Wireless Connections

I tend to write what I know to be true, and it has been the quest for truth that has lead me to the victories that I've experienced. In my life, the greatest truths have revealed themselves in the most far-flung places of the earth. I find that it is when I am in quiet expanses that my mind speaks its loudest. In those moments it is wise to not distract myself but to listen to what the deeper me wants for my life. The lonely landscapes are where I can stand up to the societal pressures that I feel, and it is there that I find the strength to tell them to go to hell. Out there, I realize that I am a part of it all, always connected to the nature that surrounds me and I carry that sentiment with me when I return. John Muir once said,

"When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe."

His words were true then and they are true now. We are bound by the connectedness of nature, and in relation to my own work I've found that the very nature of creativity and innovation are bound to the process of making connections. When I think about this I'm reminded of what Steve Jobs said,

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have."

As a tech guy in the twenty-first century I realize that I’m always connected, but after awhile I find most of my modern connections have become constraints. Those are the moments when I close my computer, turn off my smartphone, and if I'm not in a position to hit the open road, I’ll hit the local trail. Once there, I will spend my day off-the-grid reconnecting with, and reconsidering what is -- my purpose. I go there to explore, and most of the time I am able to discover much needed inspiration which I bring back to my internet connected life.

I would urge that if you go to look for yourself then search in solitude, and in doing so, I’m willing to bet you will find who you are looking for.