The Dispatch by Folk Rebellion, Issue 2—Time & Productivity (March '18)

T H E TI M E & P RO D UCT IVIT Y I S S U E

Who can do more with less sleep is a cornerstone of society, but it’s breaking down what binds us. Mindfulness and productivity tweaks offer an opportunity to (re)take control of time.

$20

No2

Mar 2018

Youth is wasted on the young.

Patience comes to those who wait.

Time heals all wounds.

A hot fudge sundae and one of these sayings was my grandmother’s answer to most anything life could throw your way.

Some of my fondest memories are days spent playing hooky with her. I learned at a young age that when I was sent home sick from school, the person picking me up believed ice cream was a fix for tummy aches...even fake ones. I didn’t overuse this secret pact we had so as not to give up the goose. But it was often enough that I have a treasured memory bank of conversations over McDonald’s perfect vanilla with hot fudge hold the cherry dessert.

Her favorite line was "life's too short to eat dessert last." And she didn’t just say it, she lived it. As the resident sweet-tooth of the family you could always count on her having her chocolate before her meal. She was my idol. My hero. And my favorite person.

In preparing this issue, one I feel very strongly and conflicted about, her words

kept sing-songing in my head. This woman had a real handle on the concept of time and how she wanted to spend it. And it’s only now that I can see that it wasn’t about the chocolate at all. She used chocolate the same way some use nature or meditation or hobbies; to connect to the present, to ground into the moment, and to savor the sweetness of life.

If my grandmother were alive today and I played hooky from life, she would laugh directly in my face while eating a spoonful of hot fudge. She’d let me know in her not-so-sugar-coated-Irish-way that the things giving my tummy aches were self-imposed. My Meema would tell me life’s too short to “run around like a chicken with your head cut off” (her other favorite quote). As cliche as it is, she’s right.

Back then I thought I loved her most because she gave me ice cream. Today, I realize, that I loved her most because she gave me time.

Time may change me But I can't trace time, Jess Davis Editor-In-Chief and Founder of Folk Rebellion

The Dispatch, by Folk Rebellion, is made by the community, for the community.

F OUN D E R + E D ITOR-IN -CH IE F • JE S S D AVIS AS S OCIATE E D ITOR • PIPPA BID D L E CRE ATIV E D IRE CTOR • RYAN L E M E RE ON L IN E COM M UN ITY M AV E RICK • L E XI WEB ER OF F L IN E COM M UN ITY M AV E RICK • L IN D S AY THO MAS S TRATE G Y ROUS E R • JE N N A D AIL E Y COPY E D ITOR • JE S S ICA KUL ICK G RAPH IC D E S IG N • S TE FAN PE RKIN S G RAPH IC D E S IG N • S OPH IE E RS KIN E M E D IA RE L ATION S • KAF I D RE XE L FAIRY G OD M OTH E R • L AURA RUBIN

Brooklyn, NY March 2018 The Time & Productivity Issue Issue 02 | Copyright 2018 Subscribe at www.folkrebellion.com. No part of The Dispatch by Folk Rebellion may be reproLetters to the Editor, classified submissions, and sponsorship duced in any form without prior written consent from the inquiries can be sent to hello@folkrebellion.com. Pitch us at publisher. The Dispatch’s liability in the event of an error is pitches@folkrebellion.com. limited to a print correction.

CONTENTS INTERVIEWS: BEHIND THE SCREENS JESS'S SNAKE OIL + SOAP BOX RUNNING AWAY FROM MY PHONE HOW WE'RE WIRED: EXPERIMENTS IN REBELLION / SCIENCE OF DEJA VU SLOWING DOWN.. TIME HOLY HOLEY TIC TOC: HOW WE ENDED UP LIVING LIFE ON THE CLOCK HOROSCOPES REAL TALK, GROUP TEXT HAND ON YOUR HATCHET ANOTHER SET OF SHOES: LIFE OVER 100K LIFESTYLE DESIGN: DECLUTTERING OUR CALENDARS TIME TO ADJUST, FIND BALANCE, OR BUST KILLING TIME

6 11 12

14 17 18 22 25 25 26

27 28 29 31

35

YOU DON'T HAVE TO COOK

38 46 48

TIME HACKING THE DRAMATIC UNPLUG HOW-TO: THE ART OF LOOKING SLOWLY FAST BURNERS, SLOW BURNERS

55 58 61 62 64

ROCK YOUR BLISS: GANG HANGS REVIEWS THE KITCHEN SINK SIMPLE PARENTING BEFRIENDING BOREDOM LIFE LESSONS FROM BATHROOM STALLS FUNNIES ASK JESS

49 65 67 68

71

GAMES, ACTIVITIES, & PULLOUTS These are tear out, pull out, dog ear, fold, mail, scribble, love, play, pass and use IRL moments.

POSTER SMALL TALK CALENDAR AND “FUCK IT BUCKET” QUOTE

3 4 16 21

30 36 63 72-

SNAIL MAIL: LETTER TO NO ONE BOARD GAME (YOUR INNER) KIDS CROSSWORD, MASH, ETC.

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

ISSUE T WO

SMALL TALK WHAT SLOW LOOKS LIKE:

WHAT SLOW DOES NOT LOOK LIKE:

Writing things by hand. On paper.

Taking polaroids and waiting for actual pictures to develop.

Dragging your sneakers down the sidewalk.

Driving in the slow lane.

Conversing with strangers.

Making meals from scratch.

Filling out crossword puzzles in newspapers.

Swiping through animal memes for hours.

Passing on the right.

70+ hour work weeks.

Checking your email 3,147 times a day.

Over scheduling yourself.

A daily planner with zero blank space.

Eating all of your meals on the go.

Busyness for the sake of busy.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

PRESSURE. PUSHING DOWN ON ME, PRESSING DOWN ON YOU.

Time: (noun)

a) The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.

Productivity: (noun)

a) A measure of the efficiency of production.

RITUAL VS. HABIT

4:06 anthem for everyone raising the middle finger salute to hustle culture. “Under Pressure” is about the kind of pressure that “burns a building down, splits a family in two, puts people on streets”. You know, the stress that leads to major burnout. The Rock Gods even touch upon a lack of humanity and encourage us to choose love because it “dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves”. David Bowie and Queen recorded this little gem in July of 1981. Man, they had no idea. Or maybe they did.

Equally as rad, but a little different: The Rolling Stones “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” (1965).

Ritual is intentional and ceremonial.

Habit is usually involuntary and reactionary.

OF I N TE R E ST • Celebrities known to hit their meditation pillows on the regular: Jennifer Aniston, Russell Brand, Cameron Diaz, Hugh Jackman, Moby, Amy Schumer, Ringo Starr, Oprah.

• Meditation literally reduces the density of brain tissue associated with anxiety and worrying.

• Productivity Gurus To Follow: Tim Ferriss, Jane Hart, Cal Newport, Daniel Pink, Carol Dweck.

• 47% of our waking hours are spent thinking about something totallyunrelated to what’s currently right in front of us.

• Our brain receives 11 million “bits” of information each second, but can only process 40 of them.

• 5 years, 4 months: Time spent on social scrolling social media in a lifetime.

B E T TE R !

WAY S T O S P E N D YO U R T I M E I N S T E A D OF BEING ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

• Call someone: your mother, your father, that old friend you keep saying you’ll catch up soon.

• Unfold a map and hit the trails.

• Lay in a hammock and dogear your favorite pages of an actual book.

• Flirt with a stranger.

• Master your one handed card shuffle.

• Take the long way home. Turn up the radio and play the drums on your steering wheel.

• Play “F*ck, Marry, Kill” with your friends over a glass bottle of whiskey.

• Create your own Mad Libs.

• Draw what you see vs. Instagramming it.

• Learn to play the guitar via YouTube instructors.

• Send cards to sick kids in hospitals.

WEBSITES TO MAKE TIME WORK FOR YOU •Boomerang.com •Slowyourhome.com •Theminimlaists.com •Infomagical.com •Alifeofproductivity.com •Any.do

• Wanna know what else you could accomplish in that time?

•Fly to the moon and back 32 times.

•Walk the Great Wall of China 3.5 times.

•Climb Mt. Everest 32 times.

• Average daily amount of time spent on social media in 2016: •YouTube: 40 minutes •Facebook: 35 minutes •Snapchat: 25 minutes •Instagram: 15 minutes •Twitter: 1 minute

HASHTAGS FOR THE ANTI-HUSTLE CULTURE ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

#slowliving #unplug #chillAF #mindfulness #meditation #consciousness #downtime #chillin #chillmode #recharge #unwind #destress

#hustleless #innerpeace #liveslow #livesimply #itsthelittlethings #lookup #theartofslowliving #simpleliving #lesshustlemoreflow #seeksimplicity #thehappynow #bepresent

ANTI-ANTI-INTE

• SLOW LOOKING: Taking the time to thoroughly e • PRODUCTIVITY: A measure of the efficiency of p • DEJA VU: The feeling that you have already exp • OUTSOURCERS: Productivity school of thought t

nearly self-automated, highly-effi

• GRINDERS: Productivity school of thought that

brute-force production at any cost.

• SUFFRAGE: The right to vote. In the United Stat • BOOTSTRAPPING: Get (oneself or something) in • ESCAPISM: The tendency to seek distraction an or engaging in fantasy.

• MINDFULNESS: The quality or state of being con • PARALLEL UNIVERSE: A universe theorized as ex • THE POWER ELITE: A term used by the American

of people who tend to domina

4

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

RESISTANCE TEENY TINY ACTS OF

We ask folks of all ages a question to see if our generations are really all that different:

Child (age 6): I want to play legos and ride my bike but I have to go to school and do homework.

As centuries went on, designs became more advanced, the structure became smaller, and by the 19th clocks were in almost every home. Today, digital devices make the measurement of time available to everyone and timekeeping as easy as glancing at the phone in your hand. The Egyptians wouldn’t have believed it.

SLANG WORDS FOR

TIME & PRODUCTIVITY AC

HOT MINUTE

TICK

explore a work of art.

perienced something that is actually happening for the first time.

that believes that work can be systematically pared down until a fficient structure remains. believes the only means of achieving greatness is through constant,

tes, the term is often associated with the women's movement to win voting rights.

nto or out of a situation using existing resources.

nd relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment

nscious or aware of something.

xisting alongside our own, although undetectable.

E N O ADULTING

APPS TO HELP YOU SLOW DOWN

INSIGHT TIMER

QUALITY

production.

ON FLEEK

ELLECTUALISM

EC

FE T LI BES

My dad has zero idea what Instagram is, so he’s definitely not on it, but this is his response via @_lexiweber_: What I’d like to do is travel, take rides in the country (does anyone do that anymore?), go antiquing, and read. Just enjoy a slower pace of life. What I do instead: I don’t even know where my days go anymore, but I do know I have a lot of medical appointments, there are errands to run, and repairs to be done.

K

ACTUALLY: cleaning, cooking, attempting to homeschool {and feeling like a failure}, frustrated, "trying" to keep up with the never ending 'to-do' list... And yes sometimes I stay up too late scrolling Instagram

TRADITIONALISTS

Egyptians first created the sundial circa 1500 BC as means to measure the passage of time. They upped the game on their time telling skills by later developing a water clock, an honorable attempt to measure time by the amount of water dripping from a tank into a bowl. Variations were seen across civilizations through Greece, Rome, the Arab civilizations, and China. The first mechanical clock was invented in the Middle Ages and typically found only in European churches. They were heavy and often inaccurate, but we can thank Christiaan Huygens for fixing that issue with the introduction of the pendulum in 1657. We got the quartz clock in 1927 Warren Marrison and J.W. Horton, which held us over until 1945, when Isador Rabi created the first atomic clock. Game changed.

DONE. DONE.

@rebeccaschartner: LIKE: reading {thankfully I did this every day!}, hiking/ being outdoors, spending quality time with my kids {not being frustrated that 'things' aren't perfect}, laughing, creating in silence.

@dailey.jane: Like to do: Healthy things—working out/classes, getting fresh air, riding horses. Playing golf. Being active. Read.

Learn. Volunteer. How I actually spend time: I golf whenever I can, but golf and outdoor activities are weather dependent. I don’t do enough reading or learning or volunteering—I’d like to do more of that. There’s a total disconnect. Completely.

Time is a measurement like meters or kilograms or glasses of whiskey. We use time to measure the speed of our Uber or how long it takes to get from your place to that little coffee shop on the corner of West Street and Second Avenue. We can measure time in nanoseconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours, decades, really bad breakups, ect. All of these measurements were not discovered, but invented.

OWB THR

@have.legs.will.travel: I’m 24 so a millennial maybe? I like spending my time trail running. I spend 9 hours a day staring at a screen for work. I’ve started taking a bath everyday though, just me and my thoughts for at least 20 minutes.

I’m working to quit Reddit as well, since I spend hours a day looking at that. Mostly political stuff that just gets me anxious and depressed.

@stephjwcarroll: I like to spend my time reading real live books. I actually spend my time watching law and order svu and folding baby laundry

BOOMERS

No. Humans saw these different phenomena taking place and made sense out of it, simplified it, measured it. The result? A little thing we now refer to as time.

RESCUE TIME

TIME

HEADSPACE

OFFTIME PAUSE

MOMENT

FREEDOM

POMODORO TECHNIQUE TRY THE

Focus on a single task for 25 minutes, then take a 5 minute break. Adjust your times based on your ideal workflows. The idea is to focus as long as your brain will allow, then to give it a break with a little nothingness before starting again.

n sociologist Wright Mills to describe a relatively small, loosely knit group ate American policymaking.

5

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

MILLENNIAL

GEN X

@elftrap: I like to read, think, knit and be outside. I spend too much time on social media. Xennial? Or whatever? 1981. I need to cut this phone limb off for real.

D I S C O V E R E D ?

Sure, it’s natural to assume that time existed before we were born, exists as we are raised on Earth, and will exist long after we are alive. Really though, is time just a thing that was discovered by human beings? I mean, did we all of a sudden watch a sunset turn into a sunrise and realize that time was the phenomenon we were witnessing? As we were slipping on our Ugg boots one chilling November morning did we intuitively know it was the passing of time that changed the seasons?

TOC K

GEN 2020

O R

CALM

“HOW DO YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR TIME VERSUS HOW YOU ACTUALLY SPEND YOUR TIME?”

I N V E N T E D

TIME…

S

Let's hop into the way-back machine and annoy the shit out of people who have become accustomed to hiding from phone calls. They text. You call. They email. You call. They message.

You call. I'll be honest with you. They will probably red button and ignore you. They may even have the gall to text you back immediately "What's up?", at which point you call back again. I did this with my bestest and she hates me for it but when we finally talk and say inappropriate things over laughter it feels heavenly. Way better than that stupid fucking meme that was so LOL. Do it all week long. Try it with you boss, mom, bf, coworker, booking Dr appointments, and holy-shit-calling-a-restaurant for delivery. Your stress levels will go down. You will get a hit of oxytocin. You will feel less bogged down and more connected. Besides, our parents (or insert: grandparents, mentor, best friend, ex, neighbor you played scrabble with before the Internet took all your attention and time) probably miss the fuck out of us and most likely did something at some point that deserves hearing our voice. These technologies were meant to be a tool for us to communicate more efficiently when needed...not become a replacement for communication.

ISSUE T WO

the slow talker JOE HOLLIER

WHAT IS THE LIGHT PHONE? The Light Phone is the only phone intentionally designed to be used as little as possible. Like how we have different shoes or jackets for different occasions, the Light Phone is your casual “second” phone that encourages you to leave behind the smartphone and all of its distractions.

WHAT GAP DOES THE LIGHT PHONE FILL? Every company is fighting for our attention. We wanted to build not that builds beautiful objects that empower us to be our best selves.

There are, of course, other small or simple phones, but none of them have been positioned as "your phone away from phone.” Now

27, BROOKLYN NY

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

only the Light Phone but a radically different technology company

we are starting to see some smartwatches that allow you to leave your phone, but what are those if not smaller smartphones ever more present on your wrists? No thanks.

WHAT SPURRED YOU TO CREATE THIS? In September 2014, Google invited me to their inaugural design incubator. It was my first personal step into the technology world, having come from an art, design, and photography background. I was eager for my art to have a more tangible effect on the world at large, and this opportunity seemed like there was that potential.

when we disconnect it becomes clear that we don't need them, and in fact, our lives are often better without that noise. Multitasking is a

We were encouraged to think of smartphone apps and taught how

myth. It is addictive and exhausting, and I think we are all becoming

and why many other apps where being created. Quickly it became

overwhelmed and craving that escape.

clear that these apps were not aligned with our quality of life, but were deeply rooted in supporting the business models around data

GIVE ME THE HIGH/LOW OF BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR.

collection and advertising. They were engineering these apps to use

The fact that my idea resonates with a global audience is very

our vulnerabilities against us while pretending that they were "mak-

humbling, and it motivates me to keep pushing through the lows.

ing the world a better place" through cheesy marketing.

The feeling of holding one of the first working Light Phones is one I will never forget.

If I were to make an app, it would be to get people off of these stupid phones! It was out of that thought the initial concept of "going light"

I've always tended to be a do-it-all-myself kind of guy, but I have

and the Light Phone itself were born.

found myself over my head technically and relying on others many times, whether it’s our hardware and software teams or our lawyers.

DO YOU THINK IT'S REALLY POSSIBLE TO DISCONNECT

My day-to-day is a lot different than when I was just an artist, and

IN A WORLD THAT IS HYPER-CONNECTED?

oh boy email can be such a drag. There is a constant need to raise

I would say it is not only possible but essential! Many of the millions

investment, and managing employees is new to me. We try our best

of excuses we might make for why we NEED to stay connected are

to keep all of our customers happy, and when someone is disap-

often not true. We convince ourselves that we need these things – be

pointed, it hurts.

it Instagram or the ability to check your email in line at a cafe – but HOW CAN SOMEONE GET A LIGHT PHONE? They are currently only available in very limited quantities on our website, lightphone.com.

A QUOTE THAT HELPED YOU BECOME WHO YOU ARE TODAY A quote that immediately struck me, especially as it relates to why the Light Phone means so much to me is from Annie Dillard: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” If we are spending our days always connected, staring at screens, craving more and more, that is how we will spend the rest of our lives. I think life can be so much more than a series of feeds and notifications.

6

@THELIGHTPHONE

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

JON STAFF

WHAT IS GETAWAY? Getaway's aim is to get overworked and over-connected folks to

deep thought and work even harder to protect off-time from being

reconnect with nature. We build what we call Outposts, which are

invaded by emails and Slack messages. It's not easy – I was surprised

groups of tiny cabins in the woods two hours or less from major

how hard it was to train people out of texting me every Saturday at

cities, rentable by the night. Each cabin is outfitted with everything

9 PM – and we still have a ways to go. But the short answer is that if

you need to disconnect and to simply enjoy being out in nature with

we are successful in creating a company that has balance built in, it

the company of others. We think about the experience holistically:

should be easier for me to have balance in my life as well. That, plus

from the location of the land to the design of the houses – especially

I bought a Light Phone.

the intentional lack of wifi. Our aim is to be thoughtful in helping our guests fully unplug from the stress we all have in our daily lives.

