Get those goddamned sticks out of your ears!

It’s a beautiful morning.

Cool enough that it feels good to be out and I can tell the masses also got the message. The bike paths are crowded. There are people everywhere enjoying the cooler air and the scenery that surrounds their homes. Specifically, the corridor of Highway 18 bordered on the west by Snow Canyon State Park and on the east by the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve which are just two pieces of the same desert dissected by pavement. The bike path I’m on is on the west side of that road hovering above the rim of the canyon offering views of the red and white sandstone swirls and the Red Mountain massif.

As bike paths go, this one is pretty fantastic.

I’ve just finished the climb through Snow Canyon enjoying the shade and cool morning air I already mentioned. I top out of the canyon to jump onto this bike path. It’s a fast, sometimes too fast, romp back into town. I’m about a 1/3 of the way down the descent, cruising along. I toss out hellos and good mornings to those climbing the path and a friendly, well timed, “On your left” to those headed down.

The Highway 18 bike path is pretty straight. There’s not a lot of corners one can hide behind. I can see them for quite some time. Three women walking abreast with their backs to me. As most bike paths are, this one is divided into two lanes. One for going up and the other for going down just like a road. It is the norm and I’m sure somewhere a written rule that you maintain your lane and most people do. These ladies did not. Two of them took up their own lane each and the third was right in between them running on the painted line. Their formation took up the entire width of the path as if no one else was there or would be there.

I roll up slowing my speed significantly and yell out a hello and then on your left. Nothing. I get closer and repeat my greetings. They are completely oblivious that I am there. I yell louder. And louder. And louder. Until I am within feet of them screaming at the top of my lungs. Not in anger, just to get their attention. Still nothing. I continue the insanity as I have no way to get around them as they are perfectly spaced and as I said, taking up the entire fucking bike path. This continues for a few minutes and my frustration begins to build.

The path takes a gentle curve and the group in mass moves just a little to the right leaving a very small opening on the left. I take it slamming on the pedals and jumping around the group. As I skim past the one on the left, her face jumps startled at me blowing around them.

Reality

Reality exists, it’s just not what you think.

There is an objective, factual reality. The biggest problem with reality is that we experience it through our own biases and filters. We don’t have access to reality. We only have access to our experience of reality that creates our idea of what is. Consider your reality as if you are consuming it through the lens of an augmented reality headset. Yes, you are looking at reality, at what really is, but you are consuming it through a lens that creates the thing in your head that you would call reality. Everything that you put between yourself, your senses and reality becomes a filter.

You could certainly argue that the fact that we have no true access to reality means that it doesn’t matter. I would argue that the more unfiltered, purer your experience of reality helps create a better sense of self and place. This sense is key to even knowing who you are. The filters you choose to add to the ones that you were born with change how you perceive life. If everything that you experience is filtered through lenses that are not of your creating, is it even your reality?

We have learned to exploit our senses to ensure we are never bored. Never being bored means you probably are never actually in control of your own thoughts. Even reading this, you have handed me the keys to your senses. I am now influencing what you think about and how. You certainly are putting your own spin on and it is triggering a flow of thoughts running through your brain that is entirely unique to you, but it was triggered by me.

Consider how often you are consuming information. Whether that’s listening or watching, modern ‘Mericans consume an insane amount of date. To the point that it is not uncommon for someone to go days without having any real down time. No time for your own thoughts. No time to experience reality according to you. No time of actually being you. The influence is almost impossible to ignore once you start noticing. Consuming information is voluntarily handing over control to your brain.

The ill effects are so pervasive that the business world has taken notice. It is now common practice and coaching for leaders to take, or at least to be encouraged to take, clarity breaks. 30-60 minutes at least once a week where you sit and think. Take out a notebook and jot down your thoughts. This isn’t some hippie bull shit either. It’s not new and has prove to be effective enough that it is practices by most of the powerful leaders in our society.

Bubbles

Back on the bike bike path, this time down by the river. Bike paths are a great place to watch humans and their interactions. You get a few seconds to acknowledge and greet people as you go flying by. About 75% of the people tend to have a peculiar look about them. They are awake and moving, clearly sentient, but there is something strangely normal about their appearance. Most humans are subject to the stimulus that surrounds them, their eyes flitting about taking in the things that are occurring in their vicinity. Heads will turn. Eyes make contact. There is acknowledgement of reality.

Not the 75%. They look straight forward, no eye contact, no acknowledgement of reality. Their heads don’t move from side to side to take in their surroundings. It’s almost as if they are the zombies from Shawn of the Dead living in a bubble where the stimulus is controlled by the technology they have with them. The sticks in their ears keep them from hearing anything allowing them to be without being.

You can nod, say hi, yell on your left, it doesn’t make any difference. The bubble has consumed them. They are there without being there. Their reality is stunted, truncated and anything but what everyone outside of their bubble is experiencing. They are consuming high levels of information that has nothing to do with reality.

Rant over?

At first the old man gave me hope. He was shuffling down Canyon View Drive early in the morning. At a time when few people are up, he was out going for a run. I was on my way to the bottom of Zen for my morning lap. I smiled to myself, but as I passed him, I saw him pull his phone out of his pocket and fiddle with it. At that moment, I realized he had sticks in his ear and my heart dropped.

They’ve gotten even the old folks.

I park the old Yota at the bottom, let the beasts out and start my run. My thoughts go from, “Oh, shit rock!” to “Why is the world the way it is?” to “I’ve got to get this done.” The idea of mediation in motion is a thing for me. My brain releases the dams and floods its corridors with thoughts letting what needs to be examined out and considered. My run becomes my time when I am in control of my thoughts.

I know what living in the bubble is like. At the end of 2020, Spotify sent out their statistics and yearly stuff they do and that you then get to see on all the antisocial media. I was in the 97th percentile of people for amount of time listening to music. Granted, I usually have Spotify on in my office and it just runs all day as background noise, but I also used it on almost every run, almost every ride back and forth to the shop, every car ride. There was precious little time when my brain wasn’t subjected to forces that were someone else’s thoughts. I pulled the sticks out.

There have been a few times when I’ve tried to put them back in. It only lasts a few minutes and I pull them out in disgust. I now don’t know where they are nor do I care. My world is no longer a bubble.

This may seem like a rant, but I’m not annoyed at people with ear buds in. I’m genuinely concerned about what it is doing to our society. In a world where 46% of humans feel like they don’t have a real friend. Where we spend hours on “social” media only to feel more alone. Where we are barreling toward the end of our species. It is hard for me to look at our social landscape and not see the distractions that keep us moving in the same direction. People say they are concerned and then do the same thing, over and over and over and over.

It’s a small step but take those goddammed sticks out of your ears!

Embrace Chaos. Seek Discomfort.