Prototype Your Life

And more Dream Stuff

Kevin Kelly suggests prototyping your life:

I was just sitting here thinking about this idea of creating little experiments. I thought about what am I trying to accomplish right now… in five years? ten? The answer changes and at my age, I think about my 4,000 weeks (the average life span). I am roughly just under 3/4th of the way on that track. I have 1/4th of my life left (if I am lucky), so the quicker I can get some feedback, the better… It’s just me now, so I don’t have to wait on anyone to have a lightbulb moment anymore before I can move forward.

This is me at 57 on a graphic showing a 90 year lifespan:

That makes it real, doesn’t it? ( puts a few things into focus … my attention is pinging on health, meaning making, dear ones, making the things I want to make and getting some more resources in line so that I can have more choices) ... Based on the 4,000 week model of a 90 year lifespan, I have lived 74.1% of my life.

You can see your own graphic here.

And here is another video with images from the past brought to life using ai and colorizing film. Isn’t this fascinating? These short little lives….I wonder what they dreamed of? I wonder what they thought their lives would be like?

I got back from the beach just now. Sun. Sand. Waves…my nostrils taking in the briny air. The waves coming in are different kind of metronome…among the oldest on the planet.

We can have these conversations with the natural world like Yo-Yo Ma:

There are all kinds of ways of having a dialogue with Nature. A movement called the Environmental Art Movement has been busy with this interaction. It’s a way of us humans to try to understand our place in things…it’s one way of meaning making.

I’m trying to think about these next couple of months and make the most of them. I keep thinking of that tattoo that my ex-cousin-in-law (is that even a word?) has on her wrist “what am I doing here?”

This morning I had a conversation with my friend, Phil. We talked about the things that happen in a person’s life that have more to do with outside forces than one’s own actions- things like war, or false charges being levied against one’s ex-spouse (because that happened)…being adopted…genetics. The people who were born in the early twentieth century were hit by two World Wars and the Great Depression for example….their plans for their lives became reactions to the time. The difference then, I think , was a unity among people…now something that is not helping us is overall social isolation and people divided by political views…

In the last couple of weeks I’ve had the chance to talk to quite a few graduating students from Cal Poly. The overall vibe I’ve been picking up is of uncertainty. This is not an easy job market. These are not jubilant people. There are some who have spent the last four or so years studying something like computer programming, only to find that the world has changed in those last few years and their potential high paying job is now being done by ai or with ai. We’re standing at one of those places in history where big shifts are happening …like the turn of the century when automobiles began to replace horses. So, what does everyone who had an occupation centered around horses do? How do we create meaning in uncertain times?

I’m doing it by making art. I’m writing (this, journaling and stories). I’m spending time in Nature and with friends…connecting with people. It’s a start.

Neil Gaiman (who, has a whirlwind of not good swirling around him at the moment to say the least), gave a commencement speech years ago:

Make good art.

Yeah…so what am I doing here? I think I’m prototyping…testing. Not committing to anything at the moment… Maybe I’m still trying to accept everything that happened and that’s making things feel a little less clear? It wasn’t fair. But, that’s life isn’t it? It’s not fair… world events, life events…

Also…I drew some bears:

Available as an art print on my shop Stephanitely’sSHOP.

Until next time..

xo,

Steph