REBOOT

_posts/2020-04-02-reboot.md

@@ -17,17 +17,20 @@ So what if we started a little smaller: **what if you could reboot yourself?**
 
 What if you took the ache in your heart, the worries in your head, and the stress in your body, and hit something like a “reset” button that lets you reinvent yourself… and redefine what it means to be a human, being?
 
+> I am a human being, not a human doing.
+<cite>Kurt Vonnegut</cite>
+
 ### Everything is communication
 
 Across how many dimensions do you communicate intentionally? How about consciously?
 
 In 1964, Canadian communication thinker Marshall McLuhan coined the expression “[the medium is the message](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message),” to capture [the idea](#asfat) that the nature of _how_ something is communicated (the medium) is more important than _what_ is being communicated.
 
 <!-- these two paragraphs will move into /everything-is/communication -->
-When speech first became written, the potential lifespan of a message grew from a whispered chain of decades to however long the medium of record lasted. When radio emerged, the many layers of emotion represented in tone, pitch, and intensity could be communicated once more without words having to convey those additional dimensions. Later on, pictures would communicate a thousand words; and the advent of video added not only a visual dimension that eventually superseded reality, but also more creative configurations of speed, time, and structure for the content.
+When speech first became written, the potential lifespan of a message grew from a whispered chain of decades to however long the medium of record lasted. When radio emerged, the many nuances of emotion represented in tone, pitch, and intensity could be conveyed once more without words having to supplement those layers. Later on, pictures would communicate a thousand words; and the emergence of video added not only a visual dimension that eventually superseded reality, but also more creative configurations of speed, time, and structure for the content.
 <!-- Of course, "pictures" here only refers to the photographic kind. Drawings and paintings long precede the advent of radio signals. -->
 
-Social structures, body language, artistic and sartorial expression… the number of dimensions in which communication _occurs_ often exceeds our conscious practice of it. We say one thing with our words, and so much more through gesticulation, tone, and facial expressions. Those layers help to convey our intended emotional charge: <q>“I’m doing okay”</q> is indistinguishable from <q>“I’m doing okay”</q> in writing, but if one is said in a chipper voice and the other sighed in wistful defeat, two vastly different messages are communicated.
+Social structures, body language, artistic and sartorial expression… the number of dimensions in which communication _occurs_ often far exceeds our conscious practice of it. We say one thing with our words, and so much more through gesticulation, tone, and facial expressions. Each element helps bring across our intended emotional charge: <q>“I’m doing okay”</q> is indistinguishable from <q>“I’m doing okay”</q> in writing, but if one is said in a chipper voice and the other sighed in wistful defeat, two vastly different messages are communicated.
 
 _The medium is the message._
 <!-- Or at the very least, the medium is as important an element of the communication as the message itself. -->
@@ -42,22 +45,48 @@ Or you might join me and say to that: _what if it was?_
 
