A highlight reel of WONDER WANDER 2022, by Paul Shelton.
From October 13th to 18th, I hosted WONDER WANDER 2022 — my blog's annual gathering and experiment in co-created community, this year among the high desert surrounding Arivaca, AZ.
As a creative, if you ask me, one of the best things that happened last year was a book. The book is a collection of observations on creativity from music producer Rick Rubin. Rick has made brilliant albums with the widest range of the biggest musicians for nearly half a century.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being offers Rick Rubin’s remarkable view on creativity and reads not unlike the Tao Te Ching. Open to a random page in either and you will find an idea as simple as it is profound.
Yet somehow, the podcast interviews Rick has done since releasing the book hit me even harder. There are dozens, and it is possible that I have listened to every one of them.
Here to remember
he sits at the sun worn table
among rock and shrub and sky.
The matters and stories back home
dry and crack in the afternoon kiln
of ceaseless alabaster sunlight.
The year is 2026, and we’re wading deeper into the technological age. It’s time we recognize something obvious but rarely said: if we take our tech as it comes — out of the box, from the app store, or at sign-up — it will relentlessly try to hijack our awareness.
Most phones, computers, TV’s, websites, and apps today are intentionally designed to hook and keep our attention.