“Take me to the Lakes where the poets go to Die”

“Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you.” - Taylor Swift, The Lakes

“History is often imagined as a series of events, unfolding one after the other like a sequence of falling dominoes. But most human experiences are processes, not events.” — John Green - Everything is Tuberculosis

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ― Marcus Aurelius

“Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, the world goes on.” ― Mary Oliver

Is it okay that I laughed so hard today that my stomach hurt?

Is it okay to go on about my life at this collective wake?

Is it okay to pick a strawberry and taste the coming summer?

Is it okay to breath in the salt air of the ocean before the smoke reaches me?

Is it okay to smile at the sunrise before they lower the castle drawbridge and let the soldiers gallop towards the village like night fall?

 I had a dream a few nights ago that I lived in an alternate reality where Taylor Swift wasn’t famous.

In this dream reality, I saw her performing in a small dimly lit bar on an old clunky piano to a half drunk audience absorbed in their own stories.

There were a few, like me, who listened and clapped for her. After she finished, I was able to chat with her a bit over a few drinks. She was really tall and really nice.

Her songs were just as beautiful in that reality as they are in this one. Perhaps even more so because in that reality she was, as Joni Mitchel might say, good for free. Free like bird song and petrichor.

I woke up wondering that morning about the nature of artistic success. Why do some artists blow up and others don’t?

I mean, there are so many artists that people don’t even take seriously until decades after they’re dead.

Is it all just marketing + timing? Is it just math?

I know I’ll never know, but it’s fun, if not a little maddening, to think about it anyway.

What this dream made clearer for me was the importance of creating what you’re called to create no matter your reality.

It might be scary to think how much of our lives are dependant on luck and circumstance, not talent or work ethic. And even your virtue can’t save you from illness or war or loss. That means we aren’t as in control as we think.

The songs Dream Taylor played were just as real and raw for her as they are for Our Reality Taylor. They were enchanting to listen to in both realities. But Dream Taylor wasn’t making millions. Does this make her less successful?

I suppose that depends on what metric you’re using to measure worth with.

If you think about the fact that Dream Taylor continued on making her music as well as she could, as honest as she could, no matter the outcome - you could say that was a form of bravery and discipline.

It was a revolt against despair and outside circumstances. It was smiling at the sunrise.

It was “knowing you’re licked before you begin but beginning anyway.”

It was art.

This month I read the following three books and this is what I gleaned from them:

Morgan Housel really surprised me with his compassion for humanity. Kindness is not what you expect from finance experts. But that’s what Housel delivers. A very fair and understanding look at why people make certain financial choices and how to make better ones.

He also takes time to highlight how America came to have the financial physchology it does now as compared to decades ago. It’s well worth a read. I found myself wishing it was longer.

I don’t know why this book has done as well as it has.

Kiyosaki has written other books, one co-authored with our Mad King, Donald Trump. Both books put personal wealth aquisition above social responsibility. Neither really consider that humans are more than money making robots.

I will say, there is some wisdom present in it. But that wisdom is sandwiched in contempt for the poor. Kiyosaki’s take on finances lacks Housel’s compassion and nuance.

What this book highlights is what the rich in this country value. They see the world in assets and liabilities.

When you’re flesh and blood, that’s a dangerous lens to be seen in.

Reading The Psychology of Money, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and Everything is Tuberculosis in sequence made the lessons from each bleed into the next.

John Green highlights how history is often seen through the lens of economics or war - as a series of events. But we rarely examine world history through the lens of illness.

The impact of this is that we credit so much of history to human agency when so much is out of our control and owed a lot to subconscious influences as well as natural and social forces acting upon us.

Did you know that the cow boy hat owes it’s existence to tuberculosis? Or that World War I may not have started the same way, or at all, if it wasn’t for tuberculosis? Or that modern beauty standards are a product of the weightloss and fever flushed look of tuberculosis patients?

Did you know that despite having a cure, between 1985-2005, more people died of tuberculosis than from WWI and WWII put together?

This book was a perspective shifting poetic insight into all that was and is, like only John Green could deliver.

I hope you’ll read it.