DO YOU SEE THIS AS A NEW FORM OF SELF-CARE? We can't live our lives the way so many of us do today. 75% of kids say their parents can't stop working when they come home. Americans didn't take 577 million vacation days last year. 59% of millen-

Having lived on a boat, in the basement of a frozen yogurt shop,

nials feel shame if they take a vacation. Men who don't take time

in my college library, and in an Airstream trailer, I immediately

off are 30% more likely to have a heart attack; women who don't

connected with the tiny house movement. I had burned myself

take vacations are more likely to be depressed. The Diagnostic and

out doing prior startups that taught me a lot but ultimately did not

Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders preliminarily listed “Internet

capture my full passion. My friend Pete Davis and I were looking for

Use Disorder” as a psychological condition. Half of people say a cell

an escape. We wanted someplace quiet – without wifi – and once

phone ruined a key moment in their lives. Millennials are so dis-

we realized that others might benefit from some time alone in the

tracted they are having more “senior moments” than senior citizens,

woods and a break from the grind, Getaway was born.

like forgetting what day it is or where their keys are. I hope Getaway and many other organizations can help us correct these externalities of the digital age. It's not self care, it's self-preservation.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE PEOPLE DO WITH THEIR TIME WHILE VISITING ONE OF YOUR TINY HOMES? I really, really want people to discover the feeling of being bored

ANYTHING YOU MISS FROM PRE-INTERNET DAYS?

again. It is not enough to go to nature and still have your laptop or

Once in college, a professor required us to go without any electronic

cell phone glowing at you. It is not even really enough to go to the

communication for a day. No cell phones, no laptops, but we even

woods and do a bunch of non-work activities. I believe there is a

went so far as no tap cards to get on the subway or credit card swipes.

magic moment right after you genuinely can't think of what to do

I spent the day wandering campus with my friends. We stumbled

next. As kids, that's when we figured out a new place to explore,

upon a group of women playing rugby in their prom dresses. We

made a new friend, or formed a new idea. That same thing can

were invited to watch a private rehearsal of a string quartet. We

happen to us as adults, but we prevent it by busying ourselves from

baked a cake just to kill time. Eight years later, we're still celebrat-

the time our alarm clock rings to the time we set it again for the next

ing what came to be known as The Day of Jubilation. I miss the joy

packed day.

of being truly spontaneous that is so hard to come by in the era of

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA?

entrepreneur

the off-the-grid

instant gratification.

YOUR BUSINESS IS ABOUT SIMPLIFYING, YET IT SEEMS PRETTY COMPLEX TO RUN. HOW DO YOU KEEP THE BALANCE? Believe me, it is not lost on me that I could have started an easier business. That said, while the primary goal of the company is to provide meaningful experiences for our guests, an important secondary goal of mine is building a company that also provides balance for its employees. That's why we require everyone to take 20 days off a year, and if they don't, it comes up in their performance review. We work hard to protect "production" time, which is

29, BROOKLYN NY

when you can focus on work that requires

@JONSTAFF 7

ISSUE T WO

NICOLE CARDOZA

the time teacher WHAT IS YOGA FOSTER?

honest conversations about how money makes us feel. I'm

Yoga Foster makes wellness elementary

working on a couple new ideas, too! Ideally, there's always a

by giving school teachers resources to

resource for us to go to when we're trying to get better.

practice yoga and mindfulness in the classroom with their students.

WHY DO YOU THINK WE'RE ALL SO RUSHED AND Because we're living in a digital world in analog bodies. Our

Silence isn't the answer­—awareness

systems weren't designed for FOMO and crazy inboxes, and

is. As grownups, we often tell kids to

we're just trying to keep up. I think if we were more patient

pay attention without teaching them

with that dissonance, we'd feel a bit better.

how. By giving kids these tools, they can choose how to show up in the

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE YOU HELPED?

classroom and in everyday life..

My goal is to give one million children access to mindfulness before I turn 30, and I don't even think I'm halfway there! So not enough.

HOW DID YOU FIRST BECOME INTERESTED IN MEDITATION?

28, SEATTLE WA

I started practicing in college, and found it helpful for mitigating the anxiety and stress I experienced moving to a new city and trying to make ends meet.

WHY SHOULD PEOPLE TRY MEDITATION? to become better friends with yourself.

IS THERE AN END GOAL? For Yoga Foster, it's to make yoga accessible in every public school in the U.S. For me, it's to see the world.

A QUOTE THAT HELPED YOU BECOME WHO YOU ARE TODAY: "You are the sky. Everything else – it's just the weather.” — Pema Chödrön

It's such a warm and welcoming way

@NICOLEACARDOZA

We all deserve to be our own best friends, after all.

YOU'VE CREATED TWO COMPANIES, YOGA FOSTER AND NOW DAHLA. WHAT DRIVES YOU TO KEEP JUMPING INTO NEW WATERS? I believe that wellness can't be truly accessible for all if we don't focus on the factors that

8

REBEL MANIFESTO: What would happen if…?

FAVORITE PLACE OFFLINE: Lake Minnewanka in the Rockies, Alberta.

BROOKE MCALARY

Each month we feature a member of our community.

This isn’t any of that (air quotes) stand-up, pillar of the community glad handing you see in traditional organizations.

keep us unwell. For Yoga Foster, it's shifting access in the schools. For dahla, it's having

the rebel rouser.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

STRESSED OUT? WHY TEACH KIDS TO BE SILENT?

SPIRIT ANIMAL: The yellow-tailed black cockatoo is genuinely the animal I love the most in the world, but am I allowed to say that comedian Thomas Middleditch is my spirit animal? Because if I can, it’s him.

BEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME: Actually impossible to say but let’s go with Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys.

FAVORITE PRE-INTERNET HOBBY: Writing endless reams of angsty teenage poetry.

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

SOPHIE CHICHE

the rest-whileyou-sweat creator WHAT IS SHAPE HOUSE? An urban sweat lodge. A place where people sweat and get delicious “me time.” Shape House is often referred to as an oasis, a calm space to remove you from the brouhaha of a city. People come for different reasons because it serves different needs. Some come because it helps them sleep. Some because it helps them lose weight.

Some because it helps their skin.

WHY IS "ME TIME" IMPORTANT? Because life is going faster and faster and the “me” part of the equation is the first thing that we tend to drop. When we don’t take time to connect to ourselves, all we have left is to connect with what is PLEASE SHARE THE HIGH/LOW OF BEING AN

“Me time” anchors you. It gives you roots. It makes sure you lead

ENTREPRENEUR.

your life from the inside out.

The people are the high. And the people are the low. When the people side of things works, it is the most sacred and the most inspir-

YOU'VE SAID YOU CAN'T RUSH THIS. WHAT DO YOU

ing. When it doesn’t, it makes me want to question everything I am

HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE TIME COMMITMENT?

doing. But really, my happiness is very tied to the people around me

Time is like money; there is a limited amount of it. How you spend

— having each other’s backs, being sincere and courageous.

it is everyone’s choice. But if you are going to crash and watch a

It is certainly my fuel.

show or two or three, might as well do it while you sweat your head off.

HOW DO YOU ENJOY SPENDING YOUR TIME? Riding my Harley. Dancing. Boxing. Having deep conversations.

HOW DOES SWEATING HELP ALL THOSE WHO FEEL HUR-

Finding smart ways to have a healthy lifestyle. Helping people have

RIED, AND STRESSED OUT?

lives they love. Finding new ways to make eggs.

Sweating slows you down. It makes you breathe deeper, so it calms your nervous system. The fact that you put yourself at the top of your

A QUOTE THAT HELPED YOU BECOME WHO YOU

“to do” list once or twice a week gives your body the signal that you

ARE TODAY:

matter. We ask a lot of ourselves. Spending an hour in a self-care space

“Everything works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out yet,

ensures that we give “the machine” what it needs to perform well.

it’s not the end.”

@SHAPEHOUSE 9

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

around us. What is around us is a lot of noise and stressful stimulus.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ISSUE T W0

Dear Dispatch,

We’re Leesa and we’re stoked to be a part of the Folk Rebellion Dispatch community. As a company that is focused on better sleep for everybody, we know that unplugging and being mindful is such an important (and often overlooked) piece in today’s hectic world. Restful and restorative sleep elevates your life in so many ways. It helps your mind and body prepare for the challenges of the day ahead.

From the outset, Leesa has believed that everyone’s life can be lifted after a good night’s sleep. As a certified BCorp, our goal is to ensure that everyone finding refuge from homelessness, domestic risk or human trafficking in a shelter will find a comfortable bed waiting for them. We donate one mattress for every ten sold. Tonight, 23,000 people will sleep better thanks to our donations. Our hope is that they will dream of a brighter tomorrow and wake up with their heads held a little higher.

Our social impact program is at the heart and soul of what we do and sharing our passion with the Folk Rebellion Dispatch community is a great place to do that.

Keep dreaming!

Here’s to a better night’s sleep, The Leesa Team

10

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

By Jess Davis

IF SHE WAS A VODKA DIRTY MARTINI STRAIGHT UP WITH EXTRA OLIVES, I WAS A SHOT OF JAMESON WITH A BUD LIGHT BACK. SO HOW DARE SHE JUDGE MY RELAXING? (WELL EARNED, I MIGHT ADD.) EVERYONE IN AMERICA HAS THE DISEASE OF BEING BUSY, NEVER AT REST, NEVER AT EASE, NEVER CALM, NEVER PRESENT. A CLUSTERFUCK OF I’M-SOBUSY-I-CAN’TTHAT-DAY SCHEDULING.

AND SNAKE OIL "How can you just sit there?" "How Worse yet, they say it is a top can you not?" was the equally irritated health concern for U.S. teens beresponse I gave to my longest and very tween 9th and 12th grade, and that, best friend in the whole wide world. It if they don’t learn healthy ways to was 2001 and we were at odds in our manage that stress now, it could shared loft in Brooklyn. Being on opposite ends of the spectrum have serious long-term health imwas what made our friendship so fun. We discussed differing plications. The most stressful decision I had to make in 9th grade viewpoints, never liked the same guy, and balanced each other out was which hypercolor shirt I was going to wear to the school dance. in our studies, and ways of living. If she was a Vodka Dirty Martini Add sentence here that links quickly from teen graf. Most folks straight up with extra olives, I was a shot of Jameson with a Bud will say they are busier now than they were a decade ago. Isn’t that Light back. It worked. the opposite of what was supposed to happen as the world went But on this day, Nicole stood over me as I laid out on our hot into our hand? pink IKEA couch like a cat purring in a patch of sunlight. For me, I am somewhere between the ages of 28 and 40, and I can tell Sunday mornings meant recuperating from my weekend shifts at you that I had a life and career before all of these gadgets arrived the bar where my days were upside down. Sleep was reserved for on the scene. the sunlight hours in preparation for my job that started at 7pm B.E. (before email) if you wanted someone to read something and ended at 5am. Some nights (the good ones), I didn’t catch a you had to fax it to them. Thennnn you had to hope and pray that taxi until 8am when the McDonald’s drive-thru, much to my dis- someone walked over to the fax at their end AND picked it up and may, switched over to the breakfast menu. read it. Don’t even get into the wormhole of “is it the right person?”, My internal clock was all messed up and I couldn’t sleep. My “did it fall off the machine?”, “how many days until they check it and mother’s cure for insomnia has always been a good book. So there I fax back?”, etc. It wasn’t an ideal workflow, but there is something laid on the couch, trying to fall asleep, and Nic was up and running. It about it that I miss. was 9am and she had already worked out, made a healthy breakfast, Me? I was intentional about it. My fax machine at the local threw in two loads of laundry, and before turning her over-achieving newspaper I worked at in upstate NY only received my presence eyes my way, was on her hands and knees scrubbing an already clean after I had handled all the items I deemed important on my agenda kitchen floor. Just watching her gave me anxiety. And, apparently, her that day. That fax machine constantly spit out shit that other peowatching me just be, made her enraged. ple needed from me. So why on God's green earth would I visit it This was one of our very rare fights in the history of our twenty- before I handled the things that I needed from me? five plus year friendship that was actually real. I didn’t judge her That difference is being proactive vs. reactive. toiling ways, her self-imposed busyness, and her ability to make The word “reactive” implies that you let the events (or faxes) things I found trivial exceedingly important. So how dare she judge set the agenda. my relaxing? (Well earned, I might add.)

“Proactive” is calm under stress.

It seems Nicole was ahead of the curve.

So what does this have to do with faxes and why I am I getting all Here we are almost two decades later and most everyone in Lisa-Frank-nostalgic on your ass?

America has the disease of being busy, never at rest, never at ease, Fax machines required a proactive mindset. Emails, texts, and never calm, never present. notifications? It’s basically like having someone throw hundreds, if Just try and make plans these days and it’s a clusterfuck of I’m- not thousands, of digital communications AT. YOUR. FACE. ALL. so-busy-I-can’t-that-day scheduling.

DAY. LONG. Wanna grab a slice and catch up with an old friend? Sure, How are you to put your best foot, your best work, and your best they’ve got a free night two weeks from now.Playdate for your kid? thoughts forward when you’re living under a waterfall of data?

Morgan can do 45 minutes next weekend between tutoring and ballet. “Very important“ business meetings require 8+ emails before being sandwiched in to a day of ”back-to-backs“.

So, how did we get here? At what point did filling our calendars and minds with to-do lists and action items become the new normal?

And what is lost as ease, rest, and presence fade?

Before we answer that let’s start with what is gained. It’s a dirty 6-letter word and it starts with an S and ends with ‘tress’.STRESS. Ask any one of those people I mentioned above how they are feeling and the word ‘stressed’ will be one of the first they mention.

The American Psychological Association reports that 75% of adults experienced moderate to high levels of stress in the past month and nearly half reported that their stress has increased in the past year.

Waterfalls never turn “off.” Eventually, the constant battering will become too heavy and take you under.

People are hustling themselves right into doctors offices with complete burnout, anxiety, autoimmune diseases, or even heart attacks. And those who choose to self-medicate instead of seekout out professional help fall face first into a bottle-of-wine-a-nightproblem to cope, because, hey, if you can’t see straight you can’t email ammiright?

So why are we turning to doctors and addiction to grant us the permission to rest our body and minds?

Because this societal form of pseudo-self-inflicted torture is the new normal.

But it doesn’t have to be.

11

HOW CAN YOU NOT? AND WHAT IS LOST AS EASE, REST, AND PRESENCE FADE? IT’S A DIRTY 6-LETTER WORD AND IT STARTS WITH AN S AND ENDS WITH ‘TRESS’.

75%

OF ADULTS EXPERIENCED MODERATE TO HIGH LEVELS OF STRESS IT’S BASICALLY LIKE HAVING SOMEONE THROW HUNDREDS, IF NOT THOUSANDS, OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS AT. YOUR. FACE. ALL. DAY. LONG.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

HOW CAN YOU JUST SIT THERE?

issue ii

ISSUE T WO

While waiting for the gun to go off at Marathon, nobody else seemed t

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

By Sami Yewman

I

run naked. By ‘naked,’ I am, of course, referring to the concept of running without gadgets. So I was shocked when, at the start of the New York City Marathon, I did not see a single person without a cell phone out. Tech was everywhere. One woman burst into tears from frustration when she could not get a cell signal to send a snap of her starting the marathon.

On the Verrazano Bridge, which comprises the first two miles of the race, people who had just started their race stopped to climb onto the barriers in the middle of the bridge and take selfies.

Further along, I had a horrific flashback to the days of “Red Rover” in middle school when three women in front of me linked arms and stopped midrace for a photo.

In my finisher’s photo, the man in front of me is stopping his tracker on his cell phone. I’m upset because he missed his photo op, but mostly because he ruined mine.

phone behind. No matter how hectic the day was, for an hour or so I was able to be unreachable. When I started running longer distances, my reprieve got longer.

Soon I was off the grid for hours at a time.

What I missed were mostly unimportant distractions and once people became acclimated to me being unreachable for certain periods of the day, they’d wait more patiently for my response.

I’d miss the occasional lunch invite or email from my boss, but I never missed an emergency or a call that couldn’t wait

The wearables market clocked in at $3 billion in 2016 and is predicted to have sold 310.4 million devices in 2017.

Of the over 51,307 people that started the 2017 New York City Marathon, a reported 5,389 were using GPS tracking apps on their phone. I saw folks on phone calls, taking selfies, and preparing their various running apps and watches to track the 26.2 miles ahead of them. In recent years, there has been a sharp decline in the number of people who run races completely free of any gadget.

Like many people, I first got into running as a form of therapy. It was the one place that I could go where I could leave my

a few hours to before returning. It was then that I realized that you’re as available as you make yourself and the people that matter will respect and adjust to that, even though we’ve all grown accustomed to immediate response times.

When I began running with other people, I assumed that this would be a widelyshared mentality. But I soon realized that using running as a form of technology escapism was not as common as I had thought. The age of tech abundance has not spared the running community, and my new friends were running with just as much technology as they surrounded themselves with every other hour of the day.

12

At a New York Road Runners group training track workout in Prospect Park, I recognized the beeps of Garmin watches every time we stopped a segment. When I asked someone if they liked having a watch tracking them, they jokingly said: “how else would people know that I went for a run?” Others said that if they were unable to acquire a GPS signal, they wouldn’t start their race. ‘If it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen.’ Indeed, Strava, a popular app that tracks biking and running workouts via GPS while also functioning as a social network, has a cult following.

Other phone-based trackers include Nike + Run Club, Runkeeper, Runtastic, Fitso, Rungo, and RunSocial.

Not only are people using their cell phones while running, but they’re also purchasing brand new technology simply to track their activity. The wearables market clocked in at $3 billion in 2016 and is predicted to have sold 310.4 million devices in 2017.

Although this number includes items like Snapchat glasses and the now defunct Google Glass, smartwatches are well over half of the market, and are ubiquitous among younger, active populations. As of 2014, 48% of wearable users were between 18 and 34 years old.

Part of this reliance on gadgets is habitual. I use my cell phone for everything else in my life, so it would make sense to make it part of my race training plan as well. My running partners didn’t all of a sudden have a smartwatch, a heart monitor, and seven apps on their phone to track their running stats. Reliance creeps up on you.

At first, they just liked to listen to music while running, which meant headphones and an iPod. Enter Spotify, which requires having your phone on you. If you’re going to have your phone anyway, you may as well download a few apps to log your

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

the starting line of the New York City to be running naked - except me.

Point being: It’s a slippery slope.

That’s not to say that it’s only the running community guilty of bringing tech and gadgets into sports. When Strava debuted, it was designed for the biking community.

Swimmers, rowers, hikers, and many others have embraced tracking and monitoring devices on their phones. Activities that once provided an escape from the increasingly tech-saturated world have now merged with it.

I started running because it gave me an hour of blissful, technology-free time. I wasn’t running to share it with the world or to garner virtual encouragement. When I got my medal after crossing the finish line of the New York City Marathon. I simply bowed my head and appreciated the moment fully: I had done it.

out of battery. The last thing on my mind was checking who had emailed me, or what texts had rolled in while I’d been away from my cell. I enjoyed a few more unplugged moments before meeting my parents at a predetermined spot, taking a few pictures (as parents do) and plugging back in..

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

activity. Since your phone is also a camera, maybe you stop a few times to take photos.

And maybe when you use that camera you see that your friend texted you, and you take a minute to respond.

There are certainly benefits to using technology when you run, but there should be some point in your life (whether it’s running or not is up to you) where you are inaccessible to the outside world. You deserve some time to be detached.

If I run a marathon but don’t track it on any apps or post it on social media, let me assure you, it still happened.

DID YOU KNOW? • 51,307 people started the NYC Marathon in 2017 and 98.9% finished the race. (Runner’s World) • Half of wearable users are between 18 and 34. (Nielsen)

I waddled out of the park with thousands of others, many of whom were struggling to get service, or attempting to contact family members before their phones ran

Of the over 51,307 people that started the 2017 New York City Marathon, a reported 5,389 were using GPS tracking apps on their phone.

• The wearables market is worth over $3 billion.

(Forbes)

WANNA DIG DEEPER? • Read: “51,307 Started, But How Many Finished? The 2017 NYC Marathon by the Numbers” (Runner’s World) • Read: “The Technology That Created a New Generation of Runners” (The Atlantic) • Watch: The Strava insights from the 2017 TCS New York City Marathon (YouTube)

13

ISSUE T WO

x

Experiments in Meditation: TESTING SOCIAL NORMS IN ORDER TO LIVE A CONSCIOUS LIFE

1a.

by Kalisa Augustine

T

y

he first time I tried to meditate, I was eight years old. My father would chop wood every day in the winter to feed our continuously burning fire. One day, as the darkness crept up on the evening, I remember staring into the fire when no one was around (I am the second of four children and grew up in a loud, chaotic, intense household where solitude was a commodity), and settling into a state of calm.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Almost instinctively, I went to my mom’s bathroom and grabbed a jar of bath salts. I stuck a single candle into the jar to hold it upright, placed it in front of the fire, and, upon lighting it, created what I now know was an impromptu alter. I placed my little, makeshift, elemental homage in front of the fire, sat cross-legged, put my hands in Gyan mudra (thumb to forefinger), and began chanting “OHM.” I was just a kid. I had no access to meditators, alters, or mantras.

