I’m Only Human, After All

Let’s start with deep thoughts and I’ll lighten this up towards the end. Let’s talk about “Life and the Human Condition.” Skip ahead if you just want updates from cooking school. So I googled the word existential a few months ago out of curiosity after seeing it in something I was reading. It dawned on me that I’m an existential thinker.

Generally I unfortunately have a pretty grim view of humans. Not individuals or groups of humans. I mean the entire collective species. The greed, the war, the comedy (ancient Greek or modern interpretation, up to you) that is politics and everything connected to that. I know your thoughts immediately went to thinking “that’s not me,” and it’s probably not. You can tell the genuine/good people right way. Most of us are good people. But just look at history, we’ve never stopped killing each other over stupid reasons. One of the reasons I love it here so much is that I’m in a temporary bubble. I was really sick of observing people stepping on each other to get ahead, either in social circles or professionally. It’s not necessarily anyone’s fault either. Some are better than others at controlling it but I think it’s in all of us. It’s probably some intrinsic Darwinism and our species just can’t help it. I call it original sin. Not religiously though, the term just makes sense. Humans are born with it.

So back to my bubble in a remote corner of Ireland. It’s nice. Especially as I read about North Korea threatening to nuke literally everyone and the childish Twitter wars between world powers. Or how a politician votes one way to remain in office and then is busted practicing the exact opposite. Like, these stories actually happen. This isn’t pro/anti Trump but this tweet happened. This. Tweet. Happened.

Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me “old,” when I would NEVER call him “short and fat?” Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2017

It’s comical if you’re able to view it as a collective of “shit humans do.” But I’ve learned here that it’s possible to push a lot of that out. If you surround yourself with the good people and focus on being a good person yourself the rest doesn’t really matter. As the existentialist thinker would say, it’s out of your control anyway. So going forward I’m going to try and think less about the collective and more about the collection of good people around me. My last point on this is I know that 99% of humans are generally good. And the bad ones ruin it for everyone. And that being in power probably does funny things to people. And the whole sociology of how otherwise good people act and make decisions amongst people in power is a study I’m fascinated by.

Moving on. Change of subject. Many of us recently realized that we’ve been here 8-9 weeks now. We spend ALL our time together, yet we don’t really know each other. So we’ve been going in circles talking about our lives. Shit got deep quick. When you spend so much time every day with people you learn to trust them and open up. I won’t be spilling any secrets but there was an inspiring general theme. And that’s the things some people have already accomplished at relatively young age (early – mid 20’s). Things like charity trips. Working for non-profits. Being an accomplished musician. Travel with an absolute shoestring budget. Experiences. It’s the Ambition/drive/work ethic that was really inspiring. This probably isn’t that extraordinary to hear for most people. But it’s definitely extraordinary for the guy who got a desk job right out of college and thought that’s what everyone else did too. It’s a real eye opener and further confirmation that you don’t need a desk job to be happy and live life.

There was a good quote on the topic from my buddy Ben, in reference to being here and what’s next. (@benjaminwiles)

“this is me now, I don’t know which part of it is me but it’s me”

Here are some other random thoughts I thought I’d throw on the table, mainly from my trusty notes app:

“Love how a camera can still never capture what the eye sees, especially in dark – full moon”

In reference to what I packed:

“Minimal clothes but more than enough underwear. Awesome decision.”

In reference to what makes me happy these days:

“The excitement I get from getting my hands on a fun seasonal ingredient. The puff mushroom. Lamb breasts. Wild mushrooms. Etc.”

In reference to caramelized onions:

“I think caramelized onions is the most wildly ranging recipe ever. Anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours. Personally I’d say they typically take a bit more than an hour”

In reference to some maturation on my part. What I’m saying is that I’m much more confident making decisions for myself, not based on what society or pop culture tells me:

“Used to get anxiety over not doing something “right.” Wanting to make sure I was doing things the way everyone else was doing them. Not just socially but studying for example, or how I purchase clothes or what TV shows I watch. There is still a degree of that but I’m better and doing things for me, not because I think they’re was the majority is doing”

And one final quote, self explanatory, when taking a moment to think about the finished day:

“It all works.

I’m present.”

Here are some photos and captions from the past week or so: