Our reality is choked out by thoughts, static, noise, and by the “cares of this life”. (not to mention the electronic noise of being “always on”, “always connected”.
The other night I went to Vespers service at church. Vespers is my favorite service. The candles, the dim lights, the hymns, the “Now that we have come to the setting of the sun.” It recognizes a cycle in the day and in life. It is much needed.
Afterward, I told my priest, Father Nikolai, that it took 45 minutes for the noise of the day to fade away and for me to be immersed in the service – the candles, the hymns.
He replied, with a smile, “That is why our services are so long.”
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Signal vs. Noise
There has been a lot of talk lately in my circles of influence about Signal vs. Noise. How we are bombarded with “noise” to the point where we don’t even hear the signal anymore.
Letters from the Monastery – an update on Perpend
An update on Perpend: He has been on a quest to become an Orthodox monk. He has visited several monasteries long term, only broken last year by a visit home here in Kansas because his mother died. Perpend has been gone over a year now. Update that he was “clothed as a novice” monk in May at the Monastery of St. John in Manton, CA.
Perpend and I have talked several times, both on the podcast and in real life, about how we (everyone) are constantly distracted by “noise”. The “noise” of people, electronic devices, the notifications from the phone, the background noise of cars. The noise of what you didn’t do, and what you “should” be doing. The noise of constantly having to explain yourself in a conversation (because the person you are talking to is not on the same wavelength or doesn’t have the same worldview).
The monastery isn’t like this. It is silence, candles, and space. When Perpend went to the monastery in Alaska there were no electric lights. No running water – they had to haul their water. If you wanted to read you had to do it candlelight or headlamp.
He was there for a couple of months. After leaving there the return to civilization was painful. Even the color of a brightly colored house was overwhelming to the senses.
Maybe that is how it is supposed to be.
Many visitors treat the monastery as a retreat. The monks at the Monastery of St. John said in their newsletter that the first thing a visitor says when they arrive is “What is your Wifi password?” because the monastery is remote, with poor cell reception. Yet they just have to keep connected.
Perpend moved to the monastery in CA because it is less “noise”. The monastery in AZ was just overrun by visitors in the Summer. At his current monastery in CA, sometimes the monks don’t speak for days.
I am rereading Perpend’s letters from the monastery. This is what he said just about this time last year:
We think of static as the white noise and pops between radio stations. If I say “noise”, people respond with “sound” and “volume” as their points of reference. Yes, a neighbor’s loud music is a potential problem, but I mean more than that. The term “inputs” also doesn’t quite fit; it doesn’t connect. Maybe “Static” is better.
“Static” is interference in your attempt to bring in the radio signal. In my case, the signal I want is God, Grace, the life of the Church, silence, prayer – a real life. These are the things that actually matter. Static is anything that hinders that.
My thoughts, emotions, perceptions, desires are a static producing mechanism. The added static from those mechanisms is other people entering my life is a lot also. How I choose to react and think about them changes my perceptions of them and those interactions (the word should be “enteractions” = entering, input). That is what thoughts determine, what life is about.
“…thus prudence and the responsibility for maintaining one’s inner peace require that one not look at everything, listen to everything, or concern himself with everything that he happens to come across. A thing will hardly show that it is capable of rousing the passions, so it is necessary to turn the eyes away from it, plug the ears in front of it, or seeing do not see, hearing do not hear…” – St. Theophan the Recluse. The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to It.
After every monastery visit you say, “You are not the same. You take longer and longer to be able to communicate again.”
Each visit is a detox from the static and the reliance on the static to distract me and numb reality from sinking in.
I no longer have the external static. Now I need to deal with my own internal static.
“Love asks what you will suffer for. How much will you suffer for it? Love is outside of logic and my personal survival. It is also good for us, even though it costs. All virtues are not economically feasible. The 8 Forms of Capital won’t fix or fill the void in your soul. They are a tool. Meeting your soul’s need is really Thriving!”
Perpend (David)
Are People Ready for Real Conversations Again?
I tweeted the other day that “I would like to talk to (this person) about (this topic).
But I really don’t want to record a podcast episode with them.
I want to have a real conversation.
Last evening I had a phone call with Matt from FarmHopLife. Not Zoom. No camera. No recording. Real conversation.
As I get older these social media things feel like they are capturing moments in time, but without me in them. I am not in the picture. It is not even (really) the view through my eyes.
You can see this if you take a picture of the sunset, the moon or sky with your iPhone. Without tweaking the image, it doesn’t look like what you see.
It feels more like the idiots that go to a concert and then record most of it on their phone. I can’t even see the stage and enjoy the concert because there are brightly lit screens in front of me. But hey, I can view that concert from 2010 on Youtube! Everything is curated. But something is lost. And it diminishes the value.
I think that we will see a backlash in the coming years. Or maybe not.
Have you tried fasting from your phone, or at least social media, for a day or week? When you get back on it is like Perpend coming back from the Alaska monastery – all noise and color and fakery and blah.
It is time for real conversations. Unplugged, unrecorded, untracked, uncurated.
The Royal Path
This is a promising trend.
On Ep. 107 of The Royal Path Podcast, Father Turbo, Andrew, and Cyprian leave it hanging at the end by saying (paraphrase): we accomplished what we set out to do with this project (Father Turbo doesn’t call it a podcast or a show). And we may not have another episode.
Cyprian on Isaac Morehouse’s podcast talks about the Dangers of Being a (Content) Creator. There is a core message that at some point the original intent changes and it becomes something different – either an influencer thing or a money grab.
Likewise, the Doomer Optimism folks had a conference. And they didn’t record it. There is something special in that.
Live Life Uncurated
This weekend my wife will be riding a horse in the Christmas Horse Parade in Lawrence, KS. I will go to support her, and to enjoy the season. Aside from taking a picture of her when she passes, I will try to live it uncurated. No pics on my phone, no FB or Twitter shares.
Live in the Moment. Live Life Uncurated.
Thriving Food Forest Design: Let us create an edible foodscape, perennial paradise for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule a free consult session with me at:
Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:
Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5′ x 3.5′, 17″ tall):
Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.
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Chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey that are adapted to the Midwest.