I just did it.

My father walked in on me in the living room, with my eyes closed and chanting like a damn guru, and stared at me, speechless.

“What in the world are you doing?” he asked. Immediately, I felt shame because I had no intellectual understanding of what I was doing.

I just new that the fire, quiet, a comfortable seat, and a mantra made me feel good.

I strengthened my resolve, looked back at him, and simply said, “meditating,” like it wasn’t a big deal that his eightyear-old daughter had built an altar in the living room.

“Well, okay then,” he replied, shrugging and walking out of the room. To this day, meditating in front of fire is my favorite way to tap in.

I remember being on the playground in elementary school, and just wanting to sit quietly by myself. Teachers would come up to ask me if something was wrong, trying to uncover the hidden pain that would drive me to be alone, but I just wanted to sit there and observe. They couldn’t believe that a child would enjoy stillness. Each teacher would walk away in disbelief, but was soon followed by another.

It wasn’t until I was around 18 that I began meditating seriously, though. I had stopped tapping into that place at all in my early teenage years, and I was out of practice. I had to relearn the physical stuff, but I also had to rediscover that place within myself. Today, I am an energy healer, mentor, speaker, teacher, writer, designer, crystal dealer, and meditation artist, and I’ve learned that an untrained mind is a recipe for disaster.

I do not claim to be a meditation master, but I’ve been doing it for a long time. Meditation is the gateway to awareness, to spiritual insight, and freedom. It is liberation, and it is self-realization. It also has a measurable impact on your ability to focus and your sense of well-being. Three minutes of meditation impacts your circulation, 11 minutes impacts your nerves and glandular system, and just over an hour can change your brain. Yes, your brain. Meditation is medicine.

Here is how to run an experiment in mediation...

14

For those who wish to purify the mind, know the unknown, and heal from within, meditation is the key.

1.

Establish a practice: Plan to be consistent & diligent, even before you start. This means devoting yourself wholeheartedly instead of daydreaming on the floor and calling it meditation.

2.

3.

Get an accountability partner: Ask a like-minded friend to do it with you so you can hold each other accountable to your commitments.

Set goals: Strive to overcoming impatience, distraction, or boredom. Choose to meditate for 21 days in a row. Try to meditate for 11 minutes twice daily, or 20 minutes morning and evening.

Perhaps a “no alcohol unless I’ve meditated” rule will work for you. Record how you are feeling physically, emotionally, and spiritually before and after your meditation sessions so you can track your progress.

4.

Create an altar or sacred space: Put framed photos of inspiring figures, family members, mentors or powerful quotes on a low bench or shelf. Place crystals and fresh flowers on your altar, and maybe seashells or rocks from places of personal significance. Then place a blanket and meditation pillow in front, facing the altar. Burn sage or palo santo, or light a white candle. Having a place in your home that is devoted to stillness sets an intentional tone and it is more inviting when it comes time to meditate.

5.

Keep your attention on your breath: Neutrally observe the subtle sensations experienced from breathing deeply and slowly. If thoughts arise (and they will) become the neutral observer of your monkey mind. Let them arise, then let them go.

Come back to your breath.

6.

Never complain through your experiment.

Do not give energy to thoughts and words like: “I can’t do this,” “I suck at stillness,” “This sh%t is boring,” etc. Just commit to it and do it with grace.

In a world where everyone is distracted and techobsessed, it is so refreshing and attractive to commune with someone who is truly present, attentive, and mindful. Give energy to your meditation practice so you can be that breath of fresh air.

DID YOU KNOW? • Practiced meditators may have an increase in tissue in brain areas that involve impulse control and attention.

People who meditate may also be kinder than those who do not. (Smithsonian) • Mindfulness reduces age and race bias.

(Lueke & Gibson 2014) DIG DEEPER • Explore: Kalisa offers guided meditation downloads, music, crystals, and private sessions on her website. kalisaaugustine.com • Read: The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa.

• Check Out: UNIFY.org, a non-profit that organizes synchronized global meditations for world peace and socio-political activism.

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

Science of DejaVu

by Kristi Pahr

Fig. 1

DON'T YOU?

ou’re walking down the an unfamiliar street, visiting a new city, or hiking a new trail you’ve never hiked, and you’re suddenly overwhelmed with the sense that you’ve been there, in that exact spot, experiencing that exact same situation, before despite knowing that you’ve never been there before. Deja vu.

Then it’s gone as quickly as it came and you carry on, maybe a little puzzled, but no worse for wear.

Deja vu is that singular and striking feeling of familiarity when something is unfamiliar, of knowing someone you’ve never met, of being somewhere before you’ve never been. It can be disorienting, and disconcerting.

It can feel mysterious and spiritual, a feeling outside of time and place. Theories for why we experience deja vu have ranged from parallel universes to precognition, and it wasn’t until recently that researchers had an idea of what it was, or what it meant.

Historically, communities have linked deja vu to past life resonance or spiritual awakenings, witchcraft and the devil. Others have acknowledged as a mysterious and quirky thing that happens but is of no real consequence.

The Wachowskis called it a glitch in The Matrix. Not until recently, though, have researchers discovered that there’s really nothing mysterious or glitchy about deja vu at all.

According to Dr. James Giordano, Professor of Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, deja vu is no big mystery. “Deja vu appears to occur because the processes for perceiving current situations and events relies on the brain's ability to match new things to those we have experienced before, so as to make sense of the world.” He says, “In a simplified way, brain mechanisms are engaged to compare current sensory input to prior information, so that we can evaluate a situation and make decisions about our actions.” So, we unconsciously compare what we’re experiencing now to what we have experienced in the past to figure out where to put it in

IF I HAD EVER BEEN HERE BEFORE ON ANOTHER TIME AROUND THE WHEEL I WOULD PROBABLY KNOW JUST HOW TO DEAL WITH ALL OF YOU -DAVID CROSBY

So is it a glitch in a still-developing brain? Nope. It’s actually a sign of a functioning and healthy memory.

In an interview with Scientific American, researcher and cognitive psychologist Anne Cleary at Colorado State University in Fort Collins said, "One reason for the jarring sense that accompanies déjà vu may be the contrast between the sense of newness and the simultaneous sense of oldness—something unfamiliar should not also feel familiar."

A sense of familiarity in an unfamiliar place may be striking and discordant, but rest assured, it’s not your brain misfiring, it’s not the devil, and it’s not a memory from a past life; it’s just your brain doing its thing.

DID YOU KNOW • Between 60 and 70 percent of humans experience deja vu.

• Deja vu is most common among people between 15 and 25.

• Deja vu isn’t magic, but it is your brain trying to find patterns.

our brain. It may seem creepy when it happens, but it’s a normal function of memory, and it helps us to decide not just what’s happening now, but what happens next and how to respond.

Dr. Giordano explains the nuts and bolts of it, “[Deja vu] involves a number of brain networks, including those that function in sensory processes, memory, emotion,and decision-making.” Even though ll of these processes occur in different parts of the brain, “this happens very quickly, and in most cases, information reaches the frontal cortex in a simultaneous, harmonized way.”

Between 60 and 70 percent of humans experience deja vu and data suggests that those who experience it have the bulk of their experiences between the ages of 15 and 25, with them slowly tapering off as you age. This stands to reason. As we grow older, as with other parts of our bodies, the brain begins to function less efficiently, so researchers believe that the decrease in deja vu experiences is due to age-related changes.

15

DIG DEEPER • Listen: “How Deja Vu Works” episode of the How Stuff Works podcast.

• Read: “Been There, Done That—or Did I?” from Scientific American

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Y

IF I HAD EVER BEEN HERE BEFORE I WOULD PROBABLY KNOW JUST WHAT TO DO

18

19

27

20

28

21

29

22

30

23

31

24

S HI T T O SCH E DU LE :

26

FU CK -I T BU CK ET

25

TO DO

Watch Interstellar Listen to Slow Home Podcast Read the Weekend Effect Learn to Calligraphy Mezze Style Fam Dinner Get Outside

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

B Y B R O O K E M C A L A RY “I want to live so densely, lush, and slow in the next few years, that a year becomes ten years, and my past becomes only a page in the book of my life.” – Nayyirah Waheed

expressions of what it looks like to Live a Good Life™.

Is there a word we can use to describe the way the afternoon sun shines through droplets of water as they fall on the garden? The way each bead becomes a tiny gem on its way towards the ground, lit up from inside, complete and beautiful before it hits the grass or the flowers or the leaves and moves on to become something else?

Because of this, ‘slow living’ has gradually come to be equated with privilege.

I get why it’s happened, and there’s some truth to the cynicism, but I still hate that people hear the term ‘slow living’ and think, “Huh. Must be nice.”

Because slow living isn’t about washed out linens or impressive yoga or photogenic hikes or magazine-worthy fashion or any other attempts to fit into a particular lifestyle.

If there’s not, there probably should be.

There is, after all, komorebi, a Japanese noun that describes sunlight filtering through trees. And mångata, a Swedish word that perfectly sums up the glimmering, roadlike reflection the moon creates on water.

When we hear what those words mean, we know.

We know what it is to have experienced sunlight spiking through branches, or the shining path of light on the ocean. I love that. It means that despite being told we’re all too busy to slow down and live in the moment, we all spend time in the noticing. And slow?

Well, she lives in those uncomplicated pockets of time.

Words and their definitions are time-traveling magic, don’t you think? That a certain combination of letters and a seemingly arbitrary, distant past decision as to their meaning is enough for you and me to communicate and share an understanding is incredible.

Sitting here in my office a few days before Christmas, a stinking hot summer sun beating down outside, I can take a certain collection of words and put them in a particular order. Then I can use those words to conjure up an image of light filtering through the trees, and you, sitting in your chair or reading the paper at the park, will see these words at some other time and you will understand what I’m saying. You will read these words and, the image of light filtering through the trees is transported from my mind to yours. The details may differ, but the fact remains that through a combination of letters and words, we were able to get an image from my brain into yours without ever having met.

W.Y.O.E.

Write Your Own Eulogy If writing your eulogy is a little too far outside your comfort zone, it might help to think of things in terms of legacy instead. Grab a piece of paper and start to mind map your thoughts when asking yourself these questions: 1.WHAT DO I WANT TO LEAVE BEHIND WHEN I’M GONE? 2. WHAT DON’T I WANT TO LEAVE BEHIND? 3. WHEN I STRIP AWAY THE STUFF THAT DOESN’T MATTER, WHAT IS REALLY, TRULY IMPORTANT TO ME? These are big questions, so rather than worrying whether you’ve got the answers ‘right’ (there’s no such thing anyways) simply jot down any thoughts or ideas that come to you. Don’t double-guess yourself and don’t censor yourself.

Slow living is about life. The guts and glory and handholding and tear-stained truth of it. The tiniest details and the biggest questions, and the courage to explore them both to depths we’ve previously distracted ourselves away from.

And what does all that add up to?

It adds up to a life.

And what do you want your life to stand for? What do you want to leave behind when you’re gone? What do you want your legacy to be?

In the inaugural edition of the Dispatch, I told you that I’d written my eulogy. That wasn’t a metaphor. A few years ago I actually sat down and wrote a four-sentence eulogy. One that I imagined my two kids delivering many, many years from now as they stood in front of a room full of people I’d loved. In those four sentences, were the summation of an entire life, and in the writing of those four sentences I was forced to ask myself what I wanted that life to stand for. What a life well-lived looked like. What a life full of the guts and the glory and the hand-holding and the tear stains held inside its decades, and what that would mean for me in doing the living.

And while it was a challenging exercise (how do we sum up an entire life in four books, let alone four sentences?) what it taught me was that the peripheral stuff didn’t matter one little bit as I pictured my kids saying goodbye to me. As I imagined what I’d taught them and the adventures we’d had and the way we loved and the changes we fought for and the fact that I always made time for the people I held most dear.

What that exercise gave me was an understanding that time, while it may feel endless and plodding when we’re stuck in the day to day grind, is slowly moving past us.

And the only way to arrest that slow passage of time is to live the hell out of it. Whether that is taking time to soak in the details of the light falling through droplets as you water the garden or commit to making the world a better place every day. It’s in the living of our days that we stretch time and create memories that are deep and worthy. That we avoid regret, even if it means diving headlong into uncertainty or pain. That we don’t die wondering. That we spend our time, rather than letting it run through our fingers only to see that we missed the way the light shone through it.

Like I said. Magic.

‘Slow living’ is a phrase that is still in the process of its true meaning, I think.

Because what began as a simple opposition to fast living and all that it entailed, has become synonymous with a lot of other ideas about how to live a good life - many of them bullshit. It’s been co-opted by marketers and influencers looking to tap into a hashtag philosophy, and if your first foray into slow living happened to be on Instagram, you’d be forgiven for believing it’s merely another hipster-heavy movement of authentically posed shots and aspirational product flatlays. More marketing-driven, ego-stroking

17

ISSUE T WO

In the beginning, there was Bruegger’s. Prior to Bruegger’s I have vague recollections of Lucky Charms, eggs, or, on rare occasions, stacks of pancakes. The recollections are vague because I was very young but also because bagels came in like a blitzkrieg and annihilated all other breakfasts in one fell swoop. Once Bruegger’s opened up in West Concord it was all over. The Tzelnics have been a bagel family ever since.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Bruegger’s boiled their bagels in a large vat behind a window to the kitchen. It steamed like a witches cauldron roiling with culinary sorcery, culminating in round orbs of deliciously seedy dough.

They had a “Hot!” sign that hung over the recently cooked batches so you could scoop them up fresh. Getting out of the car on frigid New England mornings and dashing across the parking lot was an ordeal endured only with the knowledge that on the ride home I’d be scalded by the bag of “Hot!” bagels on my lap. My family began to consume them with the dedicated consistency of the believer.

Or the addict.

When Bruegger’s closed up shop, Dunkin Donuts moved in. It was a frightful time full of bagel uncertainty. The Dunkin bagels were different. The seeds were exclusively on the top half of the bagel, leaving half of one’s breakfast inferior to the other. This issue was partly alleviated by taking all the seeds that have fallen off the top half of the bagel, and sprinkling them on the cream cheese on the barren half. This provided more flavor to the underseeded half, while also creating a fascinating texture—a little crisp on top of the cream. The seeds left in the bread basket became a valuable commodity, so the Tzelnics began to engage in a seedshare. Hogging all the seeds was a grave faux pas.

The Dunkin bagels were passable while they were still made on site. When they began to outsource production, it was time to find our fix elsewhere. After a search that I can only imagine was far and wide, my parents discovered Iggy’s Bagels, available at the Concord Cheese Shop. Cooked to a golden brown and covered generously with seeds, they were far superior to any bagel we’d previously tried. We stored them in the freezer and, when popped in the toaster oven, they emerged crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle.

HOLY HOLEY. 18

The switch to Iggy’s had the tangential benefit of solidifying our choice of cream cheese. Like any newcomer to bageldom, we’d tried it all: onion and chive, regular, and a garden vegetable cream cheese that turned the cheese around the vegetables off-putting colors, like cereal disintegrating in milk. But at the Cheese Shop

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

we found a cream cheese so pure and spreadable that using any other felt like a senseless regression. Zausner’s Whipped Cream Cheese smeared effortlessly onto the warm dough, filling in all nooks and most crannies. After several years of experimentation, we’d hit our stride.

swer. For the Tzelnics, bagels are our axis mundi, the pole around which we rotate, the pillar that supports us. They have sustained us over the years and have caused us to gather and commune in a way that no religion ever could. Everything bagels are everything to us.

~~~

~~~

Which isn’t to say there weren’t brief dalliances with other bagels.

My mom has been a Zen practitioner for nearly as long as we’ve been eating bagels. (I’m not sure if there is a connection there, but both bagels and Zen feature emptiness as a core tenet.) She found a teacher at the Zen Center of Ottawa, and has been making several trips a year to the center for as long as I can remember.

There is a bagel shop nearby that sells Montreal-style bagels, and occasionally she brings some back.

As with any tradition, over the years patterns emerge, some intentional, some not. Mark Twain said, “The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.” This makes our bagel routine about as ironclad as they come.

The Montreal bagels are thinner, with a dense and sweet dough.

My parents love them. They say these bagels remind them of a type of bread they ate in their youth, in Romania, which was also dense and sweet. I tried to love them, too. The Tzelnic bagel machine is a single-minded force of which I did not want to be a dissenter. But after faking it for awhile, I finally had the courage to admit I did not like the Montreal bagels. Looking back, this moment seems like a rebellion perhaps not quite on the level of getting a tattoo, but not far from it either.

The phase laid bare our psyches: though I was always stick thin, my conscience demanded I go on this health trip. Since my dad wasn’t thin, stick or otherwise, he too made a concerted effort to reduce calories, using Splenda in his tea as well. But though my mom opted for Splenda, she would not give up the joy of the everything bagel. Everything bagels every morning for breakfast might shorten your life, but what would life be without everything bagels every morning for breakfast? No life at all, my dad and I ultimately decided. My sister, off at college, was spared this existential dilemma. ~~~ It would be natural to assume that, as a Jewish family, bagels were a tradition passed down through the decades, enjoyed by my grandparents and their parents before them.

Growing up in communist Romania, however, didn’t give my parents much room for religious expression (or breakfast expression, for that matter). They emigrated to Israel in the 70s and were married there, but Judaism has never been a large part of their lives.

When they emigrated to America in 1979, my parents went to Philly and stayed for a few weeks with a Romanian friend who had married an American, Richard. In an effort to be a welcoming and culturally-conscious host, Richard said, “We have to take you out for bagels and lox!”

“What are those?” my dad asked.

Many thousands of bagels later, I’ve arrived at something of an an-

19

Everyone receives their own knife for the cream cheese. If you pass your own knife along with the cream cheese, you will receive a stern look from my dad. The lox can be taken by hand, or with a knife, however if there is already cream cheese on the knife do not dream of putting it into contact with the lox. Don’t hog the cream cheese. Take a couple globs and pass it along, we’re all hungry here.

But most importantly, rejoice in this tradition. Break bread with us. ~~~ In the beginning, there was a device we called the “guillotine.”

The bagel was placed in the lower half of the device, and the top half, with a serrated blade, was lowered, slicing the bagel in a delightfully gruesome manner. We used the guillotine on the Bruegger’s bagels, and it worked well for awhile. But, after years of use, the guillotine dulled and the result was a still gruesome but less satisfying squishing of the bagel. The collateral damage in the squishing process were the valued seeds, and so the guillotine was abandoned for the Shogun Steak Killer—a knife that has been

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

There was also the dreaded wheat bagel phase. It is said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, and so I feel obligated to mention this phase. To not eat ourselves to death, the Tzelnics dabbled in wheat. Thus, when I was in high school, my dad and I suffered through these chewy monstrosities, swallowing with self-congratulatory disgust. I even took to ripping out much of the doughy interior of the bagel, turning it into a glorified pretzel. The rest of the family followed suit, and so the bread basket began to fill up with the rolled up dough of our bagels, like the entrails of a slain beast. If you were still hungry after eating the crust of the bagel, you could grab a piece of rolled dough, place a dollop of cream cheese on top, and enjoy a homemade bagel bite.

On the weekends, we eat our bagels with red onions and lox. The onions are absent during the week due to breath considerations. As I got older, the onions became a frustrating tell: if I passed on the onions on a Saturday, my mom would know, with conspiratorial delight, that I was up to something later; going to a party, talking to girls, fresh breath a priority over flavor.

ISSUE T WO

successfully cutting our bagels for over a decade and has the words “Steak Killer” inscribed on the blade. We’ve traded one form of savagery for another.

