Contemplating Dust
Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the Sunday Bagel. There could be information in here that will alter the course of your life forever, or it could just be another newsletter to hit Archive and get rid of. The choice is yours.
If you could go into the future and live like an older version of yourself, what advice would you give to the person who is reading this newsletter today?
For me, this exercise always reminds me that one day, I will become dust.
I will become fuel for some guy named Lance’s Ford F150 as he fills up on his way to Walmart so he can buy a few cases of water for his family.
That’s why he has that pickup truck. It’s so he can bully people on the road and make sure he has enough space for his cases of bottled water and Diet Coke.
That’s what I will become. So I better remember that whatever “problems” I have now are mere inconveniences. We get one blink of an eye to enjoy this planet and all the things that we can do here. Yet the most important thing is to notice the lessons that are happening along the way.
This newsletter started out as a way to share my music a decade ago, and while it still does that, it has become a storage locker for some of these lessons that I am learning every day.
You can do the same practice by creating one note on your phone or computer and keep adding thoughts and lessons you are learning every day to it. I separate each entry by writing in today’s date.
Three Ideas from My Notebooks
Success is an agreement with your future self and a settlement with your past self1.
I have centred my life around the idea of projects. But a dream this week helped remind me that alongside projects, we need to take tests. A test is when we find out if your idea will be accepted or if it needs more work.
A chess master has to remember many moves, like a taxi cab driver in New York City who has the map in their head. What role does memory play in your work and life? What do you need to remember every day you wake up? What moves do you have to memorize to become better at your job?
Elliott’s New Album: The Revelation
I’m excited to share that The Revelation will be released on Wednesday, January 17th. This is mostly an ambient affair with a few subliminal jam sessions and some fingerstyle guitar interspersed.
Subscribers to The Sunday Bagel will be sent an advance copy of it shortly.
Reflections on the Log Ride at Ontario Place from Childhood
Go Camping in the Land of Jellyfish
I post more on my Instagram.
Your Christmas Bagel
Happy holidays to everyone who celebrates this week. I will be going to see Godzilla Minus One at some point over the next day, will let you know how it goes.
See you next week,
Elliott
Contrary to what you have been told, success is an inside job and subjective based on your life experience. What other people deem to be the definition of success should not be the same as yours. It is a process of living by your values and what is right for you.