 ### I (Don’t) Want To Change Your Mind
 
-(unfinished)
+I do, and I don’t. (Yes: this will be a marriage made in limbo.)
+
+First off, I believe that changing our mind is one of mankind’s greatest superpowers—and I mean both the choice _and_ the [mind-altering practice](https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/). While the former is at the heart of humanity’s greatest strides forward, it’s the  exciting science behind the latter that brings us an even more thrilling (and incontrovertible) truth: **there is more to our existence than what we know so far.**
+
+I do sincerely hope you’ll take advantage of this superpower (whichever way you prefer), because you’ll need it on this journey.
+
+That said, I do not intend to “change your mind” — because, well, I am not interested in being prescriptivist. I am not here to tell you what to do; I’m here to show you there are more ways to be. I’m here to say there’s more doors in life than the ones you’ve been shown so far.
+
+I _am_ putting these ideas to the test with more vigor, depth, structure, process, and documentation than I have so far. For the past two years I’ve explored, researched, and tested ideas that offer profound shifts in our way of seeing and experiencing the world. I’ve stripped my life of stress and anxiety, overcome depression even amid this pandemic, found a wellspring of creativity, and cultivated greater connection and relationships than ever before.
+
+Now I strive to document and show what it is like to live a life rebooted into love; to communicate through more dimensions than mere voice, gesture, and language. I want to show you that there are other ways to live, other ways of _being human_.
+
+But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.
+
+Except… there is _one_ thing I want to change for you:
+
+## I want to change your heart
+
+My heart aches for the billions of people currently struggling in the pandemic. It aches for the millions of healthcare workers putting their lives on the line to save ours[^1]. And my heart aches for the millions of people who have lost friends or family; parent or grandparent, brother or sister or other sibling, child or partner or pet…
+
+My heart was aching long before this tiny virus spread across the globe and shut down the planet. For the injustices against people, and the pains of those perpetuating them; for the inequalities in the structures of our society, and the hollowness of the hearts of those who exploit them.
+
+And my heart was crying out in pain for the planet, suffering under our failures to take serious collective action. It swallowed my tears on the inside as each new record-breaking “hottest month” hastened our pace towards imminent self-demise.
 
-I believe that changing our mind is one of humanity’s greatest powers—and I mean both the choice as well as the [mind-altering practice](https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/).
+If your heart aches like mine, know this—and know it well: **your heart is not broken, it’s just working overtime.** As our lives hurtle across the fast lane toward “more” in an endless quest to outpace “not enough,” our hearts are quietly screaming: _we’re still in first gear!_
 
-But I don’t want to try and change your mind here because, well, I am not interested in being prescriptivist. I am interested in putting these ideas to the test with more vigor, depth, structure, process, and documentation than I have over the past two years during which I’ve put this idea to the test on a near-daily basis. I want to formalize and demonstrate what it is like to live a life rebooted into love, communicating through more dimensions than mere voice, body, and language. I want to show that there are other ways to live, other ways of _being human_.
+Your heart is fine. I just want to give it the engine oil it’s been asking for.
 
-I only want to show you the door; it’s up to you if you want to go through it.
+## I’m building this plane as I fly it
 
-That said, I do want to change your heart, if yours aches like mine. Your heart is not broken, it’s fine and capable and working double time. I just want to give it the engine oil it’s been asking for.
+I’ve got a blueprint, and I’ve got some basic foundations in place—but for the most part, I’m diving into a deep unknown, wearing blindfolds and handcuffs, on stilts and through mixed metaphors.
 
+Suffice to say, there will be turbulence.
 
-## (believe in possibility)
+I’m starting a new type of story. A life story, but instead of either writing _or_ living it, I’ll be doing both simultaneously—creating a new kind of protagonist for myself to become, starting essentially from scratch. But life is (not) a blank canvas. Yes, I’m crafting my identity anew as if it were, but no, I’m not resetting to factory settings.
 
+There is red in my ledger that I have to balance out; it wouldn’t be love if I just ignored that.
 
-## (share your story)
+I’m rebooting into love, throwing every value and behavior under the microscope, and examining life across many more dimensions. I will dismantle every structure of knowing, and become a demand for conscious evolution. I guarantee that whoever loves me will be successful.
 
+Eventually, I will connect all the dots, and you’ll be able to tell what I’m doing… but for now, I only have one more question for you:
 
+## What if you could reboot _your_ universe?
 
-Which brings me to the first question: **what if you could reboot _your_ universe?**
+[^1]: Yes, they are heroes, but **no, [we are not at war](#asfat)**, and they, even less so than soldiers, [are **not** expendable](https://www.gq.com/story/essential-workers-martyrdom).