A few months after my sister’s wedding, her in-laws, who by that time had been over for bagels many times, gifted my parents a new bagel knife. It is a Cutco knife with the inscription “Bagels @ the Tzelnics” on the blade. It was a very thoughtful gift.

Not long after getting the knife, my dad used it to cut a slice of bread. The bread was in his hand. Unused to the awesome power of a Cutco, he sliced right through the bread and then right through his thumb. Twelve stitches later, he returned home without any feeling on one side of his hand. Bagels are not so slowly killing my family. ~~~

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Each morning at the school where I work a smell wafts through the building and everyone knows Alex is heating up his bagel. I can’t seem to shake the routine, the comfort that comes from a crispy, doughy circle of carbohydrates. I like my bagels well done, and so if you smell something burning it’s just my bagel. Once, however, I left a bagel in the toaster oven too long and arrived in the kitchen to find that the burning smell was my bagel in flames.

I blew it out and removed the charred carcass. It was carbonized and a bit too crunchy, but still better than a Montreal bagel.

My parents moved to Cambridge a couple of years ago, and are now within two miles of Iggy’s headquarters. We live in a prosperous time, a pax bagela. My wife and I recently discovered a bagel pop-up called Better Bagels. It turns out they make the best bagels I’ve ever had. The bagels are miniature cannonballs, so dense, seed-drenched, and flavorful that the second time we found the pop-up I bought 36 (including a dozen for my parents). The founders told me they are a New York-style bagel, and to me, they are the holy grail of the genre. I suspect that my parents, despite their praise for this new brand, prefer Iggy’s. They’ve knelt at the altar of Iggy’s too many times to convert so casually.

My dad just turned 70. It is hard to say how many more years of bagels at the Tzelnics there will be. I understand that one day my parents will no longer have us over for bagels. By “understand,” I mean I can intellectually grasp that fact, even if spiritually and emotionally I can’t even begin to. Luckily, my parents have passed on a spiritual, emotional, and edible tool for coping. When the unthinkable happens, and I’m overcome with grief and emptiness, I’ll at least have the means to fill myself up again. I know of no other tradition that is so figuratively and literally sustaining. I know of no other breakfast that is so holy.

20

ISSUE T WO

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

by SARAH YAHM

O

ur days are structured around clocks— from when we get up to when we eat, to when we finally go to sleep. Except for a few confused days after Daylight Saving Time, we take it for granted that our arbitrary categories of seconds and minutes correspond to a natural (and sometimes moral) truth. But like most taken-for-granted truths, clock time is not by any means natural and is a relatively new way of understanding the world.

Pre-industrial peoples saw the world primarily in terms of tasks. Farmers worked brutal hours during the growing months and then spent the long months of nongrowing weather relatively (although by no means entirely) idle. Methods for measuring the passage of time were similarly task-focused. In his seminal 1967 article “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” the late social historian EP Thompson collected global examples of pre-industrial time. In Chile they cooked an egg for the length of time it took to recite an Ave Maria, in Burma monks knew it was time to wake up when they could see the veins in their hands, and herding peoples all over the world measured time according to the grazing needs of their particular animals. Some of these measurements were quite precise—“rice cooking” time, for example, corresponds fairly closely to our half an hour—while others, like the medieval English “pissing while,” were delightfully imprecise, although viscerally satisfying.

Although our system of breaking the day up into hours can be traced back all the way to ancient Egypt, and mechanical clocks have been around since the 13th century, these early clocks didn’t structure daily life for the majority of society until the Industrial Revolution.

Once factories emerged and owners began paying workers by the hour, not the piece, they launched a campaign against unregulated and imprecise notions of time. Factory owners needed workers to arrive at the same time each day, to work quickly, and to produce at scale. But clock time itself was relatively arbitrary and varied from town to town until the emergence of the railroads, which required consistent timetables.

Before railroads, watches were rarely synchronized, and no two town clocks kept precisely the same time.

Factory owners took advantage of that ambiguity, al-

ternately insisting upon the objective truth of clocktime and then altering clocks to suit their own needs, extending the work day so that they could extract more time from their laborers. Although early capitalists tried to promote the objective truth of clock time, their manipulations contributed to their employees’ distrust of “time-discipline.”

It took centuries of concerted effort to teach laborers to think of their work and their time as an abstract commodity. It wasn’t until well into the 19th century that workers stopped viewing Mondays as an extension of Sundays, their one day of leisure. “Saint Monday” was reserved for nursing hangovers, conducting personal business, hanging out at the pub, or showing up late and leaving early. Benjamin Franklin (and other Founding Fathers) publicly despaired about the public’s enthusiasm for Saint Monday and Saint Tuesday, concerned that America would fail to become a productive republic if the working classes insisted on being so undisciplined.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, factory owners, educators, and industrialists dedicated themselves to building a disciplined workforce. They wrote pamphlets, created time-cards, institutionalized punishments, and utilized bells and even jingles to help train each new wave of workers in industrial time-discipline.

It was a constant process. Each time the industrialists had succeeded in teaching one set of workers, another would appear in the cities fresh from the countryside, and the whole process would begin anew.

The Lowell Mills of Massachusetts provide a window into how workers were socialized into what factories owners called an industrial “time-sense.” As farm girls from the countryside flooded into Southern New England towns looking for work, they were trained according to a rigid system of bells. Every part of their day was delineated by not one, but multiple bells, that sometimes divided their time into chunks as small as 10 minutes. Instead of waking up when it was time to milk they woke up with the first bell. Instead of combining work with pleasure and singing while they knit or wove by the fire, they had work time and then they had separate leisure time.

The Lowell factory owners worked hard to establish clock time as absolute, objective truth. They prided

22

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

themselves on their consistency, publicizing the association between their bells and natural/scientific authority. According to historian Michael O’Malley, this reinforced the semi-artificial connection between clock times and the sun, between the natural order and minutes and hours, and helped legitimize the idea of time as something naturally-derived but mechanically-organized.

Where the church failed, the factory and the modern school eventually succeeded.

Historians argue that modern schooling was perhaps the critical socializing institution because it trained children, from a young age, to function in an industrial system, and to pay attention to the clock. In America, public schools were the training grounds for factory workers, disciplining chaotic children into productive producers. That’s why the hidden curriculum of schools—even purportedly progressive ones—still enforces timeliness as a moral good in and of itself.

But even those of us who don't work according to clock time (writers, academics, and artists, for example) still have to struggle against internalized shame about inefficiency, lateness, and unregulated work habits. The number of people who work from home at least part-time has risen steeply over the last decade. The idea of working remotely suggests greater flexibility and less punishing hours, but studies have found that people who work from home actually work longer than their more clock-bound in-office counterparts, likely because they’re afraid of appearing inefficient and lazy.

They don’t want to be seen as taking advantage of the system.

Productivity is still measured according to the standards created by 19th-century industrialists. We no longer need a system of bells to police us, though, because we police ourselves.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

But none of these strategies—bells, time cards, and fines—would have been effective without a corresponding ideology which taught that timeliness and efficiency were higher moral goods.

The church had always taught the idea that idleness was sinful, (idle hands are the devil’s playground), but if the popularity of Saint Monday and Saint Tuesday are any indication, employees insisted on setting their own work rhythms.

Schools, combined with the proliferation of the physical watches and synchronized clocks eventually succeeded in creating a workforce with both an internalized clock and a belief system to go along with it. Today, the moral truth of timeliness remains relatively unquestioned. Tardiness is widely seen as disrespectful. Lord Michael Bates recently resigned from the House of Lords of the United Kingdom for being a few minutes late.

Horrified at the “discourtesy” his tardiness communicated, he believed himself no longer worthy or fit for the job.

The resignation was short-lived (Prime Minister Theresa May refused his resignation that same day), but the message is clear: lateness is a moral failing.

• Read: Why Time Flies by Alan Burdick • Explore: The work of artist Andy Goldsworthy • Visit: Lowell National Historical Park

23

ISSUE T WO

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Dear Rockstars and Rebels, You are a cheeky, analog bunch and we like that about you. Thank you for choosing to subscribe to the Dispatch and supporting thoughtful print publications.

We at AllSwell love us some pen-to-paper and it doesn’t get much more analog than that (except cave paintings, maybe?). We make half-lined (“WRITE”) and half-unlined (“DRAW”) notebooks for you to fill with your musings, jottings, scribbles and lists.

Why? Because putting pen to paper is actually good for you. And that’s not just our opinion. It’s scientific, empirical fact: there are mental, emotional and physiological benefits to writing things down. Try it out and see how it goes, just a few minutes a day. You don’t need to do it in an AllSwell notebook, but if you want to we have plenty for you to choose from.

Fear of journaling got you stuck in the mud? Come join us for one of our creative workshops or trips.

You can find out more at www.allswellcreative.com or @allswellcreative.* In Swellness, Laura Rubin Founder, AllSwell *Yes, we’re aware of the irony, pointing you towards a device to find out how to be on your devices less. We hope to offer tools for finding a reasonable balance in the digital age, to consciously make choices, rather than eschew it altogether.

24

A SINGLE FLAME

A FEATHER AND A FANG

BREAKING BREAD, CRUMBS FALLING TO THE EARTH

MENDING A TEAR IN A SHIRT

Hold steady. Burn brightly in a clear and consistent way. This is a time to go inward and focus your attention on what’s really important. What is your flame of truth?

Your flame of purpose? Your flame of integrity? You gain clarity right now by being quiet instead of active.

Your bread symbolically represents Mother Earth. Your sustenance. Your abundance. Trust in abundance and let go of fear. Security is a state of mind. Embrace security so that you can relax and let go. Let everything that’s now unnecessary fall away. Release the emotions that need to be released.

You are soft and sharp. See yourself as a force of nature. You may receive some new ideas about what you want your future and your community to look like. Use your softness to relax and trust in the process. Use your sharpness to take precise action when necessary.

A HERD OF ZEBRA RACE ACROSS THE PLAINS

CANS OF SOUP

A FRUIT TREE

THE SANDS FALL THROUGH THE HOURGLASS

Don’t let things become too black and white. It’s time for expert moderation. For you, moderation is equivalent to self-care. If you ever need to know how you can take better care of yourself, begin with balance. Conduct a survey of your daily life and notice where more balance would be helpful.

A STAKE IN THE GROUND

Make a definite mark. Know where you stand. Take up a position. To do so you may need to begin with research. Get curious, apply your mind, ask questions.

Then decide. It’s a mental process which will help you move forward as long as you remain curious, logical, and decisive.

You have what you need. The fruit is ripe. But it still might feel like you’re taking a chance. For some reason, a situation might seem risky even though there is no risk.

Settle into a sense of safety. You can take your time and move very slowly as you collect the ripe fruit that’s all around you.

It’s okay to do something just for fun. To relish the process of imagination. To connect with joy.

Cherish these moments. Get outside and connect with nature. It will help you remember your purpose and why you’re doing what you’re doing. The natural world and creativity can invigorate you.

Andy Warhol’s pop-art comes to mind. What do you need to do to make the mundane more brilliant? Elevate yourself to a new level of technicolor. You don’t have to change much. It might be something about the way you’re thinking about yourself or your circumstances. Change the point of view and the palate. You can make your life more enjoyable. It all comes down to mindset.

It’s okay to stop watching the clock. Just be where you are.

You’re starting a new phase and things will be different this time.

By being present in the moment you will connect with your true self. Connect to your curiosity instead of your worries. The present moment is your friend.

Real Talk, Group Text DATING ADVICE FROM THE DISPATCH CHEAP SEATS, WHERE WE’RE ALL GETTING IT WRONG... BUT DOING IT TOGETHER.

Everyone loved hearing Carrie Bradshaw’s tales…but why was she the only one to have all the fun? And why were each of her columns left with a question, never answered? Hell, she didn’t even have Bumble.

Dater-In-Residence: Michaela Morris The date went great.

This was number two of in real life encounters after a month of witty banter via the yellow bumble bubbles. We were trying so hard to get to the top of the dating app pile by being both funny and punny. His photos showed that he was adventurous, fun but not childish, liked kids/dogs, dressed well, and was athletic. Online, he was great...the new version of “on paper he’s great”.

Offline he was beige. Like a pair of pleated Dockers.

I had to stifle the yawns behind sips of a margarita. I sat there looking at him as he spoke about his travels through Europe, not entirely listening, as I pondered that by all accounts he was a total package, yet I couldn’t be more uninterested. I mean, the topics were definitely things I typically found interesting; Podcasts, Books, Politics, and Travel. Yet, delivered from him, I suddenly found them boring. It’s as if this guy had the Midas touch of blandness.

After recounting the dinner date to my friends, even in the telling, I can see that he actually wasn’t boring at all. He was just boring to me.

SO I ASK:

Is connection a real thing we cannot fake in the physical world, even if we can in the online one?

Dear Dispatch: Want to help Michaela? Want to tell her you’ve been-there-done-that? Want to ask her out? Want to share your own tale?

Last month we met Kristy who asked: Do you think we are drawn to what we do not need because we are afraid to find what we really want?

After sharing that her dating rap sheet included a gay husband, an ocd boyfriend, the love of her: a life conflicted muslim, and a new guy who wanted to know if she’d had work done on her vagina.

YOU ANSWERED:

Thanks for sharing your story. I don’t think you are drawn to what you don’t need. I just think you haven’t found your person yet.

So, you are overthinking this. Everyone has their shit. Just because someone is gay or like’s a transwoman isn’t a reflection on you. It just means that they shared their truth with you. You should feel honored that they found you so open and trusting.

Please send your bits of brain gold, pithy one-liners, and all the bad advice to realtalk@folkrebellion.com to be printed in next month’s edition.

25

Girl! Been there. It’s hard to understand and not feel like personally this had something to do with you.

Keep dating. You’ll find your person. They might be weird. Because we all are.

I think some people just pick people that somewhere in the back of their brain they know are not going to be forever. A form of self-preservation.

If you have to add a disclaimer that you do not discriminate...maybe you do?

Let the freak flag fly!

I would take that as a compliment to my vagina if I were you.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

A refreshing scent that clears the mind. Inhale and connect to your breath. Let the breath refresh you.

Restoration is important now. Find an emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual restart so that you can love yourself even more. Use aromatherapy to surprise yourself into self-care.

BUILDING A SNOWMAN

You’re coming to the end of a process that had to do with your career. Let yourself taste the sweetness of success, as it’s something you have to celebrate purposefully. Sometimes we skip this final step in the process of creation.

Let yourself shine bright and celebrate your progress.

It’s time to do some patchwork.

It’s time to make amends. You can create harmony where there have been divisions. Don’t shoulder the entire responsibility yourself. In your relationships, you can reach out and be magnanimous, but you can’t carry emotional responsibility for other people. Do what you can to enjoy a peace in your relationships, but don’t try to do too much.

A FRAGRANCE ON THE WIND

EATING DESSERT

Forecasted by Sandra Sitron

HOROSCOPES

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

ISSUE T WO

Hand On Your Hatchet HOW THE STORY OF A 20TH CENTURY PROHIBITIONIST CAN URGE WOMEN TO RESIST

By Meaghan Clark Tiernan

I

f history is doomed to repeat itself, let’s hope there

is another Carry A. Nation in our midst.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Carry “hatchet-thrower” Nation was a prohibitionist nicknamed for her weapon of choice, which she’d use to smash liquor bottles in saloons pre-Prohibition.

“With one sweep she took the decanters from the bar,” the Wichita Daily Eagle wrote about one of Nation’s smashes in December 1900 after she stormed into Topeka, Kansas’ Hotel Carey. “They broke to pieces on the floor. The liquor was wasted. The sight of the liquor on the floor evidently encouraged her.”

In her smashing career, the 54-year-old mother— whose first husband died of alcoholism—was arrested more than 30 times, almost always on charges of disturbing the peace. But neither her arrest record nor her particular obsession with the temperance movement is what makes her relevant today.

Rather, it’s how she fought for a cause she cared deeply about in a time when women weren’t encouraged to speak up, let alone make the noise needed to earn front page headlines.

feminist movement. None more so, perhaps, than the mattress-dragging then-Columbia University student, now-graduate Emma Sulkowicz.

Like Nation, Sulkowicz turned to extremely unorthodox methods to raise awareness about her cause.

Protesting how the Columbia administration had handled her rape case, she spent her senior year carrying a 50-pound dorm mattress with her everywhere she went on campus, including graduation.

The project, entitled Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight), earned her both accolades and criticism, but her ultimate goal — to draw attention to rape culture on college campuses — was fulfilled ten-fold. It was theater and protest in one, much like Nation’s bottle-smashing exploits.

Nation redefined gender stereotypes with her uncivilized behavior, unnerving citizens everywhere from San Francisco to Salt Lake City. The world expected women to be demure. Instead, “she was more upfront [than most women],” says Blair Tarr, curator for the Kansas State Historical Society. “I guess the term we would use today is ‘in your face.’”

she fought for a cause she cared deeply about in a time when women weren’t encouraged to speak up, let alone make the noise needed to earn front page headlines.

More than just a saloon-wrecker, Nation was a crusader for women’s health, suffrage, and anti-smoking laws. She was on the cover of the New York Times, published a bi-weekly temperance newsletter called Smasher’s Mail, wrote an autobiography, and opened Hatchet Hall, a boarding house for abused and neglected women and children.

Her legacy stems not from the morality of her cause, but from the strength of her actions. At the turn of the century, Nation’s forceful nature helped to shift perspectives on the role women can play in society. There are no shortage of parallels to the contemporary

Nation was divisive as a female exerting power in a male-dominated society. She crafted a persona that was high-octane and unusual; she was opinionated in a world where women were expected to be silent. Infamy came not just because she carried a hatchet, but because she captured a the nation’s attention at a time when women had been forced into near anonymity.

Nation lived a life that defied even today’s norms: she dared to stand out with her actions and to make it known that she was unsatisfied with the status quo. She urged people across the country to notice her at a time when women were expected to be anonymous. Like we’ve learned from the women who have marched, campaigned, and refused to be silenced over the past year, it’s time to wield our own hatchets.

Carry is iconic not for what she stood for, but because she stood out. She was passionate about her cause, and she took action when she few others would. She took matters into her own hands, bootstrapping a rebellion despite the backlash.

Today, it’s never been easier to stand aside or behind a computer screen and to watch others take action.

But it’s also never been easier to stand up and speak out. In the words of Nation, “with these efforts, we can carry a nation.”

“She knew how to get publicity,” says Tarr.

Though Nation thrived off the headlines, she also maintained restraint. Women could be institutionalized for little to no reason, and her mother had been put into a mental institution by her brother (the primary reason for institutionalizing her was that he owed her money and didn’t feel like paying). “This sort of frightened Carry off,” says Tarr.

“She was afraid someone would put her in an institution simply because she wasn’t ‘acting’ like a woman was expected to act at the time.”

As soon as Carry took hold of her hatchet and voiced other unpopular opinions (she was so opposed to smoking that she was even known to stop strangers on the street and pull cigarettes

26

from their mouths, says Tarr), she wasn’t fulfilling society’s feminine stereotypes.

Did You Know?

•

•

•

Bricks were Carry A. Nation’s weapon of choice until someone handed her a hatchet in Topeka, Kansas in 1901.

Carry’s given name was spelled ‘Carrie’ until she changed it, creating her iconic moniker “Carry A. Nation.”

The recent 2018 Women’s March involved up to 2.5 million people in the United States.

Dig Deeper • • •

Read: Carry A. Nation: Retelling the Life by Fran Grace Visit: Hatchet Hall in Eureka, Arkansas Read: “Emma Sulkowicz Inspired Students Across the Country to Carry Their Mattresses. Now What?” by Amanda Hess (Salon)

ANOTHER SET OF SHOES: LI FE OV E R 10 0 K

"Another Set of Shoes " highlights the diversit y of life, empowering those featured to be who, and what, they are.

Nothing more, and nothing les s. In the proces s, we hope to see past the stereot ypes that are so deeply ingrained in modern culture and to illuminate the complexit y of the human experience.

