Why normalcy is a luxury
On living life, perfectionism, 2020 in summary, solar energy, and vaccines
Hi friend,
A few weeks ago, Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, died suddenly after a tragic event in Connecticut. I highly recommend the piece Forbes did covering the tumultuous last few months of his life: Tony Hseih’s American tragedy - the self-destructive last months of the Zappos visionary. (And after reading, watch Jewel’s dedication to him on her Instagram. That song always gets to me… )
We romanticize the notion that with more popularity, wealth, body, and love... our lives would improve exponentially. For many of us, we would never think twice that the outward validation we seek may change the course of our lives forever. But the truth is - every single decision we make will change the trajectory of where we are headed towards.
Our life is like a “choose your own adventure” book… except, we can’t start over from the beginning.
For Tony, it spiraled out of control when he could not escape the “yes” crowd around him. To his followers, Tony could never do wrong. And with each business success and more notoriety, he was driven further away from normalcy.
To be able to make a mistake, to be anonymous, to have a bad day… even these can be viewed as a luxury for those unable to attain it. This constant hunger for the things that we don’t have is a reminder of our humanity. Our underlying beliefs of scarcity (there will not be enough to go around) and self-preservation (amassing resources to survive) that feed greed and superficiality.
Having a goal is great, but not at the expense of what we have today. Life, health, consciousness, connection… we are more wealthy than we think here in the now, the present.
A life worth living is already here. Where we go from here is our present. (see what I did there?)
I made a video about a relevant topic - perfectionism.
Things I’m up to:
For queer Asians: Support group on Sunday, 12/13
(A few more spots for the 1/16/21 digital retreat- apply here)
For queer POC: Hosting a fireside chat on equity in design on Tuesday, 12/15
For Asians: Asian American support group on Sunday, 12/27
2020 in photos
NY Times collected photos from this year and watching the mood shift ever so quickly from our New Year celebrations in January to the gruesome pandemic.
Solar is in
In the sunniest parts of the world, solar power has finally beat fossil fuels in cost. We will finally make a huge shift over to renewable energy when it is more cost-efficient to be green.
Vaccines are coming
Currently, there are two vaccines getting ready for approval, but scientists warn that a horrible winter is about to approach. (Think pandemic, winter, indoor time)
Upon digging deeper into the vaccines, I was shocked by the speed of Moderna’s vaccine timeline. After Chinese scientists posted the genome sequence for COVID-19 on January 11, Moderna had finished their vaccine by February 5 and initiated its phase 1 trial on February 24.
As always, thanks for reading!
P.S. If you enjoyed this, share or sign up here: mindfulmoments.substack.com
Anything else? You can always hit "reply" to email me directly. 💌
Have a beautiful day!
Metta (loving-kindness),
Steven
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