_posts/2020-04-17-universal-growth-model.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 title: A Universal Model For Growth
-category: [Models]
+category: Models
 description: Nature’s sustainable, harmonious, and resilient model can be our foundation for a brighter future.
 ---
 

_posts/2020-04-22-happy-earth-day-2020.md

@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 ---
 title: Happy Earth Day, 2020!
 tags: [Global Days]
-categories: []
 image: /assets/images/posts/2020/citizen-of-the-world.png
 image_thumb: /assets/images/posts/2020/citizen-of-the-world_thumbnail.png
 image_credit: Boonyachoat (GettyImages, via Canva)

_posts/2020-04-22-what-is-universal-love.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: What Is Universal Love?
 tags: []
-categories: [Definitions]
+category: Definitions
 image: /assets/images/posts/2020/greg-rakozy-oMpAz-DN-9I-unsplash.jpg
 image_thumb: /assets/images/posts/2020/greg-rakozy-oMpAz-DN-9I-unsplash_thumbnail.jpg
 image_credit: Greg Rakozy

_sass/_content.scss

@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
   margin-top: 2.14285em;
 }
 
-.post-full .post-content > p:first-child:first-letter {
+.post-full .post-content.big-first > p:first-child:first-letter {
   color: $gray-darkest;
   font-weight: 400;
   font-size: 72px;
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@
 }
 
 @-moz-document url-prefix() {
-  .post-full .post-content > p:first-child:first-letter {
+  .post-full .post-content.big-first > p:first-child:first-letter {
     padding-top: 0.08em;
   }
 }

_sass/_media-queries.scss

@@ -284,7 +284,7 @@
     padding-left: 3vw;
     padding-right: 3vw;
   }
-  .post-full .post-content > p:first-child:first-letter {
+  .post-full .post-content.big-first > p:first-child:first-letter {
     font-size: 60px;
     margin-right: 13px;
   }

archive.html

@@ -20,11 +20,14 @@ <h4>
       <div class="post-meta"><time class="published" datetime="{{ post.date | date: '%Y-%m-%d' }}">{{ post.date | date: "%B %-d, %Y" }}</time></div>
       {% if post.tagline %}
       <p>{{ post.tagline }}</p>
-      {% else if post.tags.size > 0 %}
+      {% elsif post.tags.size > 0 %}
       <p class="post-tags">
       {% for tag in post.tags %}<a href="{{ site.baseurl }}/tags/#{{ tag | cgi_escape }}" rel="tag">{{ tag }}</a>
       {% unless forloop.last %} {% endunless %}{% endfor %}
       </p>
+      {% elsif post.categories.size > 0 %}
+      {% assign category = post.categories[0] %} <!-- Only allow one category! -->
+      <p class="post-categories"><a href="{{ site.baseurl }}/{{ category | downcase | cgi_escape }}" rel="tag">{{ category }}</a></p>
       {% endif %}
     </li>
   {% endfor %}

definitions.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+layout: page
+title: Language Matters
+permalink: /definitions/
+---
+
+<p><nobr>Love First</nobr> aims to be precise about its use of language, as it introduces a number of new concepts that build on common terms which don’t always have a widely shared understanding. This page collects posts detailing important terminology.</p>
+
+{% for category in site.categories %}
+  {% if category[0] == 'Definitions' %}
+  {% for post in category[1] %}
+  <h4><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }}</a></h4>
+  <p>{{ post.excerpt | strip_html | truncatewords:40 }}</p>
+  {% endfor %}
+  {% endif %}
+{% endfor %}

plan.md

@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ The overview below previews a selection of articles, essays, and posts I’m wor
 	- The Opportunities That The Coronavirus Pandemic Offers (GDoc)
 	- I Want To Live In The World Inside My Head
 	- I’m The (Unreliable) Narrator And This Is Just The Prologue
-	- I Didn’t Come Here To Tell You How This Is Going To End; I Came Here To Tell You How It’s Going To Begin
+	- I Didn’t Come Here To Tell You How This Is Going To End
 * ✅ [What Is Love First](/what-is-love-first):
 	- [Love First Is… An Idea](/love-first-is/blueprint) (Blueprints For Life)
 	- [Love First Is… A Way Of Being](/love-first-is/ontology)