Last month, we met Sandra who found herself constantly chasing the pover t y line. This week we step into the shoes of Nicole, a mom in New York Cit y who makes $115,0 0 0 a year, put ting her family in the top 22% of households in the nation according to federal census data from March 2016.

by Nikki Yaeger

It’s 1:00 am and Nicole has been working for the past four hours.

A whimper comes from the living room. “Mama?” She prays he’ll fall back asleep, but the cries get louder, the sleep draining from the edges of her son’s voice. As she rolls out of bed, another set of footsteps drag from the small kitchen to the tatami mat on the living room floor that serves as her toddler’s bed. Her husband is still awake; she pulls the covers over her head and hopes for sleep.

As she drifts off, she remembers that first year, before they figured out how to work together as parents. She was always career-driven, and he had mentioned he wanted to be a stay-at-home dad, like her dad had been. When the baby came, that plan changed.

He was consumed by his work and didn’t take naturally to parenting. She struggled to exclusively breastfeed while running her fledgling company from home.

At first, she handled the workload with confidence.

She’d take conference calls while gently bouncing her infant, praying he’d stay silent. When a major deal was on the verge of closing, she got on a lastminute flight to Vegas with a month-old baby, quickly handing him to a coworker as she entered the meeting. When she walked out, she hoped no one had noticed the tiny wet spot where her breast milk had leaked through her shirt.

Both working, their joint bank account rose, but crossing the $100,000/year threshold didn’t create more time, and the lack of balance damaged their marriage.

Since then, they’ve (sort of) figured things out. She weaned the little one, and they signed him up for full-time childcare once he was a year old. Her husband gradually started taking on parenting tasks without having to be prompted. The load was slowly equalizing.

company to start another, and her husband stepped in to fill her role. Between that and gigs, he works a 60-80 hour week.

She sends emails to podcasts asking to be featured as a guest, packages products for shipping, writes a few articles to promote her new company, replies to comments on social media, and takes a twenty-minute break to shove salad in her mouth while picking up toys.

As a girl who’d grown up in a blue-collar town in the Midwest, she’s sometimes alarmed by her financial success.

She lives in perpetual fear that the stream will dry up, which causes her to hoard pennies in IRAs, CDs, and long-term, ultra-safe investments.

Yet she still finds herself avoiding the stack of medical bills on her kitchen table. Her husband gets health insurance with his job, which he pays for pre-tax from his paycheck, but they shelled out over $4,000 in deductibles this year, and another $2,000 for procedures not covered by their plan.

At 4:45 it’s time to head out to daycare pickup.

She tries to read up on potty training tips while working her way through the slushy streets. Her cloth diaper stash has been worn thin. It’s time for him to start using the toilet, or she’s going to be stuck shelling out cash for disposables. The “potty training in 3 days” method sounds perfect, but when would the family find time to stay indoors for three consecutive days?

After getting home, they order a mostly-nutritious meal for $32.

It’d be cheaper to cook, but shopping, cooking, and cleaning dishes would require carving out time, most likely from sleep, something she hasn’t had enough of in years.

She reminds herself of this when she wakes up at 7:30 in the morning, after the 1:00 am bedtime, to get her son ready for daycare. She dresses him, microwaves a packet of instant oatmeal, and herds him out of the apartment. When they get to daycare, Nicole hands over $250 for the week, the absolute

Crossing the $10 0,0 0 0/ year threshold didn’t create more time, and the lack of balance damaged their marriage.

maximum she can afford to pay. Kids just a little further downtown are already reciting their ABCs and 123s, but she’s accepted the fact that this is a bare-bones operation, which is the most you can ask of a $250/week facility in NYC. She knows because she’s visited them all.

After dinner, she brushes her teeth with her son and notices the near-empty hand soap. Add a little water, and there’s just enough to make it work for another day or two. She makes a mental note to place an order as soon as he’s in bed.

In warmer weather, she’d use the trip home from daycare as a way to squeeze in a jog, but, with snow on the ground, the best she can do is to trudge along. Like painting and reading, running has become another passion that’s dropped off of her calendar due to scheduling constraints.

Back at the apartment, her husband is at his computer, headphones in. Last January, Nicole stepped down from her

While running through her to-do list, she calls for her husband.

Together, they read one of the books stacked in a corner and she tries to remind herself to buy an alphabet book next time she’s at the store. After a kiss goodnight, she slips off to the bedroom where she checks her phone for messages. Her son’s falls into a steady slumber, her husband’s footsteps head back towards the kitchen, and she opens her laptop.

ISSUE T WO

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

DECLUTTERING OUR CALENDARS

Regardless of how much wealth we've amassed, how many material items we possess, or how much education we've acquired, not one of us has been able to stockpile time. Time is a commodity that many of us find ourselves short on.

The trend in Western culture seems to run towards filling the limited time we do have to the brim. We create lives jam-packed full of time-consuming activities, often simply for the sake of being busy. We work long hours, join clubs and teams, and enroll our children (and ourselves) in every activity known to man. And while we critique others for doing it to themselves, we struggle to see it in our own schedules. A trivia team may have been traded out for an art appreciation course, but both take up space.

I'd been certain that there must be a better way to tackle time, but, like many before me, I didn’t find my answer until I was immersed in a new culture.

In Ecuador, where I've spent the past six years, the attitude towards time is vastly different than what I was accustomed to back in the United States. The Ecuadorians I’ve come to know are hard workers, but few are consumed with money or climbing the corporate ladder in the way that my community back home was. Instead, their primary focus is on their family. Nearly all free time outside of school or work is spent together.

Families attend church together; they do chores together; they stroll through the parks and weekend markets together. Rarely do members of a family engage in activities that don't include others. While they’re certainly not sedentary, they maintain their time together which adds value to their activities.

There are other differences in the attitude towards time as well. No one here is in a rush. Ever. If you need to wait in line at the bank, no worries. This is a great time to get to know the person next to you and engage in friendly ban-

tations about time management and timeliness, it results in less stress.

American culture isn't going to change overnight, but there's no reason that you can't take some of the best qualities of Latin life and apply them to your existence. Make room to examine how you can spend more of the time you have with the people you love.

Exmine your schedule and take a hard look at where you’re stretched most thin. Are you and your family struggling to keep up with activities? If so, what could you cut out in exchange for relaxing time together? Or if you like days packed with extracurriculars, what swap out for something the whole family enjoys? Taking martial arts courses or art classes together can be a great way to get out of the house while maintaining family time.

You can even take advantage of time spent waiting.

Next time you're in line at the DMV, try striking up a conversation with the fellow in front of you and get to know someone new. According to various psychological studies, interaction with others can improve cognitive function, act as a mood booster, and increase confidence. So taking your time can actually improve your health and

When I am able to drop my expectations about time management and timeliness, it results in less stress. ter until your turn arrives. If you're expecting a friend to meet you at a certain time, they may well be late because they've run into several other people they know while walking down the street and had a nice conversation with each before arriving at your home.

Time is perceived as a fluid ever-evolving concept as opposed to a rigid stress-causing taskmaster. My punctualto-a-fault self has had difficulty adapting to the "whenever we get around to it" mentality, but I have to admit that the concept has merit. When I am able to drop my expec-

self-image.

They key in making these changes is to not care about appearances. Stop trying to impress your Instagram entourage or your colleagues at work. Don't worry if you get a funny look at first when you ask your grocery store clerk about their day. Know that your actions are best for your well-being and enjoy the way that time begins working in your favor. You still may not be able to accumulate or hoard time, but you’ll be making good use of the time that you do have.

28

Start Decluttering: Pull out your calendar (whether on paper or screen) and highlight the times you are overbooked, or change them to a different color, so you can visualize what needs to be decluttered.

Look at what you are doing during those busy periods.

If your family is spread out at different activities, swap the activities out for something you can do together. If you’re together during those busy times but too stressed to enjoy yourselves, consider wiping the slate clean. You may end up adding something else into that slot, but make sure it is an activity that is truly enjoyable—maybe weekly hikes, bike rides, or a family painting class.

After you’ve addressed your calendar, you can start applying the same decluttering principles in your daily life. The point is to make more room for enjoyment, so if you are feeling hurried, pause and take a few deep breaths to center yourself. By incorporating more slowness into your life, you’ll have an easier time spotting the times with things are moving way too fast.

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

By Heidi Carter

Growing up, I was told two things about the future of the labor force: 1. You will not be able to rely on Social Security come retirement and, 2. You will have many jobs, most of which have not been created yet.

The first is still up in the air, but the second couldn’t have been closer to the truth.

Tech is always renewing itself, but the challenges it poses to the workforce are far from novel. In 1962, over half a century ago, President John F. Kennedy said, “If men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.” We’ve had to get creative, but, so far, he’s been right. Since October of 2017, unemployment rates have remained at 4.1 percent—the lowest rate of unemployment in 17 years.

But the question remains: What work did JFK see those people going into after being pushed out by machines?

When if comes to work, Cuban told a packed crowd at SXSW in 2017 that, while “you lose” if you are not “getting up to speed on deep learning, neural networks,” and all those other futuristic technologies, he “would rather be a philosophy major,” if he were in college today. “Knowing how to critically think and assess [these new technologies] from a global perspective,” he said, “is going to be more valuable than what we see as exciting careers today.”

So it’s possible that a major in philosophy could be more than a one-way trip to a Ph.D. As we replace our technical workers with tech that can do their jobs for them, the soft skills, like creative thinking, could become increasingly in-demand, serving as key assets in navigating our advancing technological world. The age of the history major may once again be upon us!

Let’s not stroll too far from fact, though. The rapid rise and integration of new technologies into the workplace is going to be awesome for some, mediocre for others, and annoying as hell for a few more. Things could get messy if we’re not paying attention. The precise way it impacts us will depend on the ways in which we adjust to earning a living in this new reality.

And it will be a reality. With computers computing everything people want them to, we might all begin focusing more on the one thing we have left, ourselves.

I was told that the jobs I would have would be new inventions of a new time, and they have been. Technology made that possible and is what most people in my generation have been pushed towards. I wonder, though, where younger generations are going to find their first job?

Investor, businessman, billionaire and entrepreneurial guru Mark Cuban is a polarizing figure. He’s outspoken, flashy, and not exactly in the ‘chill zone.’ That said, he has a pretty impressive track record when it comes to predicting the future. His business ventures reflect his futuristic

29

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

The contemporary cultural push towards technical professions, like computer programming and engineering, is just one example of our attempt to take a pulse on the future of work.

The shift towards high-tech professions was easy to foretell, and it has redefined the lives of billions of people over the last few decades, but many are predicting that it’s not the shift that will define the next generation of workers.

projections, like investments in Hirebotics, which provides robots for hire, and Amazon.

or Bust

Time To Adjust, Find Balance,

ISSUE T WO

e n o y n A o T Snail Mail

Note: To the right is an editable letter to your representative.

Now, we know that you don’t have to be political to reach out to those who represent you, as representatives come in all shapes and sizes; some represent on behalf of government, some on behalf of a product or company, some are just friends you’ve delegated to speak for you when you’re at a party and don’t feel like socializing.

We’ve filled in some blanks, but the hard part, sending the damn thing, that’s up to you.

Instructions for Mailing An Analog Text Message: Step 1.

Fill it out Step 2.

Tear it out Step 3.

Fold it up Step 4.

Find an envelope Step 5.

Put it in an envelope Step 6. Write your return address in the top left corner if you want them to write you back. If anonymous hate/revenge/stage-5-clinger mail, we suggest leavingblank.

Example:

Seymour Butts 742 Evergreen Terrace Springfield, Mass 90210 Step 7: Write the address of the recipient in the middle of front of envelope

Example:

Digital Friends Edition

By Rachel Roderman

Hey you.

I know what you’re thinking: I haven’t been liking your pics or sharing your posts or clicking retweet as often lately. I’ve paid my phone and internet bill, I promise. I’m still here.

I’ve actually been “here” in the real world

ve rb

the roses,

the sunshine,

ve rb

R alph Waldo Eme rson line abou t n at ure

. It’s

a little thing called “being offline.” I know that means less contact than you’re used to, so I’m getting the pinky side of my hand fully inky writing to you via a newspaper. Pretty

synonym f or dope

if I do say so myself.

Let’s see. Life since going offline.

When’s the last time you picked up a newspaper? This thing feels great. Also, it’s a lot harder to remember how to spell without auto-correct.

Some things I’ve been up to...I walked down bo ok

place you've ne ve r be e n in your to w n

which was everything I thought it would be and more. I forgot how much I love the

You won’t believe how many people will actually talk to you in o t he r

for the first time! It was

Faith in humanity replenished!

gyms are ope n

physic al abili t y yo u s wore you h ad

i tem

. In the

adje c t i ve

comments on

of books.

loc at ion you usuall y fe ar mak ing e ye con t ac t

. I also found out that I can make it to the gym in the

when I don’t scroll on the ‘gram for an hour and (maybe intentionally) miss that

I haven’t been stressed out by the

. I finally read

public loc at ion usuall y cro wde d w i t h pe ople wh o se emingl y h ate e ach

when you’re not all looking at phones. I got a compliment on my

I found out recently that I can’t

se nse

adje c t i ve

noun t h at c an be t ur ne d in to fe rt ilize r

wor k ou t

class.

posts from our

part of day

adje c t i ve

Presi-

President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

dent. I’ve actually gotten involved in my local government. They serve

Washington, DC 20500

It’s funny how your brain turns on when your phone turns off. My ears are listening. My eyes are open. My heart feels a little big-

Step 8: Buy a stamp. Currently being raised to 49 cents. Still cheaper than your data plan.

ger.

Step 9: Lick stamp

non wh ole30 f o o d

at the meetings so it’s worth it.

I miss seeing your digital face everyday but it’s made me realize, I wish I could actually see your face everyday! Let’s make a plan

Step 10: Place stamp in top right corner on front of envelope

to get together asap. How about

Step 12: Walk to a mailbox. Either the big blue R2D2 looking things at the street corner or to your own mailbox.

Life is too short and my list is too long! Have I told you lately that I love you? Because I do. Let’s hug soon.

Step 12: Place your KIND REMINDER/WARNING/ BORDERLINE THREAT in the mailbox and after completed brush pretend dirt off your hands in an act of satisfied completion.

!

Love,

you

place

?

Killing Time THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

esterday I was kneeling on the floor beside my infant brother, staring into his eyes and trying to make out the shape of my reflection in his pupils. For the first time in my memory, I wondered what it meant to exist. I guess I was

weird then, too.

Yesterday I got my first job with a paycheck in a store that smelled like central air and whatever chemicals they put on the clothes I unpacked from giant boxes in the back. I paced in circles when my legs ached from standing still. I learned things, like how to fake-smile until your cheeks hurt, and that eighty years can elapse within an eight-hour retail shift.

Yesterday I walked home from the grocery store in stride with my future. At one point in our commute, I looked at him and asked, in the rhetorical way, isn’t it strange how we got here? Here meaning Brooklyn, New York, engaged, feeling old and yet on the precipice of some new beginning. Isn’t it strange and comforting – or unnerving – to think we will come to know many new normals? New homes, new routines, new “I’m old” birthdays and aha-moments in between.

Yesterday I found a gray hair and reminded myself not to envy the youth because they’ll get here eventually.

And then yesterday I was asked to write about the most precious gift and greatest fear I — or anyone — will ever struggle to know: time.

Our relationship with time is complex. Why does it move slowly when we’re young and then speed through later chapters of life? Why does time crawl through the weekdays and sprint through the weekends?

Why does it cut short the moments when we’re having the most fun?

Why does time bring loneliness? And crow’s feet and gray hairs? Does time move faster at higher altitudes? And can all these things — the

acceleration of time and proliferation of its bleaker offerings — be dissected and explained, and is it worth it to try? What if reality is in fact timeless, and the past, present and future are more fluid than we think?

It is difficult to talk about the things we don’t fully understand. Time is no exception. People say time is money, time heals, time steals, time drags, time flies. By definition, time is an indefinite continued progression, but also a precise point of measure. Time is a tangle of contradictions.

Because we cannot see and touch time, we study and measure it, dividing and subdividing eternity as designed by the laws of physics and the cosmos into years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. We compartmentalize these increments into calendars and planners and attach goals and deadlines to specific dates. We mark time with age.

Then we curse it. In moments of suspense, we count it in reverse. We are helpless as time moves through us — or as we move through time.

We are oblivious while the minute and second hands tick audibly in their circles, or silently in our digital devices. We can’t see or feel time, but we know it’s there. Like gravity. Apparently they’re connected.

In 1897, a French philosopher named Paul Janet posited an idea: if you live to be 100, half of the life you perceive is over by the age of 7. It’s a depressing thought, but not a shocking one. When you stop and think about it, every passing year is a smaller and smaller fraction of your story. At age 1, a year is 100% of your life. At age 30, a year is 3.33% of it. Relative to your entire timeline, each successive annual chapter is a smaller portion of accumulated memories than the last. It’s a matter of ratios.

About 138 solar orbits after Janet’s theory, a survey was conducted in Munich by psychologists Marc Wittmann and Sandra Lenhoff. In

31

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

y

By Mary Grygiel

ISSUE T WO

Did You Know?

• Heavy social media usage is linked to feelings of social isolation in young people. (Primack et al., AJPM) • The average person will spend about two hours a day on social media, or 5 years and 4 months over a lifetime.

(Social Media Today)

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

• Half the life you perceive is over by age 7. (Washington Post)

time flies, and as we age it flies faster. a 2005 study, they polled 499 participants ranging from 14 to 94 years old about the pace at which they felt time moving, from “very slowly” to “very fast.” The subjects' perception of time for shorter durations (e.g. a week, month, year) did not appear to increase with age, as most of them felt the clock ticked by quickly. “But for longer durations, such as a decade, a pattern emerged: older people tended to perceive time as moving faster. When asked to reflect on their lives, the participants older than 40 felt that time elapsed slowly in their childhood but then accelerated steadily through their teenage years into early adulthood.” (Scientific American) So time flies, and as we age it flies faster.

According to psychologists, we perceive time from two perspectives: a prospective vantage (while it’s happening) and a retrospective one (when the party’s over).

Both are subjective and deal with experience, memory and hindsight — all of which shape the sensation of time’s slippery slope into our pasts.

Our brains are hardwired to code new experiences into memory, but the familiar ones escape this neurological filing system. If our perception of time reflects our collections of memories, the periods of our lives dominated by mundane rhythms will seem more fleeting than our more formative years, when everything is novelty.

The good news in this scenario is we can alter our perception of time by building synaptic connections through new skills, ideas, and environments. Life is short and ever shortening. What better excuse to take the long way home. Or a vacation.

You’re welcome.

When examining technology’s influence on the human-time relationship, it’s fair to speculate that our digital dependence has been a less-than-helpful coping mechanism for navigating the aging process. The average person will reportedly spend

32

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

about two hours a day on social media, or 5 years and 4 months over a lifetime, according to a Mediakix study extrapolating data to a span of 66 years. These numbers are expected to increase as the platforms to which we tether ourselves continue to develop, vacuuming up the free time we might otherwise spend cultivating new memories and hobbies, or reading a book.

There is evidence suggesting that our near-constant use of technology makes us more efficient in processing information, which in turn speeds up our perception of time. Equally unnerving are the correlations between heavy social media use and feelings of social isolation. A report co-authored by Brian Primack, director of the Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health at the University of Pittsburgh, found that people between the ages of 19 and 32 who spent more than two hours a day on social media had twice the odds of experiencing loneliness than those who said they spent a half hour per day or less on these sites (AJPM).

Of course, it is how we use the technologies available to us today that will determine their impact on our happiness and overall acceptance of age and time. To that end, it’s important to question our compulsion to over-document. In 2015, there were eight times more people taking pictures than 10 years ago, with 4 billion people creating 1.2 trillion photos per year, primarily on smartphones (Amateur Photographer). Snapping a photo today requires less thought; we don’t have to ration our film or worry about space. The cloud is infinite, for a price.

