March 2025

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March, 2025

March 31 Co-Founding a Neight (a Neighborhood-State) If I were to imagine an ideal environment for rearing American children, it would be within a structure that is some combination of a state, a neighborhood, and a corporation. The state establishes norms, principles, values, enforces those; it provides both structure and infrastructure. The neighborhood establishes a sense of community and an implicit duty of reciprocity, as well as the shared objective to create families. Finally, the corporation establishes all the right incentive structures for collaboration, such that the neighborhood-state never becomes a commune, and such that no one is coerced into self-sacrifice. In such an environment (maybe called a "Neight"), families would pursue capitalistic ambitions that are in harmony with both their personal lives and with Nature.

This neighborhood-state would inherit all the laws and values of our nation and would uphold them with the utmost diligence — our values as our nation's founders intended. But there would be questions, norms, and issues that are too narrow in scope for the nation's laws to cover, and that is what would be decided in the Neight's own constitution, via debate amongst it's residents. These narrow-scoped issues would include the use of co-owned land, which may be used for parks or farms; the curriculum for children, if there is a school within the neighborhood-state (and if not, the issue would be of what books to stock in the library); the means of revenue and growth for the corporation.

Under this model, the governing body would be a cross between a corporation's board of executives and a nation's elected representatives. All residents of voting age would be voting members, and slate of board leaders would be elected by the residents. The neighborhood-state would have the joint objectives of peace and profit — peace among the residents and profit for the benefit of the residents.

Unlike a state or a nation or an HOA, there would be no taxes or fees to join the Neight, but ownership is required. You buy in to the corporation, which is based on property value. When the Night has room to accommodate a new family, they will put that land on offer as a certain share of ownership of the corporation, like a public company issuing stock. That means that for the Neight to grow in population, it must create net-new value in the form of new land assets that could accommodate not only more people but additional shares of ownership. The Neight must have its own sources of revenue and wealth-accumulation, which are the main drivers of its own growth: investments, sale of goods, services.

So, instead of paying a tax or fee, the residents of the Neight would receive dividend payments in the event that the neighborhood-state's revenues exceed all expenses. The corporation would be classified and would operate as a non-profit.

Everyone in this community would be responsible for making their own livings. There would be no collective possessions, except for the co-ownership of the corporation. And the corporation, as its own entity, would own certain things, like a park or a trail or a school, that would exist expressly for the benefit of the residents/co-owners. This means that each family would own their home outright, and they would have to buy an equity stake in the corporation to move onto the co-owned land, which contains their home (like an HOA). All residents would have to sell their home back to the corporation, or to a new homeowner who has agreed to also acquire the minimum stake in the corporation.

Every type of diversity would be encouraged among residents, but the only quotas for diversity would have to do with trying to match the age variance and a gender split of the U.S. at large.

It would be best if this neighborhood-state was as integrated into the world as possible, as if a subdivision just happened to have some extra land for its own parks, maybe a public structure or two, and its own constitution. There would be no goal of escaping society or using this to benefit a few stakeholders. This whole arrangement would be to participate in and live out the American values, and the American conversation, from which we have alienated ourselves.

Again, the entire mission of this neighborhood-state would be to rear an exceptional generation of humans. Every decision made in the present should be entirely for the next generation, according to one formulation of the American dream: to provide for your children a better life than you had yourself. The Neight would foster in its youth pioneering spirits and equip them to be keenly social and educated people who are self-aware, self-assured, and self-reliant. They would not be sheltered in this place but challenged, such that they could, from their roots, venture anywhere in the world and feel at home.

LOGISTICS/NOTES

• I don't know where in the U.S. you could buy enough land to build a whole neighborhood or how much up-front capital that would require (ten of million?), in a place that is both connected to Nature but not disconnected from the world, and a place where the neighborhood would have room to physically expand (outward) over time.
• The Neight would need to be integrated into a city or county and connected to a town by roads.
• It's unclear whether the resident could sell their home but keep a share of the corporation. Would they have to sell out completely if they moved out? Maybe so.
• The value of the corporation would be like that of a public company; not all of it would be a material appraisal. There would be some goodwill, some expectation of growth over time. It would not be like buying a house. You would buy a house from the corporation, but that would not count toward your share of the corporation. You'd also have to buy an equity stake.
• Ideally, the Neight produces its own crops and produces revenue from that. In that case, maybe there are salaried employees of the corporation who do farming. But even better would be for there to be a privately owned farm within the Neight, from which residents buy produce. That way, no assets are collective, and the farmer has the incentive to grow his farm and improve his yield and make more money.

