1. “Concentrating, focusing. Think about what the word means. It means gathering yourself together into a single point rather than letting yourself be dispersed everywhere into a cloud of electronic and social input. It seems to me that Facebook and Twitter and YouTube—and just so you don’t think this is a generational thing, TV and radio and magazines and even newspapers, too—are all ultimately just an elaborate excuse to run away from yourself. To avoid the difficult and troubling questions that being human throws in your way. Am I doing the right thing with my life? Do I believe the things I was taught as a child? What do the words I live by—words like duty, honor, and country—really mean? Am I happy?”

    —William Deresiewicz in a lecture he gave to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2009 called Solitude and Leadership.

    Read the entire thing. So, so good. I think I’m using this as a guide for the new year.

     
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    7. kirklove reblogged this from texturism and added:
      My goal in 2012 in...nutshell. Live offline. Not online. The irony
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    9. texturism reblogged this from jarrettfuller and added:
      concentrating, focusing. think about what the word means. it means gathering yourself together into
    10. jarrettfuller posted this