is possible,” said the fox. “On the Earth one sees all sorts of things.”
“Oh, but this is not on the Earth!” said the little prince.
The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.
“On another planet?”
“Yes.”
“Are there hunters on that planet?”
“No.”
“Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?”
“No.”
“Nothing is perfect,” sighed the fox.
But he came back to his idea.
“My life is very monotonous,” the fox said. “I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . .”
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.
“Please–tame me!” he said.
“I want to, very much,” the little prince replied. “But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.”
“One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox. “Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . .”
“What must I do, to tame you?” asked the little prince.
“You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First you will sit down at a little distance from me–like that–in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . .”
The next day the little prince came back.
“It would have been better to come back at the same hour,” said the fox. “If, for example, you come at four o’clock in the afternoon, then at three o’clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o’clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One must observe the proper rites . . .”
“What is a rite?” asked the little prince.
“Those also are actions too often neglected,” said the fox. “They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all.”
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near–
“Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.”
“It is your own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . .”
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
“But now you are going to cry!” said the little prince.
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
“Then it has done you no good at all!”
“It has done me good,” said the fox, “because of the color of the wheat fields.” And then he added:
“Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret.”
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.
“You are not at all like my rose,” he said. “As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world.“
And the roses were very much embarassed.
“You are beautiful, but you are empty,” he went on. “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you–the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose. “
And he went back to meet the fox.
“Goodbye,” he said.
“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.“
“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“It is the time I have wasted for my rose–” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
“M
en have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . .”
“I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
Out of every hundred people,those who always know better: fifty-two.Unsure of every step: almost all the rest.Ready to help, if it doesn’t take long: forty-nine.Always good, because they cannot be otherwise: four — well, maybe five.Able to admire without envy: eighteen.Led to error by youth (which passes): sixty, plus or minus.Those not to be messed with: four-and-forty.Living in constant fear of someone or something: seventy-seven.Capable of happiness: twenty-some-odd at most.Harmless alone, turning savage in crowds: more than half, for sure.Cruel when forced by circumstances: it’s better not to know, not even approximately.Wise in hindsight: not many more than wise in foresight.Getting nothing out of life except things: thirty (though I would like to be wrong).Balled up in pain and without a flashlight in the dark: eighty-three, sooner or later.Those who are just: quite a few, thirty-five.But if it takes effort to understand: three.Worthy of empathy: ninety-nine.Mortal: one hundred out of one hundred – a figure that has never varied yet.(translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak)Source: Caterina.net
“True happiness involves the pursuit of worthy goals,” Csikszentmihalyi said. “Without dreams, without risks, only a trivial semblance of living can be achieved.”
But how does a being discover worthy goals to pursue?
We believe this after many conversations with John Battelle about the Twitters and the Facebooks and the YouTubes and the Blogs and the conversational marketing movement, which gets me bloviating until you tl;dr… So don’t get me started.
Let’s just say that social media has had a great start.
We want it to go to 11.
10. Who funded PandaWhale?
As of right now, Joyce Park and I are funding PandaWhale ourselves.
We want to do our part to Save the Web by organizing public conversations among the members the 106 Miles community, so that our conversations are searchable, lurkable, and transactable across the Web.
1. OWN AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE. I will be more thankful for who (and what) is in my life. I will not take my health or my happiness for granted.
2. THINK ABOUT WHAT I WANT, NOT WHAT I DON’T.Inclusion says my brain doesn’t understand negation so my thoughts will be more about what I want to attract, not what I want to avoid.
3. CONFIDENTLY TAKE A STAND MORE. When I disagree, I will be assertive in my position instead of politely demurring. When needed, I will be more fierce. I will get up one more time than I am knocked down.
4. BE EXCELLENT.Do something truly great. In the real world, not just in the online world. I want to show up, be part of an insanely awesome endeavor, and help make it even better.
5. BE PRESENT. I will be here now and spend more time engaging people and less time with my head down staring at a mobile device.
6. CONNECT MORE. And not just connect in a 106 Miles sense, but in a human-to-human, compassionate sense. Only connect. With empathy.
—— …reposted from my Quora; here’s an update… —— In the comments on this post, Albo P. Fossa adds: ‘A caution. I saw an interesting ecard for New Year’s this morning: “I can’t believe it’s been a year since I didn’t become a better person.” ‘[Also] I saw on the Today show this AM (12/31/10), an interesting idea for resolutions. Instead of proposing “godlike” aspirations doomed to failure, choose discrete (maybe even one-day’s-worth) goals. Such as, “I will make a $5 donation to xxx charity.” Or “I will wash my dishes on January 11th.” …’ So my discrete goal in 2011 is to buy Lucas and Joyce some Psycho Donuts in Campbell, CA on or before April 1, a date we picked together for shipping the first software for the 106 Miles community to use to connect with each other online. (Code name: PandaWhale!) Til then, it’s 106 Miles to Chicago … For now, I leave you with this kitten in a box.
People searching for a purpose in life — whether or not they are consciously aware of this deep-seated desire — will be attracted to others who have arrived at an answer.
Fun fact: “Pandas are technically carnivores, but they have adapted to live mostly on bamboo. They will eat small mammals if they can catch them, though!”
Do pandas really “eat shoots and leaves”?
I love this description: “They spend at least 12 hours each day eating bamboo. Because bamboo is so low in nutrients, pandas eat as much as 84 pounds (38 kilograms) of it each day. Pandas grasp bamboo stalks [including bamboo shoots!] with their five fingers and a special wristbone, then use their teeth to peel off the tough outer layers to reveal the soft inner tissue. Strong jaw bones and cheek muscles help pandas crush and chew the thick stalks with their flattened back teeth. Bamboo leaves are also on the menu, as pandas strip them off the stalks, wad them up, and swallow them.”
Sweet, sweet bamboo forms 99% of a panda’s diet. In captivity they’re known to get excited by oatmeal, cookies, and fruitsicles.
What eats pandas?
Pandas have no predators. Except humans. Sick humans. On the other hand, I gotta admit that panda cake does look very sweet.
What is a negative panda?
Pandas have bad luck. When a panda is struck by lightning, its black fur becomes white and its white fur black. Pandologists refer to such pandas as negative pandas.
By Fiat. Seriously, pandas spend “16 hours a day eating, eight hours a day sleeping, and almost zero hours moving…” It’s an amazing life. Like a dream.
How are successful Google applications designed for pandas?
The kind of application that Google knows how to make well are the kind that embody the “eats, shoots, and leaves” model of Internet behavior. Pandas spend every waking hour foraging — aka searching — and consuming. The most successful Google applications serve such a utilitarian mandate, too: they encourage users to search for something, consume, and move onto the next thing. Get in, do your business, get out. Do a Google search, slurp down information, move on. Pull up Google maps or Gmail or Google news, do something, leave. Where Google does not excel is in making applications that are by their nature for lingering and luxuriating — the so-called social applications. But that is fodder for another post.
~The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving. Saves on introductions and good-byes. The ride does not require an explanation. Just occupants.~ [Waking Life]
ifindkarma. elegance is refusal. 