March 31 Insights from my re-read of Emerson's "Circles" (my favorite excerpts in the order that they appear in the text — The Spiritual Emerson):

Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens.

There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. Permanence is but a word of degrees.

Our culture is the predominance of an idea which draws after it this train of cities and institutions. Let us rise into another idea; they will disappear. . . . New arts destroy the old. See the investment of capital in aqueducts, made useless by hydraulics; fortifications, by gunpowder; roads and canals, by railways; sails, by steam; steam by electricity.

Everything looks permanent until its secret is known. . . . Permanence is but a word of degrees. Every thing is medial.

The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end. The extent to which this generation of circles, wheel without wheel, will go, depends on the force or truth of the individual soul.

There is no outside, no inclosing wall, no circumference to us. The man finishes his story,—how good! how final! how it puts a new face on all things! He fills the sky. Lo! on the other side rises also a man and draws a circle around the circle we had just pronounced the outline of the sphere.

There are no fixtures to men, if we appeal to consciousness. . . . That is, every man believes that he has a greater possibility.

Our moods to not believe in each other. . . . Alas for this infirm faith, this will not strenuous, this vast ebb of a vast flow. I am God in nature; I am a weed by the wall."

Every personal consideration that we allow costs us heavenly state. We sell the thrones of angels for a short and turbulent pleasure.

The only sin is limitation.

Generalization is always a new influx of the divinity into the mind. Hence the thrill that attends it.

The natural world may be conceived of as a system of concentric circles, and we now and then detect in nature slight dislocations which apprise us that this surface on which we now stand is not fixed, but sliding.

There is no virtue which is final; all are initial. The virtues of society are vices of the saint.

[In nature,] there is no sleep, no pause, no preservation, but all things renew, germinate and spring.

In nature every moment is new; the past is always swallowed and forgotten; the coming only is sacred. Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit. No love can be bound by oath or covenant to secure it against a higher love. No truth so sublime but it may be trivial to-morrow in the light of new thoughts. People wish to be settled; only as far as they re unsettled is there any hope for them.

The great man is not convulsive or torment able; events pass over him without much impression. . . . True conquest is the causing the calamity to fade and disappear as an early could of insignificant result in a history so large and advancing.

Business communications is about getting to your point and sticking with your point. Any writer would do well to learn this skill, no matter their form or medium. For writing without a point is pointless.

March 31 Nature responds to man as any ecosystem responds to its constituents. But that does not mean that Nature is conspiring in man's favor. It only means that man is part of Her ecosystem. If he lives in harmony with and benefits the whole, he will be rewarded (with a greater share of the nutrients available to the system, let's say), and if he is detrimental—a greedy parasite—the ecosystem will demote and attempt to outcast him, and he will feel as though he doesn't belong: either that life is unfit for him or that he, man, is unfit for the world.

In other words, it is true that (1) Nature responds to man and that (2) Nature is indifferent to man's aspirations.

March 30 I'm an editor, and I'd never make it as a critic. The value in art, for me — more than what the artist offers —, comes from what I do with it. If I can't find value in a piece of art for my life, then I should have walked out of the movie or put down the book. I don't consume art to judge it; I consume art to experience it and then apply it to my life, to learn from it.

Ref: E.B. White's poem "Critic"

March 30 The force of Nature is centrifugal, not centripetal: out and away from the center, toward an ever greater circle.

(Just like the Bamboozler at Worlds of Fun, the centrifugal force comes from rapid revolutions.)

Ref: Emerson's "Circles"

March 28 The present action of Nature is consuming the old to engender the new; everything is forgone but nothing forgotten.

// In Nature, everything is forgone but nothing forgotten.

