Newsletter the Twenty-ninth

You know what a neuron is, right? Neurons make up most of your brain and what's commonly called your "nervous system." Neurons are what make you You. So, I have a theory that each of us acts just like neurons. You're a neuron, I'm a neuron, we're all a bunch of neurons, doing what neurons do.

Because neurons fundamentally do three things: they collect information, they filter it for meaning, and then — when they find something meaningful — they pass it on. That's about it.

Of course, different neurons (like different people) do each of these things in dramatically different ways. But fundamentally, that's all they (we) do: collect, process, and communicate.?

For example, you're walking along, taking it all in, and suddenly you see the coolest piece of graffiti art… you stop, take a picture of it on your phone, perhaps adjust the color and cropping to capture just the feeling you're trying to convey, and then you send it to your friends. You're a neuron.

Of course, the graffiti itself was created in just the same way: the artist (neuron) had spent a lifetime observing, taking it all in, and then processed the data, and it all came tumbling out into her art. And the friends you sent the image to are neurons: most of them glanced at it and said "whatever"… but a couple of them found meaning in the photo and they shared it with their friends.

Collect, process, communicate. Gather, synthesize, publish. Learn, create, share. Whatever words you want to use, that's pretty much all we do as humans.

Yes, there's "meat" stuff (digestive, procreative, etc) but ultimately that's all in service to who You really are: a neuron that is made up of billions of neurons.

And if you're a neuron and I'm a neuron, and humankind is billions of neurons — and we're all collecting, processing, and sharing — then what is humankind? What is it that we're actually a part of?

Camp Chipaway

Great swords have names… great ranches and estates have names… so I figured my home office should have a name, too. This is the wood sign I had made for my door: Camp Chipaway. After all, that's what many of my days look like: chipping away, little by little, at the enormous To Do lists.

I will confess: My To Do lists (which must be capitalized out of respect for their overwhelming greatness) exist in Word docs, in my email InBox, in apps like Things, and in cloud services like Airtable and Google Docs… they're on pads of paper on my desk and around my house…?

(One of my To Do list items — one which will likely never get checked off — is literally: "Compile all my to do lists.")

To be fair, I have always preferred having too much to do over having too little. But sometimes I wonder, as I sit here at fabulous Camp Chipaway, what it might be like…

Collecting

A few years ago, when my sons were younger, I engaged them in a conversation beginning: "Everyone collects something! I've been collecting pennies since I was a kid. What do you collect?"

• Son 1: I collect breaths. Then I let each one go.
• Son 2, without missing a beat: Dust.

I'm not sure if I'm raising buddhists or nihilists, but I certainly have a couple jokers with a very dry sense of humor.

But I do think it's an interesting question: what do you collect? Why?

Thank You!

I enjoy sharing my musings… and I enjoy hearing yours! Feel free to follow this newsletter, share it with a friend,?follow me on LinkedIn, and send me feedback. You can always reach me at [email protected]