Everywhere I go, I carry thousands of frozen moments from my own story — a mosaic of my history to revisit and reconstruct in filters and apps. I have access to the fragments of lives shared publicly by billions of other time-killers around the world. I

can post a status update or an image, even capture a tragedy unfolding in real-time, and then wait for affirmation of its acceptance to arrive in the form of a like or a comment or an emoji. Technology allows us to construct and construe reality in ways beyond imagination.

We spend much of our younger lives surrounded by peers and encountering new, memory-forming experiences. And then, with luck, we survive into a more secure stage of existence. As we weed out the fluff of our youth and identify priorities, our lives narrow around routines. New habits can form in periods of transition, not always to the benefit of the self. In the everyday monotony, it’s easy to slip into ways of thinking that blind us to the more soul-nourishing opportunities we might otherwise embrace in this fast-forward slow dance into old age. Especially when it’s so easy to compare yourself to a network behind a screen.

Today, the planet is more heavily populated than at any other point in its young history. We are more connected than ever. And yet here we are, feeling alone. Even when our lives give the appearance of fullness in the digital evidence of ourselves we create, our tendency is to question what is missing, what could have been different, and what is yet to come, rather than what is here and now.

Time is cruel in its elusiveness. When we have it to spare, we burn it. Teens push and speed through it. Young adults are especially gifted in wasting it. New parents have none of it, and yet their children embody it. The middle-aged race to slow it down or even reverse it. In the golden years of retirement, we finally have time to consider just how little of it we have left.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

33

ISSUE T WO

To better accept ourselves and our place in the universe, at any stage in life, we must actively cultivate our peace with and within it. My mother, a 60-something emptynester in Maine, sets an inspiring example.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

I recently phoned her with some vague questions about time and loneliness and technology. Her wisdom was predictably plentiful: “We need the commas in life. Embrace the negative space. What we develop in solitude is what sustains us forever.”

One thing that is reliably understood about time is that our experiences within it are shaped by perception. And perception, like reality, is malleable. We can’t change the past, but can we shape it in the present? In the negative space, mold the memories that become the yesterdays you’ll reference when you seek perspective later in life. Try it.

Or don’t; and one day your future self will agree with me when I say, Yesterday I was killing time.

Time is cruel in its elusiveness.

When we have it to spare, we burn it.

Dig Deeper Experience:

Why Time Flies: Maximilian Kiener, Interactive Visualization of Paul Janet’s Perceived Life Theory at maximiliankiener.com/digitalprojects/time/

Read:

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

34

“WHEN I GET MARRIED I WANT TO TEACH SCHOOL OR DO SOMETHING BESIDES BEING A HOUSEWIFE.” – Kent Doty Wolfe, 13 years old, 1960

M

y mother knew herself, even if she didn’t accurately predict her future in the eighth grade. She did not become a teacher, possibly because she realized her lack of patience made her unsuitable for the job. She majored in business and worked for a state agency until she married my father and the army gave them their pick of posts. Young and curious, they chose somewhere new to both of them – Germany. They weren’t ready to start a family, but I was born anyway, which didn’t stop them from traveling all over Europe while they had the chance. They moved back to South Carolina and had three more children. Mom never took another job, but she sure as shit wasn’t a housewife.

talking about in low voices that made them laugh so loud the house shook. I couldn’t wait to be an adult, so I could host fabulous parties and laugh with my friends until way after bedtime.

Mom fed us healthy(ish) food, and made sure we did our dishes and cleaned our rooms. She would have snort-laughed and rolled her eyes at anyone who dared suggest she should prioritize creativity in the kitchen.

By Anne Wolfe Postic

Mom hated cooking unapologetically – because she had nothing to apologize for. Her meals were more than good enough, and she and my dad taught us to say “thank you” at least twice at every meal: once at the beginning to show our appreciation for the effort, and once at the end. We also learned to say the meal was good, regardless of our actual opinions.

We had dinner together every night and I have countless memories of wildly entertaining family meals, but I couldn’t tell you what we ate. Mom rotated a few standards: spaghetti, vegetable soup

DID YOU KNOW?

Nearly twothirds of moms today are breadwinners.

(The Washington Post) Over 40% of working mothers make most or all of their family income.

(The Washington Post) In the 1970s, only six men in the entire United States self-identified as a stay-at-home father. (Huffington Post)

T h e s e days, everyone’s a chef and a food critic. People who can’t c r e a t e Pinterestworthy tablescapes and serve m e a l s made enFrom a post-war market study tirely from quoted in Betty Friedan’s The scratch are subtly (or not so subtly) made to feel like they aren’t worthy hosts. They’ve been led to believe they “can’t cook,” but cooking is no more than the act of taking something edible and heating it.

Can you heat some frozen mini quiches?

Microwave a breakfast burrito? Toast a bagel? You can cook. Who says you can’t get takeout for a dinner party or serve the same casserole you make every week because it’s easy and tastes fine? Sitting around the table and talking about what everyone’s reading makes for a great meal, no matter how little time or “creativity” it took to prepare.

I cherish my time in the kitchen, but that’s me.

If cooking bores you, your time is better spent reading a book, doing macrame, bird watching, or whatever it is you like best. There’s no shame in not knowing a damn thing about how to sousvide, and you can certainly replace the manchego cheese course with homemade cotognata, in favor of a block of cheddar and some wheat crackers. In

DIG DEEPER

Read: The Feminine Mystique

by Betty Friedan

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

She demonstrated the importance of giving back by volunteering countless hours helping people in need. She played a mean game of bridge. When it was her turn to host friends, she served lemonade made from frozen concentrate, grocery store wine, mixed nuts, and Whoppers malted milk balls.

On those nights, I sat at the top of the stairs and strained to hear what it was that the ladies were

So, logically, I became a food writer and recipe developer. My mother loved my cooking, which didn’t change the fact that food wasn’t her thing.

She happily continued to do the responsible minimum. She was thrilled that I enjoyed my work, and she was far more interested in my writing “Even though the than my housewife may buy recipes.

canned food . . . and thus save time and effort, she doesn’t let it go at that. She has a great need for ‘doctoring up’ the can and thus prove her personal participation and her concern with giving satisfaction to her family.”

“Even though the housewife may buy canned food . . . and thus save time and effort, she doesn’t let it go at that. She has a great need for ‘doctoring up’ the can and thus prove her personal participation and her concern with giving satisfaction to her family.” – From a post-war market study quoted in Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, 1963 After World War II, manufacturers of household products needed to get women, many of whom had enjoyed employment during the war, back into the home. They did so by selling the idea that creativity at home (and in the kitchen) was the only way to be a good wife, a good mother, and a real woman.

Mine didn’t fall for that trash.

She managed the family finances. She taught me about the stock market and made sure I knew about saving for retirement. She prioritized humor and made us laugh until our stomachs ached. She was always in the middle of a book and made sure we knew our way around the library. We read whatever we wanted, and she never questioned the age-appropriateness of our choices. (I read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique when I was 11.)

made with kitchen scraps, chicken divan, mac and cheese, pot roast. I didn’t learn how to roast a chicken until college because I never saw it done.

Thawing frozen chicken breasts and marinating them in bottled Italian dressing was easier and less messy.

f i

#A N A L O GA S FO L K

cruiser

g h

my battle zone

c d e

@FOLKREBELLION

A b

submarine

This is a tear out, pass along, IRL moment Stay in the moment, but if the mood strikes to share, use a #latergram.

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

9

10

battleship

j 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

9

10

destroyer

A b i j

Draw an outline of each one on the grid according to its size. For example, 1 battleship = four blocks, but 1 aircraft carrier = five (SEE DIAGRAM A.). Ships can not overlap.

g h

Plot Your ships

f

Build a Wall

Put a barrier between you and your opponent, so they can’t sneak a peek at your board.

We recommend a coffee table book, or a folder of work you’re not doing because it’s your freakin’ free time.

my opponent's fleet

c d e

How to Play Fire Away

Take turns firing upon the enemy by calling out plot points. For example: A-5.

Make sure to mark your shot as a hit (X) or a miss (O) on your enemy ship grid according to your opponents reply.

When your enemy fires on you, answer hit or miss, according to their shot.

Mark your hit ships with an (X) on the "My Battle Zone" grid.

Record Your Victories

When a ship is all X’d out, it’s sunk. Tell your opponent, along with which ship it is. For example, "My aircraft carrier is sunk!".

Win

The first person to sink all of their opponent’s ships wins the game!

battleship

10

9

5 6 7 8

1 2 3 4 A b f

submarine

c d e i

cruiser

g h

my battle zone

j

destroyer

10

9

5 6 7 8

1 2 3 4 A b c d e f g h

my opponent's fleet

How to Play

i j

Build a Wall

Put a barrier between you and your opponent, so they can’t sneak a peek at your board.

We recommend a coffee table book, or a folder of work you’re not doing because it’s your freakin’ free time.

Plot Your ships

Draw an outline of each one on the grid according to its size. For example, 1 battleship = four blocks, but 1 aircraft carrier = five (SEE DIAGRAM A.). Ships can not overlap.

Fire Away

Take turns firing upon the enemy by calling out plot points. For example: A-5.

Make sure to mark your shot as a hit (X) or a miss (O) on your enemy ship grid according to your opponents reply.

When your enemy fires on you, answer hit or miss, according to their shot.

Mark your hit ships with an (X) on the "My Battle Zone" grid.

Record Your Victories

Win

The first person to sink all of their opponent’s ships wins the game!

When a ship is all X’d out, it’s sunk. Tell your opponent, along with which ship it is. For example, "My aircraft carrier is sunk!".

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ISSUE T WO

TIME HACKING PRODUCTIVITY HACKERS ARE SELLING THE SECRET TO SUCCESS — BUT IS THE PRODUCT WORTH THE HYPE? WHAT OUR OBSESSION WITH PRODUCTIVITY TELLS US ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH TIME IN THE 21ST CENTURY.

by Katie Fustich

38

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

39

ISSUE T WO

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

D

aniel Ramamoorthy has the kind of energy that is normally reserved for competition game shows. A seasoned public speaker, he’s hosted conferences and summits around the globe, makes videos where he wears silly hats while imparting entrepreneurial advice, and he’s occasionally followed around by a camera person who turns his adventures into beat-pumping highlight reels, all while carving out space in the world of personal coaching. He isn’t pushing his clients through boot camp workouts, though: he’s teaching them to be productive.

The desire for productivity is universal. Young students scramble to efficiently cram for exams; parents struggle to keep the household afloat, keep up with book club, and pack perfect kids’ lunches; commuters read self-help books or listen to podcasts on their way to work, eager to fill idle minutes with something of intellectual value.

And, of course, there are the workers who mesh their professional lives with their personal: work email open in bed, conference calls while on vacation, and bleary-eyed freelancers managing half a dozen clients across nearly as many screens.

We, at all stages of life and career, are so driven by productivity because little else inspires as deep a sense of satisfaction as getting things done, or a more terrible bout of self-doubt than feeling like you’re falling behind. Our ability to be productive has become a core piece of our self-worth, and one of the values by which we measure others. If you’re productive, you’re seen as more skilled.

From the corporate to the individual level, more is better.

Though the feeling of being productive fills us with a distinct sensation, defining the term “productivity” is difficult. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, productivity is a mathematical measure intersecting volume of output, time, and expenses. A company is judged as “productive” if they manage to pay a skeleton staff low wages and still meet product goals or revenue targets. It’s an efficiency-centric measurement of success.

It’s not this formula, though, that we have in mind when we sneak a peek at our work emails on Sunday night.

Rather, we are putting ourselves to the test against a set of internalized ideals. These ideals can take many forms, from stuffing savings accounts to maxing out vacation days, and can be fulfilled in a variety of creative ways, from outsourcing nearly everything to grinding through 16-hour days of freelance assignments.

“Productivity encompasses both a sense of accomplishment and a sense of fulfillment,” says Ramamoorthy,

whose work as a coach focuses on aiding individuals in finding their perfect form of productivity based on their individual needs and goals. “Getting through a to-do list is one thing. Ensuring that those things actually matter (a.k.a. are aligned with your purpose in this world) is another thing.”

C OA C H I N G P RO D UC T I V I T Y The high-profile role of productivity coaches like Ramamoorthy is unique to the 21st century, but he is not alone in his success. A swath of prominent online personalities have made it their mission to shape the narrative of productivity, attracting stables of clients willing to pay thousands of dollars for insight into how to make better use of their time. Laura Stack (“the Productivity Pro”), Merlin Mann (the originator of “Inbox Zero”), and Craig Jarrow (“the Time Management Ninja”), have all built veritable social media empires centered around helping people work better.

While these big names may score the TED Talks and the viral blog posts, it doesn’t take making the front page of the Times to carve out a successful (and profitable) career as a productivity coach. Ramamoorthy has fewer than 4,500 Twitter followers, but that hasn’t stopped him from building a successful coaching business. New York Citybased Anna Goldstein has even less of a social media presence, and yet her website, headshot, and branding looks as slick and expensive as any Fortune 500 CEO. What does seem to tie these individuals together, whether they have 300,000 Instagram followers or 300, is a strategy and a storyline. Often, personal coaches tend to build their brand off of their own professional failure and eventual triumph. Even more frequently, they obscure their rates while potential clients line up in awe. Top productivity coaches charge an average of $500 per hour, according to the Harvard Business Review.

The changing shape of work drives the demand for these guru-like coaches. Freelancing, gigging, and working remotely, once considered to be virtual fads or niche formulas only a few people could crack, are becoming an increasingly large slice of the global economy. In 2016, Upwork and the Freelancers Union conducted a survey indicating more than 35% of America’s workforce identifies as freelance.

There is no doubt that coaches and mentors can be extremely helpful to this growing group of people who are navigating a particularly tricky style of working. Even so, one can’t help but wonder if the coaching career path would be viable were it not for the fact that so much of our

40

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

PRODUCTIVITY ENCOMPASSES BOTH A SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AND A SENSE OF FULFILLMENT. T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

41

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ISSUE T WO

IT’S BECAUSE WE YEARN FOR VALIDATION THROUGH PRODUCTIVITY THAT WE ARE PRIMED FOR GUIDANCE ON HOW TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE. for validation through productivity, that we are primed for guidance on how to be more productive in the first place.

OUTS O URCI N G EVERY T HI N G The prevailing productivity schools of thought can be divided into two ideologies: those who outsource, and those who grind. The outsourcers believe that work can be systematically pared down until a nearly self-automated, highly-efficient structure remains. The grinders believe that the only means of achieving greatness is through constant, bruteforce production at any cost. While these two philosophies may appear at odds, they both center their praxis on the idea that we can manipulate or “hack” the forces around us to achieve our goals and garner the sense of productivity we crave.

The outsourcing perspective is the more complicated of the two when it comes to execution, as it involves the time and talents of others. The outsourcing mindset is one in which an individual reduces their workload by assigning numerous small tasks to people like freelancers or assistants, creating a web of people (or virtual assistants) who take care of the “busy work.” In theory, this method allows the individual to focus on the core of their business—as well as supply them with a wealth of free time.

Personal outsourcing was popularized by personalities like Tim Ferriss, pioneer of a controversial method he called “The Four Hour Workweek.” He’s one of the most famous names in the productivity coaching space, only considering coaching requests accompanied by an offer of “a budget with 5-7 zeros (before the decimal point),” according to his website.

Instead of one-on-one coaching, Ferriss has built his brand on the idea that anyone can retire early on a tropical island. In 2007, Ferriss released a treatise on his lifestyle that, in his own words, offers insights on how to “escape the rat race” and “earn monthly fivefigure income with zero management.” Readers are told they will be able to “eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of little-known European economists,” secure housing anywhere in the world, and receive airfare for 20% of face value.

Despite the too-good-to-be-true nature of Ferriss’ claims (or perhaps because of them), passionate followers have purchased more than a million copies of The Four Hour Work Week. Though now more than ten years old, the book continues its reign as a primary resource for anyone looking to take control of their professional lives and “escape the grind.”

The era of the digital worker has, perhaps unwittingly, embraced the claims made in Ferriss’ book. The idea that a regular eight-hour workday is no longer a requirement for productivity or success represents an essential shift in the way workers are entitling themselves to a more satisfying work-life balance. Productivity does not have to mean spending nights at the office when one could build a life that is so efficient that they rarely have to spend a day at a desk.

In practice, this outsourcing school of thought relies on the type of thinking found in the 2006 bestseller The Secret — dream it, do it. The strategies presented are often so simple (Buy a bullet journal! Get eight hours of sleep! Eat an acai bowl!) that you’ll wonder why you needed to be taught them. Simply strip away the clutter of work and find the core of your productivity.

But how, exactly, your dreams of working from a private island will be made real is often something you are left to figure out for yourself. It’s this question of “how?” that keeps readers reaching for the work of Ferriss, as well as looking to more accessible personal coaches to work with one-on-one.

T H E S C H O O L O F THE G R I ND For those who would forego the careful balance of outsourcing for a more brutalist method, there is the grinding school of thought. Grinding is productivity at its most forceful: work as hard as possible, for as long as possible, and don’t worry about the potential risks or consequences. It sounds painful, but millions of people around the world do it every day, from picking up an open shift at work to checking business emails under the dinner

42

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

table, to spending all night at the library just for the sake of feeling productive.

If the icon of the outsourcing school is Tim Ferriss, the icon of the grinding school is Gary Vaynerchuk. Vaynerchuk is a public speaker, author, and internet personality who, like Ferriss, has made his name by advocating for a certain type of work-life balance.

Whereas Ferriss encourages his disciples to work as efficiently (and therefore as little) as possible, Vaynerchuk motivates his denizens with the gospel of working hard, very hard.

“When you have passion around something, you’ll do whatever it takes to execute on it. You’ll work and grind away until you’ve squeezed every last bit of juice out of that ‘lemon,’” reads a 2014 blog post on his site. “When you’re truly in that hustle, you are maximizing every last bit of energy you have in order to produce.”

A more recent post from 2017 embraces the philosophy that speed always trumps accuracy. “You need to move fast. I am more concerned about speed than being ‘right’ on the first try,” he writes. “The moral of the story is: the more you do, the more you learn.”

While leadership and passion are evident in his work, there is also a sense of yearning, even of desperation.

Vaynerchuk preaches a gospel of no shortcuts and no excuses when it comes to pursuing goals. One can’t simply have a virtual assistant complete their tasks; they must complete them with effort and passion while never losing sight of larger aspirations. Vaynerchuk’s mentality is more difficult to contest than Ferriss’s outsourced approach, because there are quite literally no excuses allowed.

In early 2017, Fiverr, an online exchange for freelance labor, plastered New York City’s MTA with ads advocating for a startling lifestyle. In the ads, a woman (presumably a freelancer of some sort) was shown wide-eyed and messy-haired. The bold captions proclaimed “Sleep deprivation is your drug of choice” and “You eat a coffee for lunch,” among others. After the campaign went viral on Twitter, viewers were taken aback by the glorification of the apparent exploitation of freelancers. It may be exploitation, but there are some who take genuine pride in aligning themselves with the grinder lifestyle such ads advertise.

T H E T RUE C O S T O F PRO DU CTI VI TY Though outsourcing and grinding are drastically different in practice, they both represent the idea that we can somehow “hack” our working lives to reach an otherwise unattainable level of professional achievement. We want to believe that we can pare down success to a handful of algorithms. We want to be as efficient and productive as the machines we rely on.

The danger in the marketing of productivity extremes is that it’s easy to ignore the potential physical and mental consequences of our thirst for success. While many of us have benefitted from the uplifting tone and motivational mantras of the virtual productivity thinktank, it’s important to step back from the verbiage and allow ourselves to see the risks that come with these rewards.

As new studies emerge, the evidence is mounting that our 21st-century productivity strategies, and “grinding” in particular, are leaving us with a host of problems including anxiety disorders, adrenal fatigue, and episodes of severe exhaustion. While we may be inclined to associate these medical conditions with a more old-school, big-business lifestyle, research is finding these conditions just as pervasive in world of non-traditional work. Deepening the problem is the fact that many freelance or at-home workers have no health insurance, no paid leave, and potentially poor at-home workplace conditions.

