intentional consumption
recommended listening:
Goat Head by Brittany Howard
We can’t control where we were born, how we were brought up, the things we were taught as kids, the struggles of our parents and their parents, how people before us have hated and destroyed. But we can choose to not do the same.
We can always choose to unlearn. We can decide to learn new things. We can decide to step outside of our own experiences. We can decide to not turn away from others’ suffering. We can decide what matters to us.
Here’s the thing. The four walls of your world were built before you arrived and you had no say in this. But as you begin to experience life, a door is created, then a hallway, which leads into another room and another room. This house is Your World which you’ve constructed for yourself. And while it’s easy to mistake Your World for The World, the truth is that your world is only a speck of sand on the vast beaches of the universe. Until you can build passageways into other people’s worlds, this will remain true.
We have to be intentional about what consumes our attention because that becomes our world.
If you’re reading this, then you have access to the internet and the privilege of at least some free time. (Thank you for spending time here). With the world at your fingertips, you have the means to decide how you want to construct the world you know. Building passageways into other people’s worlds is a lifelong journey.
It takes vigilance to realize how the landscape of our reality is being constructed around us, and even more to change it. In the hours we’re awake, we must be deliberate in choosing who and what we give attention to; the images on screens, the voices we listen to, the friends we make, the stories we share, the words we read.
Some suggested consumption for the Fourth:
Also recommended:
📖Read the background on Goat Head here: Genius
All featured songs from this year in this playlist:
Looking for last year’s playlist? (they’ve moved)