// In Nature, everything is forgone but nothing forgotten; the forthcoming transcends but includes the foregoing.

// In Nature, everything is forgone but nothing forgotten, because every morsel of the old and new is included in the forthcoming.

// The present action of Nature is consuming the old to engender the new; everything is forgone but nothing forgotten, because it altogether creates the forthcoming.

// The present action of Nature is to transcend the old [to engender // for the sake of] the new; everything is forgone but nothing forgotten because it all, together, creates the forthcoming.

March 28 In life, there is no resolution, only infinitely recurring revolutions.

March 23 Don't prioritize yourself; prioritize your relationships. Prioritizing yourself often means treating yourself to what you desire, whereas if you prioritize your relationship to God/Nature, the Good, your family, your partner, your future-self, then you will voluntarily commit to forego what you desire for some higher purpose.

March 22 Know yourself so that you know from whom exactly you must detach.

I will live with urgency but not with haste.

Ref: Mumford & Sons, "Not with Haste"

March 22 Each "rep" of editing makes it easier to reach the same standard next time. So, the more you edit, the less time you need to spend on editing for an equivalent level of quality. I think this is true and that there's no upper limit (though the function might be logarithmic).

Everyone has shit, yet almost no one deals with their shit.

March 22 Why are the meanings of these verbs so different even though they only differ by their prefixes?

• Inhibit
• Prohibit
• Exhibit

What does the root hibit mean? Where does it come from?

Answer: All descend from the Latin root habere, meaning "to hold." So, inhibit means roughly "to hold back"; prohibit means "to prevent from holding"; and exhibit means "to hold forth into view."

March 21 When I saw an aurora, it was a faint and wispy flare.

March 21 Layer by layer, rivers of rock freeze into mountains. Layer by layer, rivers of ice melt into valleys.

// Rivers of lava cool, layer by layer, to build mountains. Snow falls, layer by layer, to form glaciers that carve valleys.

// Layer by layer, rivers of lava cool to build mountains. Snow falls and, layer by layer, form glaciers that carve valleys.

// Rivers of lava cool and bold mountains, layer by layer. Layer by layer, snow compacts into rivers of ice that carve valleys.

// Layer by layer, volcanoes build mountains; layer by layer, glaciers carve valleys.

March 19 For "A Leave From Absence," on snowshoeing a steep grade: "Each step merely inches, slipping, sinking into the hip-deep powder"

March 18 There were no gusts, like waves crashing on you as you wade into the shallows of the sea. There was only a monotonous wind, unrelenting, and hiking into it was like trying to swim ashore against the back-current of a tsunami. I wondered whether I would ever land.

// These were not gusts, like bobbing up and down in the shallows with the tide. This was a single wind unrelenting, and walking into it was like trying to swim ashore against the back-current of a tsunami. Would it ever land?

// These were not gusts, like bobbing up and down in the shallows with the tide. This wind was like a single wave, and walking into it felt like trying to swim ashore against the back-current of a tsunami.

// These were not gusts, not winds like the tide; this was a single wave, a tsunami that never seemed to land ashore.

March 17 Possibly the deepest desire I have is to be wanted by women I admire. All other worldly pleasures be forsaken if I could feel that want always. But there is vanity in that and co-dependency. Wouldn't the women I admire want me more if I did not require anything from them, if I could feel whole and worthy and fulfilled on my own?

March 17 Quotes from Chris McCandless, as quoted in Into the Wild (film and presumably also the book) — all of these are gold:

The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.

So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.

Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure, the climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the great white North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.

Happiness is only real when shared.

I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!

Killing my darlings has become one of my dearest pastimes.

March 16 I'm reading Penguin's "Tarcher Cornerstone Edition" of The Spiritual Emerson, and I love the design — especially the trim size, which I think would be a great fit for my Iceland book. The woman who designed it, Nicole LaRoche, is a senior designer at Penguin. I want to reach out to her and see what her rates would be for a freelance gig.

I think the trim size is either 7" x 5" or 7.5" x 5" — correction: 5.1" x 7" (130 x 180 mm)

First names of four or more syllables are unwieldy.