A 2017 Fast Company article asks, “Could Working From Home Be As Bad For Your Health As Smoking?” It seems a drastic comparison—after all, shouldn’t working from the comfort of home make you happy? And yet, the article cites several studies connecting dangerous levels of loneliness with remote work. Physical and mental isolation resulting from working from home can lead to issues like inflammation, insomnia, and a weakened immune system.

People who work from home are also likely to work more days and longer hours, as the barrier between work and home dissolves. The American Psychological Association has established a direct link between overwork and serious illnesses like hypertension, cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety, diabetes, and more. Workers who lack job

43

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Because of its ground-level accessibility (no private jet or personal assistant necessary), the grinding school is likely to appeal to a fairly vulnerable population: freelancers, gig workers, and those without the security of benefits or pensions. Yet this appeal is one side of a double-edged sword.

Can grinding work? Yes. There is truth in the fact that many have found success only after aggressively forcing their work into the world. Still, there are serious risks that come with pushing your mind and body to the brink that can undermine the potential rewards.

ISSUE T WO

Dear Folk Rebellion Community: My name is Dave Romanelli (nickname Yeah Dave). I focus on asking people questions other than the same ol boring ones like “What do you do for a living?” I prefer questions like “What is your message?” and “Why are you here?”

I love the mission at Folk Rebellion—to unplug and experience deeper feelings and clearer thoughts.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

When we speak our message and live our purpose, each day is a sacred act.

To those seeking more clarity and a greater commitment to shifting attention away from technology and back toward nature...

Each year, I lead a 6 month program that culminates in an epic UNPLUGGED location. This year’s journey is called INTO THE WILD and I will send you a daily audio guided meditation that gives you encouragement, inspiration, and sometimes a kick in the ass... to look away from all the phones, tablets, desktops and TVs,...and look back to the wisdom of the skies, stars, seas and trees. You will conclude with a 5 day retreat to Alaska for the Summer Solstice.

It would be awesome to share a moment with you this summer in Alaska, watching bald eagles soar across the Midnight Sun...

You can start Into the Wild anytime. Visit www.

YeahDave.com for the details Love… and Enjoy Your Journey Dave Romanelli

44

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

security, such as freelancers and gig workers, are at an even greater risk for such problems. This trend is likely to continue as long as companies continue to shift traditionally full-time roles to “freelance” or “contracted” positions, and a 40-hour work week with a 401k becomes increasingly out of reach.

Businesswoman Mai-Li Hammargren notes that, while we may be inclined to blame the same technologies that enable us to “hack” our working selves for the shake-ups in the job market, “It’s not the technology itself which is the problem—but how people use it.”

“The world used to be more predictable,” says Hammargren. Now, economies are shifting—jobs are lost, but others are being created. “We need to figure out how we can all coexist.”

Read:

T H E F I NA L B I L L Just as technology is not to blame for the exploitation or health conditions of a worker, those who attempt to hack their work lives, and those who advocate for such hacking, are not necessarily at fault. Instead, we need to examine the bigger picture and ask questions like, “Why don’t we already have a shorter (if not four-hour) work week?” or, “Why don’t we invest more value in the labor of gig-workers who are stuck grinding to make a living?”

Work itself is changing, and rather than be complicit in a crumbling system, individuals, from first-time founders to productivity gurus, are taking the initiative to develop new concepts of why and how we work to make a living.

Productivity hacking may be marketed with an unrealistic ideal, but it can provide a valuable framework. If productivity gurus are the fad diets of the working world, their ideas are what we pick, choose, restrict, and indulge in with the hope that we find a work-life balance that nourishes us each individually.

• The Hardest Thing About Working in the Gig Economy? Forging a Cohesive Sense of Self

(The Harvard

Business Review) • The

Freelancer’s

Bible:

Every-

thing You Need to Know to Have the Career of Your Dreams—On Your Terms by Sara Horowitz, founder of the Freelancers Union • The Limits of Self-Help Productivity Lit (The Atlantic)

45

Ramamoorthy is all for such customization. “I am rather cynical of terms like goals, work-life balance and job satisfaction,” he says. “Because most people have a distorted view of what those words actually mean, or are being presented a distorted view of what those words should mean,” he adds, seemingly nodding to towards the icons of the productivity space who preach single-day work weeks or grinding it out. “Bean bags, ping-pong tables, flexible work hours, and more technology don't necessarily correlate with any of those terms. Truly knowing yourself, understanding your personal and professional purpose and mission, is the key to achieving goals, work-life balance and job satisfaction.”

Without a sense of purpose, we will keep searching for someone to tell us how to work. We will keep buying books, attending seminars, hiring coaches, and fueling an industry built on the human desire for a happier life.

This, combined with the changing landscape of work, may leave some off-balance. For those who can find their own center, though, it could also lead to beautiful, unexpected destinations—just maybe not Tim Ferriss’ island paradise.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

STRIP AWAY THE CLUTTER OF WORK AND FIND THE CORE OF YOUR PRODUCTIVITY.

ISSUE T WO

A Survival Story By

THE DRAMAT

Elisia Guerena

As a kid, my dad often brought home jokes told between him and the men at his work. One of them went like this:

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

A woman walks into a beauty salon wearing headphones. She asks for a haircut, but under no condition is the hairdresser to remove the headphones.

“Sorry,” says the dresser. “No can do.” The woman tries another place, receives the same response.

Finally, a barber agrees to a dry trim. He starts snipping when the phone rings. Startled, he knocks the headphones off the woman’s head.

She immediately goes into a seizure. By the time the ambulance arrives, she’s dead. Dismayed, the barber picks up the headphones. He places them on his head.

“Breathe in,” a cool voice says. “Breathe out.”

As a child, the joke’s sexist and off-color elements went over my head. It survived in my memory only because I loved to hear my father laugh. But as an adult participant in a ten day silent meditation retreat, this joke returned to me, looping on repeat the same way those headphones repeated the instructions for survival. It’s punch line explained itself in wholly new terms: breathe in, breathe out.

It was easy to see who the joke was on now.

I wound up at Suan Mokkh, a forest monastery in Thailand, because someone stole my debit card. Jet lagged and unaccustomed to machines that temporarily eat your card instead of allowing you to swipe, I had walked away while my card remained inside the ATM. By the time I returned a few moments later, it had vanished entirely.

The lost card marked an inauspicious beginning to my six-month backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. It would take two weeks for a new card to arrive, and I was in Phuket — one of the most expensive parts of Thailand. I needed a way to kill time that didn’t involve leaving before my card arrived, or spending what little cash I had on partying.

I can hustle cash by reading tarot, I thought. I’d brought three decks with me, a holdover from my recent life in New York. I’d worked as a tech copywriter by day, and read cards at a neighborhood bar by night.

Twice a week, I’d swig the free Budweiser I received with each shift, while laying cards in the amber light of the mahogany bar. Why haven’t you met someone?

You’re sleeping with your ex-boyfriend. Band needs a better sound? Turn up the volume on that Vox amplifier. That baby you’re trying for? Already inside you.

But I’d left New York to explore the world and take a firm hiatus on work of all kinds—reading for tourists seemed a last resort.

A page in my Lonely Planet guidebook caught my eye. Silhouetted in a light blue box that denoted a not-to-be missed event, stood a description of a meditation retreat: $60 for ten days, a mere four hour bus ride from Phuket, with registration starting tomorrow.

A lightning bolt lit up my heart. The uncanny serendipity of place, time and cost caused me to reframe the significance of the missing card, not as a misfortune but as a catalyst for sending me to this retreat.

I hastily packed my belongings and raced to the bus station, arriving just before nightfall.

That first night, I slept on the floor of a large wooden room, a thin bamboo mat between me and the floor.

The next day and for the ten days after it, I would live in a concrete dormitory room with the same trappings used by ascetic monks: a bamboo mat, a blanket, and a wooden pillow. Until then, I used my backpack to prop my head, and shared the room with twenty others.

A woman with a shaved head and glasses offered directions the moment I walked in the door. “Blankets are in that corner,” she said. “Mats are in the other.”

“Thank you,” I said, making my way forward. I caught sight of the books by her sleeping area. “Of Water and Wood,” read one title. Books too serious to be taken seriously, I thought. As I set up, I continued my commentary: You’re not the only one who is enlightened.

The next morning during registration, I surrendered all my electronics, writing and reading materials, per the rules. But I slipped my Rider-Waite Tarot pack into my backpack’s deepest pocket. I had a feeling they wouldn’t approve, although “No Tarot” wasn’t written anywhere. What could it hurt?

At 7 P.M. a bell rang, signifying the beginning of the noble silence. For the next ten days, the schedule would be this: wake at 4 AM, meditate, then yoga.

Breakfast at 8 AM, then chores and relaxation. More meditation, “Dharma talks” that explained Buddhist principles, and then lunch at noon, our last meal of the day. Meditation, meditation, meditation, lights out at 9 P.M. It wasn’t until my head hit the wooden pillow at night that the reality started to sink in. A monastic location alone wouldn’t be enough to instantly quell my mind’s constant chatter. My brain’s constant whirring hadn’t subsided—I could just hear it better now. I danced my fingers across my chest to its erratic rhythm, a chained lioness trying to break free.

Besides my dad’s joke, “Buddhism bootcamp” were the words I repeated to myself for the next ten days, for that’s what it felt like: an indoctrination of a religion I’d completely misunderstood. In my private enquiries into Buddhism back home, I’d understoods

46

A monasti alone wo enough to quell my constant

its practitioners as superheroes. Meditation could help you fly. Be in two places at once, see the truth in all things, achieve everlasting peace.

But here our meditation practice was supplemented with hour-long “dharma talks” that felt cult-like in their insistent belaboring Buddhism’s merits, our silent mouths unable to protest or argue. Our evenings contained nightly sessions of Sanskrit chanting and metta meditation. Told to send loving thoughts to someone I had conflict with, I usually sent them to myself.

For the hours of sitting made every joint and muscle in my body to ache. Despite being told that pain existed as a mental construct, I could not help but shift positions every five minutes.The pain was like a rubber ball beneath my skin: encased in bodily fluids, it flowed into another region until I shifted again.

Mosquitoes and ants bit my hands, face, and feet as

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

TIC UNPLUG into the hotsprings with her clasped pressed against her chest in the yogic prayer position. Eyes closed, she submerged all but her smiling face, draped her arms out wide to the heavens, and floated.

The only participant who didn’t obviously suffer or seem to be on drugs was the woman with a shaved head from the night of my arrival, who had presumed to tell me where to place my things. With her eyes closed, head down, and wearing the same white fisherman’s trousers and modest blouse that the nuns wore, she maintained perfect composure at all times.

Artwork By Madelaine Buttini

I sat. If a person kills one mosquito, a monk told us, the karmic impact will increase so that in nine days, it is of the same weight as killing a human. I tried to practice equanimity and compassion as my skin erupted in flames.

I sought relief in observing others. The woman to my left built sand castles next to her mat. The Indian woman directly in front of me sat perfectly erect for every meditation, her long black braid aligned perfectly with her spine, a colorful shawl with peacock’s eyes staring back at me, hour after hour.

Another girl a few years younger than me resembled a flower child from a bygone era. She draped crystals around her neck that hit right at her heart, wore burnt orange alibabas and an embroidered denim vest, with miniature braids woven through her dark brown hair. I watched her step barefoot around the dirt paths, weaving daisy chains. At night, she waded

Once, as my net made its way towards a snail nestled at the bottom of the pool, it started to move: slowly but adamantly away from my net, towards the wall and fresh air. Without warning, Fleetwood Mac started playing in my head. “You can go your own way,” sang Stevie Nicks. “Go your own way.” I silently championed the snail’s slow crawl to freedom, to independence, to doing it her own way.

Many of the other participants did as well--go their own way, that is. My neighboring sand castle builder left on the third day, and the flower child would disappear on day seven. Those who stayed wilted considerably: a tall lanky German girl started approaching the food line with ribs clutched like a wounded soldier.

As our numbers dwindled, the remaining meditators were asked to pick up the slack. I signed up to clean the bathrooms, figuring that by doubling up on chores I could increase the “karma points” (a term I had coined to make the point of this retreat bearable) that my intense moods and frustrated body wouldn’t allow me to otherwise access. But when I walked into the bathroom after skimming the pool, the floors were soapy, the toilets scrubbed, and the trash bins emptied. I picked up a rag anyhow and started wiping. The girl with the shaved head stared at me angrily. Didn’t I know that this chore was shared? I tried to do my part, looking for a spot to shine with a rag, not seeing the anger rising up inside of her or the finger making a cutting motion across her throat.

Bursting at the seams, she broke the silence. “It’s already done,” she said in a fierce whisper. I stood, nodded mutely, and turned towards the dorms. She’d

47

The night before we went home, participants were asked to share their experiences. In the same way that small grievances had reached meltdown status in the pressure cooker of my head, the fresh insights of those who shared greatly impacted my meditation-purified consciousness. A woman I’d seen spend hours gazing off into space beneath the Banyan tree talked about her daughter who had just beat a seemingly terminal illness. This retreat marked her self-care post-recovery.

A young man admitted he’d spent most of the time watching ants, rather than his own breath. The German girl had felt like she was on shrooms.

The people I’d observed, the ones I’d wanted to be or to escape from while taking myself so seriously, perhaps had something to offer me that I could not find for myself. I realized that my interactions with anyone, at anytime, were akin to the pools I cleaned: light reflecting back my own purity should I choose to release debris that clogged my perceptions.

The next morning, at 6 AM, we packed our belongings and shared one breakfast together, silence broken. I sat next to the woman with the shaved head.

Her speech calm and measured; she was hardly the psychopath I’d scoped her out to be. She had spent forty days prior meditating at the monastery. A music lover from San Francisco, her shaved head symbolized the monastic and the punk rebellion. We talked about the United States, and what we missed of our homes.

It hit me that, with her shaved head, had she been the woman in my father’s joke, she would never had needed a barber. But that in her intense dedication to meditation practice, she had worn a sort of invisible headphones throughout the last fifty days. That we all had silently walked around with a voice whispering in our ear to breathe in, breathe out.

I started to rewrite my father’s joke. How a woman wearing headphones walks into a barber shop and, instead of asking for a shampoo, demands that he shave it all off. How the barber complies and then, inevitably, knocks off the headphones. How instead of going into a seizure, throwing a temper tantrum, or pulling out a deck of tarot cards, smiles and continues to breathe in, breathe out.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ic location ouldn’t be o instantly y mind’s t chatter.

With a body in pain and tortured thoughts on repeat, my only respite was my daily chore. The women’s dormitory held eight large, shallow pools for bathing and washing clothes. Everyday after breakfast, I skimmed them with a wide net to remove floating objects: mosquitos, ants, leaves if it had rained the night before. Sometimes a worm or snail would sink to the bottom. One of the girls floated Burmese honeysuckles onto the water’s surface, where their waxy orange petals gliding silently between the less elegant debris.

robbed me of my chore, my chance to find relief.

You’re angry that a girl cleaned a toilet for you? Said a small, more reasonable voice inside my head. I silenced it as I reached for my tarot pack, hoping the cards would side with my angrier side, giving me an excuse for my frustration. They didn’t; where I was dark, she was crystalline.

OF L O

RT A E

Y L H O T N T O WM O H

LY

O

NG SLOW I K

ISSUE T WO

BY BETHANY C. GOTSCHALL

I

TH Every spring an annual “Slow Art Day” invites museums or individuals who wish to lead slow looking experiences to register their event. In 2018, Slow Art Day falls on April 14.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

t’s late afternoon on a Wednesday in the middle of winter and I’m sitting in front of a Van Gogh painting, Poplars at Saint-Remy. Perched on portable folding stools, we’re all gazing up at the canvas in front of us.

“That blue,” says an older man with thinning hair, “I thought at first it was water, but now I’m not sure.”

“At first, it seems sunny,” says a young woman gently rocking an infant in her arms. “And then I thought, no, look at all the darkness in the sky.”

By the time the mother with the baby makes her comment about the sky, we’d been examining Poplars at Saint-Remy for nearly seven minutes. In a regular tour or an unguided visit, we’d have moved on long ago. But today, I, the guide, have asked this group to try something new. We’re practicing slow looking.

How Long Do We Look?

Slow looking is exactly what it sounds like: taking time to thoroughly explore a work of art. Like the slow food movement, which encourages diners to relish each ingredient on the plate, slow looking encourages deliberate observation of a work of art.

Our group’s seven-minute experience may not sound that long but, when compared to the time most museum visitors spend in front of a piece, it’s an eternity. A 2001 study by Lisa F. Smith and Jeffrey K. Smith found that visitors spent an average of 27.2 seconds at each of six pieces they’d selected for observation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Later studies in other museums found similar results: the amount of time spent in front of a work averaged 15-30 seconds.

That isn’t too surprising. Museum visitors are not immune to the culture of speed, even when they’re seeking solace from it. Many people go hoping to see as much as possible, which means looking at as many objects as possible. Because our brains can only pay attention to so much at once, museum visitors often find themselves growing tired after even only a short while.

This is called museum fatigue.

Despite the possibility of museum fatigue, museums can stimulate curiosity and they’re spaces where stressors can be left at the coat check. Slow looking is a valuable tool for those looking to recharge their brains and many museums now offer slow looking experiences.

Practicing Slow Looking If you already have a work of art in mind, that’s great.

Returning to a work can be a very rewarding experience. If you don’t have anything in mind, that’s okay too. Pick an area of a museum that sounds interesting to you. Go straight there, with no side trips to other galleries. Once you’re there, let yourself wander. Don’t look at labels; don’t look in detail; just let your eyes slide over the works until one catches your attention. If you’re with a group, take turns choosing artworks.

When you’ve selected your artwork, find a spot where you’ll be able to stay for at least a few minutes.

Once comfortable, close your eyes and take a few deep

48

breaths.

When you’re ready, open your eyes and look at the piece. Let your vision travel over it, noticing how your eyes move across its surface. Do you look at faces first?

At the background? Is there a detail that attracts your eye? Notice the arrangement of the figures or landscape, and the expressions on people’s faces.

As you explore the details, embrace any other associations your mind brings up. Does the work evoke specific memories? Remind you of a book you’ve read, a movie you’ve watched, or a piece of music you’ve listened to? If you are with a group, share your observations, and listen to theirs in turn.

If you feel your attention start to wander, take a break. Close your eyes and breathe deeply to cleanse your mental palate. When you open your eyes, compare your experience on a second viewing with that of the first. Do you look at the same spot, or somewhere else? Or you can use categories or counts to guide your looking. Tally up eyebrows or tree trunks, or look for places where you can see the painter’s brush strokes or a sculptor’s chisel marks.

When you feel you’ve exhausted what you can see, move away from the artwork. Now you can read the label if you want! This level of attention will be tiring, especially at first. But instead of the irritable exhaustion of museum fatigue, slow looking leaves you with the satisfaction of having deeply engaged.

Seeing Better Our discussion of The Poplars at Saint-Remy ends when the group begins to fidget. I invite the six participants in my group to share a moment of silence and depart when they are ready.

One by one, each of them stands up, folds their gallery stools and takes one last look at the painting before walking out of the gallery. After a few minutes, only the older man with rimless glasses and I are left. Together, we stand and stretch. I offer to take his stool, and he hands it to me as I fold up my own.

“You know,” he says over his shoulder as he shuffles towards the door, “I’ve looked at this painting a hundred times. Today was the first time I really saw it.”

Six Steps For Slow Looking:

HOW MEDITATION HELPED ME BUILD A BETTER S’MORE

BY KRISTIN STANGL

T

here are two kinds of people in this world: Slow Burners and Fast Burners.

Gather around a campfire with marshmallows, graham crackers, and squares of milk chocolate, and you’ll see it, too. A s’more is comprised of just three ingredients—but, like most things in life, it’s all about how you approach them.

