When what doesn’t change changes, keep and eye on the waterline
Ever feel like you’re holding it together and blowing apart at the same time? Or better to ask, ever not feel that way?
Look inward. Pick something to study and become and expert. Make something you are proud of. Give yourself leave to care about the fate of fictional characters in fictional places and circumstances, because that is an essential ingredient for acknowledging the reality of actual people in actual places and circumstances other than your own, for turning your own pain into the capacity for empathy.
Look outward. Reconnect on repeat. Who haven’t you talked to in a long time? See how they are doing. They won’t be upset to hear from you.
Flip the inward outward, the outward inward. When you’re tired of introspection, explore. When you’re bored of stimulation, reflect. Get enough sleep. Eat good food that you cook yourself. Have a good time, but avoid falling into a routine of self medication. Be the part of the universe that knows there is such a thing as the universe. Given that option, and we are, why would anybody choose to do anything else?
That’s why art making in its multifarious forms has survived all of history thus far. It is true that past performance is no guarantee of future returns, but I choose to think about this the way I think about free will. Even if, as the standard model seems to indicate, it doesn’t exist, outcomes tend to be better for those who proceed as if it does. Sort of a modern iconoclastic take on Pascal’s wager, only the question isn’t, “does god exist?” The question is, “do we?”