”The fact that many a man who goes his own way ends in ruin means nothing… He must obey his own law, as if it were a daemon whispering to him of new wonderful paths… There are not a few who are called awake by the summons of the voice, whereupon they are at once set apart from the others, feeling themselves confronted with a problem about which the others know nothing. In most cases it is impossible to explain to the others what has happened, for any understanding is walled off by impenetrable prejudices. “You are no different from anybody else,” they will chorus, or “there’s no such thing,” and even if there is such a thing, it is immediately branded as “morbid.” … He is at once set apart and isolated, as he has resolved to obey the law that commands him from within. “His own law!” everybody will cry. But he knows better: it is the law… The only meaningful life is a life that strives for the individual realization—absolute and unconditional—of its own particular law… To the extent that a man is untrue to the law of his being… he has failed to realize his life’s meaning.

The undiscovered vein within us is a living part of the psyche; classical Chinese philosophy names this interior way “Tao,” and likens it to the flow of water that moves irresistibly to one’s goal. To rest in Tao means fulfillment, wholeness, one’s destination reached, one’s mission done; the beginning, end, and perfect realization of the meaning of existence innate in all things.”

— Carl Jung

A Song That’s Moving Me:

No Quarter — Led Zeppelin

A Profound Needle from a Needlestack:

Jim Carrey’s Commencement Address

Hola mis amigos,

I hope these words find you well as the calendar flips to February.

To start this letter off, an observation about time: as I have gone from half a decade of travel to a year and a half in one place, the change in my perception of time has been one of the craziest changes. The time between these letters goes by so much faster. As I once explored in How to Stop Time From Accelerating and Turn a Hundred Years Into a Thousand, novelty creates memory and the more memories you have across time the longer that time feels. I am here to report that in removing extreme novelty from my life and experiencing its flipside, this holds true. Freaky stuff!

I count myself lucky this January, though, during these days that blur into one another because among the blurriness I have again found my stride. I got so caught up with learning to fly airplanes professionally, not being able to fly airplanes professionally (with the pandemic and all), and figuring out the best way forward with this expensive dilemma. With the real estate photography business going well, I have returned to my heartfelt pursuits with renewed vigor. Most days include driving around the valley of the sun and taking beautiful photographs of expensive houses, but morning or night often have room for full-hearted return to the things that call to me like a moth to light. Inspiration is striking. The book I stopped writing to focus on flying I have picked up where I left off. After so long a time in spiritual, creative, and financial doldrums, the wind again tugs my sails and it feels fantastic.

I felt this would be a cool time to share one of the most powerful quotes I’ve ever read that is so bold, damning, and resonate with my experience that I hesitate to share it. It’s the Carl Jung one atop this letter. I found it in one of my favorite books: The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. I gave my copy to a friend so I can’t confirm this, but I believe Peter recounts really searching in life in his twenties literally jumping up and down and shouting with joy and relief when he first read it. In a slightly milder fashion, I did too. I’m making a point to share this tonight because I know that my external life could be much easier, more comfortable, and covered in the wrappings of “success” if I didn’t get back on the horse and undertake massive, potentially fruitless endeavors like writing a book or pouring thousands of hours into a blog, but that I’m doing it for vast and varied array of inner riches that I sense all too often overlooked by our culture.

Lastly, to get a little metric-y with you all, my Needlestack was the third most viewed page on site this January! This says something about the idea and its legendary links as all the other top viewed pages on my site are fed daily through top-ranking Google searches. I have also been informed by four or five others of their intention to make a Needlestack since launching this collection of quality on January 4th, including one of my favorite writers on the entire internet. If you have a website and are thinking about making a Needlestack, I would like to drop you the sweet insider tip that the sooner you make one, the higher your link will be on the list of Needlestacks and the more page views you will get over time. So act fast!

With love and stoke,

Ethan

Things I Created This Month:

7 Reasons to Make a Needlestack

This January, I launched my version of the Needlestack, a new type of page for the internet.

The idea of the Needlestack is simple: if everyone with a blog or website had a dedicated page of links to what they personally consider the best pages on the entire internet, and we had a directory linking those pages together, we could separate “the needles from the haystack” of the internet and make the internet browsable by best.

The challenge for the Needlestack now is to find its audacious first adopters willing to make their own without much social proof. If my Needlestack is the flint, those first to make their own Needlestack are the sparks needed for this new idea to catch and spread (shout out to CEDAR for being the first to make the leap!).

Fortunately, the Needlestack has compelling incentives built into the idea to get and keep it growing. Rather than leave them to intuition, I will briefly outline each below.

Read on >

2020 In Review and A Glance Ahead

With the turn of each year, I find great benefit and long-term orientation in reflecting on the one past and envisioning the one to come.

While a new year is an arbitrarily chosen point in Earth’s lap around the sun, it is a regular mark of transition. And as transitions tend to cause us to pause and reflect, a new year seems an ideal reminder to zoom out of the day to day and look at the big picture of our lives.

That said, I don’t believe in resolutions or overly focusing on specific future targets. Rather, I liken the process to “stopping for a few minutes to study the map, check that we’re heading in the right direction, and boldly continue with the journey of life.”

Read On >

If this letter was forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe, click here.