Monday, August 23, 2010

I know this isn't related, but...

Enrique Flores is a truly unique man, with a great deal of compassion, wisdom, and courage. I served him a cappuccino 2 1/2 years ago. We have been friends ever since. I don't know how much longer this will be on his Facebook page (or how much longer the Facebook page will be in existence), so I'm posting it here so that others can read it and hopefully take something from it. I am deeply moved by the emotion behind this decision, as well as the logic. Enrique is a man who values community and relationships above all else, and I wish him luck in his endeavor to create and sustain meaning. This starts something great.
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Friends, this is to let you know that I will be closing my Facebook account in a few days. It has been fun, I've really enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones here, and it's been an entertaining playground to dish out my special brand of sarcasm to my victims - if I ever insulted you on here, it's because I like you, kinda like grade school.

In the past couple of months I have come to realize there really is something called Destiny, and once you begin to see and align with yours, to do what you really came here to do, it's a feeling unlike any other. Failure is impossible. Situations and people align and come together to help you, resources appear in astonishing ways. Every moment is heavy with meaning.But it's not all roses, because also tectonic shifts begin tearing at structures and relationships I've had for decades. The fire that is welling up within me is loaded with Emotion, and things that before I would just overlook in the name of keeping the peace are no longer possible for me to ignore. If something is draining energy from me, I have to act to remove it from my life, because I need every single spark that I can get. So what to you might appear to be an illogical overly emotional response to something, is actually, to me, extremely important and worthy of true emotion. If it's not worth getting worked up about, then it's not worth having in your life. Too many times we go on doing things and having people in our life just because it's always been that way, but if the person or thing is ultimately not helping you reach your full potential, or is actively impeding it, consciously or not, then this is a negative thing, and you are not doing yourself or the other person any favors by continuing the relationship. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.



The people closest to me that I love the most have already started to notice this, some of you have even been burned, and all I can ask is, if you think I am worth it, please try to believe in me, I need you. But if you feel that my friendship is an inconvenience, or something is obviously important to me and you would prefer I just 'let it go' to keep things smooth, that will no longer be possible. I am willing to spend as much time with you as you need to understand where I'm coming from, but if you're too busy to hear me out, keep looking at your iPhone, or you feel bored with the whole thing and would prefer to sweep it under the rug, it's probably best that we go our separate ways, because I am no longer interested in sweeping things under the rug.



With Facebook, email, and iPhone it's impossible to have relationships, everything is a single comment, or text message, move on to the next thing, significant connection forgotten because now somebody uploaded a Youtube.. and since there is no body language, it's very difficult talking about something real without somebody's feelings getting hurt. So my relationships will now all take place in this crazy, mystical thing called Real Life.



I am incurring significant personal inconvenience by forgoing these electronic tools in order to give you my full attention should I have a conversation with you, but I feel it only fair to expect the same from you for the few minutes we share. I guess that sounds a little psycho, but I just don't have time for half-assed relationships anymore. And no, I am not going to be talking about 'deep' things or whatever, the same things that were funny to me before are funny now, in fact I think I'm laughing more often now, but if you and me are sitting at a table and both looking at our iPhones, that sounds like we both need to get up from the table and go do what we really want to do.



I have found the Work I came here to do, and it will demand my absolute highest level of craftsmanship and attention to make it a reality. I have realized it takes about 4 hours of sustained thought to make any incremental progress, a single interruption can roll back hours of work, and my current lifestyle makes that absolutely impossible. So I'm ditching my job of 7 years, along with pretty much my entire online 'persona'.



Despite all appearances, I am not moving to a monastery in Tibet, I will be right here in Austin Texas and if you would like to have a coffee with me, I will be holding court with my lovely wife as usual most every morning at Caffe Medici, probably the one thing in my life that will not change. Also I am open to happy hour events, Team Malverde I'm looking at you. But you'll have to send a messenger pigeon I think.



If you know me, you know how to find me.



It's going to be an interesting ride, see you on the flip side.



-E