March 16 The divinity of Nature is its inherent harmony. We humans have to work for harmony. It is something for us to achieve. But we mistake the method. Harmony is not something we can create and put into the world. The work we have to do is not in the world but within ourselves. To live in harmony, we must each evolve into our true natures.

Last night, I watched *Into the Wild*. I still need to read the book, as research for my book, but I've decided, after watching the movie that I should wait until after I finish my first draft. I don't want to ape Krakauer's style and structure.

The most interesting part of the movie, on a meta level, was the structure and how explicit it was. There were title cards that marked the start of each of the four "chapters" of the film:

1. My Own Birth
2. Adolescence
3. Manhood
4. The Getting of Wisdom

This isn't revolutionary but rather simple, which is why it works. Since there are these explicit waypoints in the story, the subtext lands better, due to there being an explicit context for every conversation and event.

The chapter titles are metaphorical, save the final one. But they are referencing a process with which every human is familiar. It also track's with The Hero's Journey.

This is something I need to consider when structuring my book. Right now, I have the five parts being the five dualities, but those don't give a reader a sense of progression. Maybe that should be something that's behind the scenes and the reader-facing structure could be much simpler, and much more about the progression of my story. Here's the first thing that comes to mind for the five parts:

1. Ignorance
2. Humility
3. Faith
4. Wisdom
5. Liberation/Freedom/Fruition/Integration/Homecoming

March 14 A prayer, or a plea, from this writer in pursuit of mastery:

May my literal sentences be as visceral and illustrious as David Foster Wallace's.

May my figurative sentences be as dense with truth as Annie Dillard's.

May each of my paragraphs read like three-act plays, as Joan Didion's do.

May my essays ignite the latent, divine parts of individual minds, like Ralph Waldo Emerson's.

Predictions for the Season 2 finale of Severance, after watching E2.09, "The After Hours" (and some reflections):

• Jame Eagen discovered that Helena is pregnant, and that's why he confronted Helly on the severed floor.
• Cobel is going to tell Mark and Devon what Cold Harbor is, but we won't know until the climax of the episode. I bet we will cut away from their conversation in the birthing cottage and be left to infer what plan they hatched there, as it unfolds at Lumon.
• Cobel may also help Mark complete his reintegration, which means that Mark's outie (and innie) would go down to the severed floor for the first time.
• My favorite scene was Mr. Milcheck taking a stand against Mr. Drummond: "Devour feculence.... It means, eat shit, Mr. Drummond."
• I think Dylan's outie will approve the resignation request, which means his innie will be gone (except for some OTC stuff that could always happen again).
• Unless Jame prevents her from returning to work, Helly is going to reach the testing floor and will make an attempt at rescuing Gemma. But when she goes down the elevator, she'll change to her outie. And I have no idea what is going to happen then. No doubt, whatever Helly does will throw a wrench or two in Cobel, Mark, and Devon's plan.
• We won't see Irving again until there's some update on his grand plan to tear down Lumon from the outside. We're going to learn a lot more about Lumon based on how they punish Burt's outie. We haven't seen anything like that except for Milcheck's performance review.
• Maybe Cobel will seek out Raghabi to help complete Mark's reintegration.
• We haven't had an update on Ricken's book. Is that, or his character, going to come into play at all in the finale?
• There's also a chance that Mark is alone when he goes in to work, since Helena's in trouble with Jame. But Lumon knows that Mark won't work without Helly, so they may force her back down there again anyway.

March 14 The book I'm writing is really about the divine beauty and wisdom of Nature.

March 13 I think I want — or at least today I want to — someday become fluent enough to write critically-acclaimed poetry in Icelandic.

(This was my thought after finishing unit 23/30 of Pimsleur's Icelandic audio course.)

March 13 What is the middle way? and Why is that the right way? are both good questions, but one more important is this: How do do you walk the middle way?

The eight beats of Dan Harmon's Story Circle, with some custom descriptions by yours truly:

You: A character is comfortable in his ordinary world

Need: but he wants something.

Go!: So, he leaves the world he knows

Search: and must adapt to the challenging, new landscape.

Find: Eventually, he meets the goddess, but she surprises him; he realizes that what he wanted is different than what he needs.

Take: He sacrifices part of himself to make it out with the prize

Return: and emerges from the unknown having changed.

Change: He has become a master of both worlds.

March 13 New goal unlocked: Live and work as one of the annual writers-in-residence at the Vatnasafn (Library of Water) museum in Stykkishólmur. The residency alternates between native and international recipients, and in 2008, the honor was Rebecca Solnit's (more past recipients). They put you up in a studio apartment in the basement of this museum on top of the hill in Stykkish., and fund your creative endeavors. I can't quite imagine a better gig.

March 10 If the period of the Earth's orbit were longer, such that each year had three more months, would the human lifespan increase by 25%? Maybe we are bound in some way by what we consider a year of life and how many years we consider to be a full life.

March 9 Let it all go. Be present.

March 8 Prioritize myself and devote myself to her.

March 7 What does it mean to be a self-published writer? At its root, all that means is that you are your own editor. So, the key to being a successful self-published writer is becoming an exceptional self-editor.

I've cracked the code on Brussels sprouts.

• Preheat oven to 415°
• Trim ends and half all sprouts (no matter how small)
• Prepare baking sheet by coving in foil and spraying with oil, and put the pan in the oven so that it starts hot
• Toss in olive oil, salt, pepper, and hot honey
• Scatter on the baking sheet so that most are not touching — one layer
• Roast for 20–25 minutes

March 4 Sometimes, I think I want to get an advanced degree — maybe a masters in normative ethics. But today, I thought, I should just write a book about that subject instead. Why?

• It would be a forcing-function to do all the studying that I would have to do for a degree.
• I could create something that would earn me money and likely just as much or more credibility than the degree (which would cost money).
• I could write in my own style and further my craft and career as a writer, rather than being coerced into boring, academic writing.
• I could make my own schedule and my own syllabus and generally enjoy myself more.

Maybe I'll write a book someday called How to Create a Code of Ethics. And that could become a product I offer as part of my editing business.

What is career success? Getting paid to do exactly what you would do for free.

March 4 To live well is to itch but not to scratch.

When you marvel at artificial intelligence, you are marveling at man, and when you marvel at nature, you are marveling at God. AI has nothing except what we have endowed it with.

March 3 Ferrymen as Emissaries of Her Majesty, Nature

I can imagine an effective strategy for encouraging ethical tourism in Iceland that involves live performances of what is essentially a prayer. After landing on a plane, or before docking on ferry or cruise, the captain or a flight attendant or crew mate — anyone who is effectual and an Icelandic native — gives a speech to all passengers. It's a standardized, short statement and plea, like a prayer. There is nothing requested from the passengers but their attention. It must not be a recording. Maybe the person reading starts by saying their name and hometown.

This is a way to encourage reverence for the culture and nature of Iceland without mandating anything or coercing certain behavior.

The masculine is truth-seeking, whereas the feminine is truth-receiving (or -embodying).

March 2 Where are my people at?

In other words: Who knows the keyboard shortcut for leaving a comment in Google Docs?

I'm working from a new café, called Gotan, and they don't have the wifi password posted. They're also one of those places that has special rules about laptops on the weekends. Here, laptops are resigned to the lounge upstairs (where there no tables, only comfy chairs and couches), which is not all that welcoming. Anyway, before going up to ask for the password, expecting to be told to go upstairs, I guessed. I guessed the password once: GotanHoboken. My messages and webpages loaded. My first guess was right — capitalization and all.

While their password is basic and easy, this still made me feel like there are powerful forces at work within me, conspiring in my favor. Somehow I intuited a wifi connection.

My parents never told my sister and I what to do. Instead, they spread the whole world out before us and said, "Go after whatever you want." And then they supported whatever we chose to pursue. It made me who I am, and for it I will be forever grateful.

March 1 Naïveté needs doubt; neuroticism needs faith.

The mountain is infinite, and the time I have to climb it is indefinite.

To behold the greatness of God is to feel insignificant; to be reminded of your own mortality is to feel grateful for existence.

Majesty, insignificance; Mortality, gratitude

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