Slow Burners use their found-stick like a rotisserie, evenly burnishing their marshmallow’s surface using the heat radiating from the flames. In due time, they create a dirty blonde, slightly cracked exterior on their ‘mallow, which restrains a warm, pillowy interior for just long enough, until it reaches the chocolate-on-graham in waiting.

Fast Burners, on the other hand, thrust their marshmallow right into the flames. They wait only long enough for the ‘mallow to ignite. It sizzles and

cracks, and even the Slow Burners, sitting peacefully by the fire’s outer edge, can’t help looking, wondering, “Has the Fast Burner taken it too far this time?” A few puffs to extinguish the small sugar fire on their stick reveals a blackened exterior. And the interior? It is completely erratic in temperature. Some of it bulging and oozing from the blast of heat, some of it still as firm as when the marshmallow left the bag.

I was a Fast Burner. And this was true not only in how I approached making that marshmallow into a s’more but also in how I approached making myself into an adult. And yet, all the while, I so envied what the Slow Burners were able to achieve.

Like most middle class, suburban American teens, I was catapulted from one fire into the next: high school; college; graduate school. This is privilege, yes. But the fact remained: I didn’t know what the hell I wanted from life, and it showed in my choices.

49

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

FAST BURNERS, SLOW BURNERS.

Photo By Kristin Stangl

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

ISSUE T WO

Photo By Kristin Stangl

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

“THERE IS N FAST (OR S SO THE FIR PATIENT AB Attending a small liberal arts college in the same state where I grew up, I changed my major five times before graduation. And then I was ablaze in a new fire—at law school in Nashville— before the smoke had even cleared. Three years later, I was working in the city’s public defender’s office and was worn down to a brittle, charred nub by the end of each week. Five years past, and I moved quickly to rebuild another version of myself as an adult—pausing only to relocate to a different part of the bonfire—a public school in New York City, to teach math to seventh graders. Weekly migraines, constant exhaustion—I was choking on the smoke.

There was no way to salvage this one. I had, in the eyes of the Slow Burners, taken it too far.

It was July 2015, and there I was, needing to build myself a respectable adult life, yet again. Time to assemble the pieces and throw myself into the fire.

Again. As a Fast Burner by nature, I was a pro at building a finished product that looks the part: Lawyer. Teacher. All of it said “adult;” none of it satiated me. This is also what I’m like when the s’mores makings come out. I have a way of letting my impatience, rather than my true preferences, dictate my approach. As a woman, I also sense that there are only so many shots I am going to get by the fire, so I better move quickly. Taking another turn, building another career, before I’m noticed.

Thirty-two years living as a Fast Burner, sitting close to a fire fueled by anxiety, meant I had a lot to unlearn if I was going to transform myself into a Slow Burner. And when I considered the distinguishing trait of the Slow Burners I knew—my husband, more than half of my friends—it was patience. They had it in spades. They also had plenty of those perfectly roasted marshmallows I craved.

There is no pill for patience. No fast (or slow) release solution. So the first step was getting patient about

50

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

NO PILL FOR PATIENCE. NO SLOW) RELEASE SOLUTION. RST STEP WAS GETTING BOUT GETTING PATIENT.” T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

51

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ISSUE T WO

“A FEW BRE TO FIDGET. ER KICKED SNORING. MONSTER W TO ME. I OP PICKED UP 52

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

getting patient. But I needed something. Just willing myself to be more patient wasn’t going to cut it. I had failed at enough New Year’s resolutions to know that.

A few of the Slow Burners I knew were also meditators. Each of them told me how meditation helps them lean into their anxiety, to listen to those voices of self-doubt, and then move right along past those voices without judgment.

So that same summer, I visited a shop on the lower east side of Manhattan and picked up a book on meditation, along with a few smudge sticks and incense to really seal the deal. I was ready to let Enlightenment poke me in my third-eye.

My first attempt at meditation, I sat crossed legged, propped up on a pillow on the wooden floor of my Brooklyn apartment. The smoke signals of palo santo swirled around me. Serenity. A few breathes in, and I started to fidget. The window air conditioner kicked on, making that persistent clicking sound. The dog began snoring. My self-doubt monster was whispering to me. I opened my eyes and picked up my phone. Scrolled through my Instagram feed, double-tapping my anxiety under the rug.

EATHS IN, I STARTED THE AIR CONDITIONON. THE DOG BEGAN MY SELF-DOUBT WAS WHISPERING PENED MY EYES AND MY PHONE.” 53

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

I tried again the next morning, after my coffee, but before walking the dog. Serenity… NOW PLEASE. Counting my breaths, just like the book said. One

ISSUE T WO

step closer to Enlightenment. One step back from the flames.

In creating an adult life for myself (this time around) there was no blunt assembly. There was no university degree program. No certification.

No nose dive into the fire. Just intuition and a cobbled together two years working in an industry I was tremendously curious about since childhood: I took any job that had to do with food. Sometimes for pay, sometimes not. Line cook. Food and drink writing. Lending my assists to food photographers and stylists. I spent a long time waiting by the fire, in the radiating heat of the flames, until I started to see the first signs of a finished product, one that was going to be what I wanted.

Two years have passed since I first started meditating. No, I don’t do it every day. Yes, I know I would feel better if I did. But still, I am slowly becoming a Slow Burner. Each time I sit, and breath, and do nothing more than that, I am reminded that I have the stamina to go slow in life in order to get what I’m really craving.

Now at a campfire, as a born-again Slow Burner, I see things a little differently. Since I’ve got all the ingredients to build a s’more, I may as well listen to my intuition and make what I want. And what I want is this: caramelized sugar, in a gradient of browns and taupes and whites; milk chocolate dripping; the crumbly crunch of graham. And no, I don’t know how much longer I’ll need to wait out here, by the outer edge of the flames, to get what I want. I am a work in progress, just like my marshmallow. And I’m going to need a bit more time, dammit.

e for th recip d e h ng wi s raili publi T n d w n o kn the ng a first 1927, rampi • The d in in “T e h s s a ” i w . ubl es mores s.” P s’mor “some Scout m e l h r t i d the G calle ient e anc ation h c t i l y b b pu de malst ma marsh e fir e r h e t w have ows p of hmall ldn’t he sa u t o w g of n • Mars y usi alls babl ians ite b u pro h o w y Egypt y t ench bu ish

by Fr e squ lant, d h p e T t w n . o e m l inv the were nized oday t recog e v 800s. we ha the 1 n fluff i s maker candy

54

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

Then, this past fall, I flew home from a long trip that crisscrossed the country. Were my trips amazing? YES! But I missed my husband. I missed my daughter. While my career was thriving, my personal life was in survival mode. I felt out of alignment with the vision I had for my life. It was ironic that, literally hours earlier, I had been speaking on that very subject. It was time to evaluate my beliefs and make some new choices in my calendar-ing.

I realized that I was rarely taking time to recharge, never creating space for self-care or blank space to fill with whatever the hell I want to do. I thought that my calendar had to always be full for me to be successful, and I was so effing tired.

— Mary Beth LaRue & Jacki Carr

So I chose to rewrite my story. I gave myself the permission and the power to create a

By Jacki Carr How many times in your life have you said the words, “I don’t have time for ____,” and then filled in the blank with something you really want to do but continue to put off?

My count is pretty high up there, with my self-care practices, my time to unplug, or even sexy time with my man being put on the backburner most frequently. When it comes to our relationship with time, we all have stories in our mind – perspectives and conceptions that create our reality. I call these our beliefs.

There are two types of beliefs. We have limiting beliefs which, as you can imagine, limit our action and our ability to see new possibilities. Then there are new beliefs that we write and practice that can serve us, building new habits, new actions, and new perceptions that grant us access to different ways of being and seeing.

When I reflect on my beliefs around time, I first take a moment to look at how I’ve been

spending my time. I realize I am a doer, a calendar-filler, and a busybody. Oh, how I thrive on a long to-do list, and I believe that I do much better with more on my plate.

With this belief, time can be fleeting. Time can feel scarce and unavailable for all the things I want to do. I am a goal coach, leadership consultant, speaker, and Mama. I love every single one of those hats. However, when I drop my daughter off at school at 9 AM, meet a coaching client at 9:30 AM, and have a flight to catch at noon from Denver to L.A., with a retreat welcome workshop to lead that evening, I have to admit that I’ve overbooked my time and worn myself thin.

“Time is my friend, and we work in collaboration. Less beat the clock, more meet the clock.”

This new belief created a space for me to pause, get things in focus, and make decisions that support my businesses, my wife life (hello sexy time), my mom life, and my self-care. It encouraged me to add me into my calendar, all the blank space and bubble baths.

NOW

Now is a great moment for a belief exercise. Let’s explore your relationship with time, uncover any limiting beliefs, and take time to write new ones that serve you.

?

Less Beat the Clock, More Meet the Clock

new belief that would support new behaviors, new habits, and new actions. My new belief sounded like this:

Guiding Questions For Building a New Belief

• Look at how you’ve been spending your time the past month.

How does your calendar feel?

• What is your story or belief with the time?

• Is that belief serving you and your best self?

• If needed, can you write your new story, your new belief about time? See examples for inspiration.

• Practice, practice, practice the new beliefs. It is all a practice.

Here’s Some Inspiration:

This style of calendar-filling has been with me for a long time. I associate that full calendar with a full bank account. And then, of course, we can go down the rabbit hole of a belief that when I am making money, I am worthy and successful.

• • • • •

55

Time moves at the speed of me.

I am time rich.

I have time and I have choice.

I spend my time in alignment with my values.

I create time for me, so I am my best for others.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Welcome to our Rock Your Bliss corner in the Folk Rebellion universe. We are two best friends and the creators of Rock Your Bliss, a yoga-inspired coaching company. We started our company almost five years ago and lead transformational online programs, retreats, and workshops all over the country. We were lucky to cross paths with Jess Davis, the founder of Folk Rebellion, several years ago and her messages on unplugging and living life have been revolutionary for us. We’ll be taking turns writing a column on not just how to find your bliss, but how to rock it.

ISSUE T WO

Dear Dispatch Readers,

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

For 15 years, we’ve been working on one deceptively simple problem. How do you get people to meet offline?

Let’s get real. Technology has fundamentally changed the way we live and work, offering us unprecedented convenience, access to information, and ability to communicate on a global scale. We are more digitally connected than ever, yet we are suffering the loss of human connection. With each “like” we risk forgetting how to love and with each “follow” our circle seems to shrink. Rising income disparity and the rapidly changing socio-political landscapes have also left us feeling adrift—craving a sense of community that we find ourselves increasingly less capable of building. This cycle of isolation and division has to stop.

With a few simple taps, you can have Thai food, swim diapers, or a ride delivered whenever and wherever. But what about having the right people near you when you need them? What if we harnessed technology to remove the barriers to human connection? What if we delivered real community as easily and effectively as Amazon delivers your new books? Seriously. Think about it.

By 2027, one billion people will leave their couches and desks every month to silence their devices and actually show up to do what they love, in real life, together. Tens of millions will make side hustles into businesses, turning around to mentor their peers after years of success. Tens more will help each other get fit, stay well, or recover—these will be lifelines for survivors, addicts, and outcasts alike. As politics return to coffee houses, millions will gather to build the leaders that are currently squashed and intimidated by the status quo. As millennials reorient around purpose-driven work, millions will gather to discuss change and foster new societal paradigms in economics, lifestyle, business, and design. From Beijing to Nairobi to Lima, we’ll create a safe space for students to become pros, followers to become leaders, and networks to become communities. Real ones we can actually rely on.

Let’s get to work.

56

7

15

8

1

TH UR S DAY

16

9

2

FR ID AY

17

10

3

SATU R DAY W EDNESDAY

6

14

TU ESDAY

5

13

MO NDAY

4

12

SU NDAY

11

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ISSUE T WO

GANG HANGS IS A MONTHLY ROUNDUP OF WAYS TO CREATE MORE CONNECTION IN REAL LIFE.

Let’s leave the group texting, evites, and Facebook groups to the plugged-in population. We prefer postcards via snail mail. Buy a handful for 25 cents a piece, stick on a stamp, and get all the deets down in 3 short sentences.

Something like:

We are big fans of the good old fashioned house party.

If space is tight, keep the guest list short.

Hey There, Help me revive old school house parties. Swing by my place on Thursday night for a slow cooked meal fuelled by gluten and some awesome conversation fuelled by whiskey.

-FR

Thursday. Think about it: you’re nearing the end of a long ass work week. It’s just before weekends set aside for date nights and other plans involving food, but right at the cusp of ugh-don’t-make-me-have-to-callUber-eats-one-more-time. People are hungry (pun intended) for a slow cooked meal and good conversation they just can’t get with the delivery guy.

Of course, no cell phones allowed except for the token group photo. We want to see your smiling faces in a latergram. Tag #folkrebellion and tell us how it was.

58

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

The silver screen used to mean people gathering and watching the same thing together, yawn arm over the back of the seat moves, and sharing a tub of popcorn. Now, it means watching it whenever and wherever you want, instantly.

And usually someone is watching something else on another device, live tweeting it, or mindlessly scrolling.

Book clubs have always been a thing, but now they are even more relevant for the camaraderie it creates for people in our screened-in world. Here’s some questions for y’all to mull over, perhaps over mulled wine.

What is slow living according to Brooke McAlary?

How is slow living a reaction to today’s culture and do you agree?

McAlary references a number of individuals whom she believes can benefit from adopting a slower lifestyle, where do you fall on this list?

Has freeing up space in your material life created more space in your emotional world?

Have you slowed your home and simplified your own life? If so, which one of the 6 benefits listed holds most true to you?

Let’s talk about your weekend plans… has this book changed your attitude toward how you’ll spend Friday evening through Sunday night?

One of the central ideas of the book is that our slavish commitment to checking emails at night and on weekends has essentially turned us into “low-stakes doctors always on call”.

What do you think?

Is that behaviour driven by a fear that everyone else is doing it, and if we don’t, that there are plenty of other employees who will? #fomo Let’s look at the creation of the weekend circa the Industrial Revolution and compare it to working in today’s society. Have we come full circle?

How do you define leisure?

Onstad talks about Aristotle’s idea of a good life including leisure. How did a generation raised on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off lose sight of that?

What are some ways the digital age killed boredom?

Onstad’s case against pricey weekend agree or disagree?

brunch -

How do you let people know you’ll be out of office?

59

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Podcasts. They’ve taken the world by storm. Why do we love them? As you go for a morning jog you can learn how to launch a new product from an expert on anything, while riding in the car you can day dream about who actually committed that crime in that small town, or get your political arguments up to snuff while folding the laundry.

They’re mobile, don’t require your eye balls stuck to a screen, and drop some major knowledge, entertainment, and inspiration. But sometimes they can be solitary.

We’re changing that.

ISSUE T WO

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

We’re bringing back the kitchens of our youth. Where people gathered around the island, sat on counter tops, and got drunk on wine while they collectively made dinner with some music on. Bye seamless. Well, at least for one meal, today.

Save your time youwould’vespentcooking on chatting.

In our digital world of fast communication, there’s something to be said for sending a beautifully written note the slow way. Take these tips and use them to write your grandmother, best friend, or representative.

Buy hummus, dolmas, olives, pita, cook some chicken (or shrimp, or veggies) skewer them up, and combine yogurt, cucumber, and lemon juice in a bowl until it tastes good. Serve all in a fancy family-style arrangement that lets everyone did in and makes you look like you were born to entertain.

Here’s What You’ll Need: Pencil Eraser Black Ink Practice sheet Pen holder (the black part of the pen above) Pen nib (the shiny gold part of the pen above)

Read up on the distinctive parts of the nib and the pen.

How you hold the fancy pen matters.

Aim for a 45 degree angle. Pro Tip: place the tip flat and you will get more variations in your lines and won’t scratch a hole through your paper with the corners of the tip.

A word on the stroke: laser focus your attention on individual parts of each letter.

Play around, make some big loopy lines, a few straight lines. Practice dipping your pen into the ink and pretend like you’re back in the 18th century.

Why not opt outside and appreciate wildlife right in your own backyard? With this project, you can help feed local and traveling birds any time of year.

Materials Needed: Several large pinecones (preferably found on an outside adventure) Peanut butter (opt for vegetable shortening if you suffer from nut allergies) Birdseed String, pipe cleaners, or wire Scissors (if using string) Butter knife 1 plate, maybe 2 A place to hang your bird feeder, we recommend the

60

branch of a tree Check your pinecones. If they’re tightly closed up, you can bake them in a 300° oven for about 10 minutes until they open up.

Caution: Watch out for sharp points on the tips of petals.

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

KARSTEE DAVIS

UNCOMMON TYPE

Well, he’s done it folks: one of America’s national treasures wrote a book. That’s right; Tom Hanks can now add “author” to his esteemed resume. But is Uncommon Type, his collection of short stories, any good? If you go by what writer and commentator Roxane Gay says, it’s just so-so. In her Goodreads review, she writes that “The stories portray a pleasant, multiethnic world where everything has gone the way of Benetton ads . . . but the stories have no teeth. They aren’t memorable. They are aggressively competent but they aren’t necessarily good and they certainly aren’t bad. They just are.”

WANDERLUST 108

Hanks is taking us back, not in a MAGA kind of way, but in an analog AF way. He’s reminding us that magic sparks can happen when we talk to each other. He’s asking us to remember that there’s a way to mend one’s heart that doesn’t involve incessant swiping.

Coming from the same folks who bring us the magical Wanderlust Festival, is a smaller more condensed version that takes place in approximately 40 cities all over the globe, including New Orleans, Los Angeles, and even Milan, Italy. They tout the three-season (spring, summer, and fall) events as “The World’s Only Mindful Triathlon,” which consists of a 5K walk/run, yoga (maybe with our own Mary Beth LaRue of Rock your Bliss, depending on the city!), and meditation.

Compounding on the old school tone, the common thread between the stories is about as old school as it gets: a typewriter. Hanks is a collector, and his knowledge of the machines (and, more importantly, his passion for them) shines through.

No matter what yoga or meditation teachers are featured in your city’s lineup, you are guaranteed to have a great time. I’ve never heard anyone say that they regretted the mindful morning that they spent with the Wanderlust community. In addition to the triathlon, there are a variety of other activities available, including everything from aerial yoga to hooping, an introduction to essential oils, and Tarot 101.

One of my favorite stories of the collection, entitled “These Are The Meditations Of My Heart,” features a young woman who buys a typewriter and imagines herself doing everything from typing out her grocery list to typing out the truths that she wants to hand down to her future children.

Sure, it’s sentimental, but don’t we need a little more of that?

When it comes to food, they’ve got you covered with healthy options like the gluten-free Wanderlust Wanderbowl for lunch. Vegan and vegetarian options are most certainly available. Invite your friends or go alone if you need some solo restoration, leave the cell phone at home, meet some new people, breathe in the fresh air, soak in some vitamin D (don’t forget to wear sunblock!) and create a day that is sure to be a treat for yourself.

One is left wondering whether Hanks’ acting resume is what allows him to stand so comfortably in so many people’s shoes – it comes off flawlessly regardless. If you can get on board with a book aimed at making you feel cozy and warm, a book that can deliver a brief respite from the daunting news of the day, then this book is for you. If you only like stories that have “teeth,” well then move on. I, for one, welcomed the break.

Additional Activities and Lunch cost extra moo-lah.

NPR POLITICS PODCAST

“Hey, Y’all,” was the greeting that welcomed me to the NPR Politics Podcast throughout the 2016 election. If you have been listening since the podcast’s inception in 2015, you will surely know what I’m talking about, even though it’s changed since. This podcast is for the lovers of news, those who like to know what is going on in politics on any given day (it’s cool to know what’s up), and when big news breaks you can always count on an episode showing up in your queue. If balanced storytelling and discussion is your thing, then you should be listening by now.

Before you know it, the reporters and editors on the podcast will feel like old friends. To help you get going, I’ve compiled a list of my all-time favorite older episodes so you can catch up while getting in on the action!

• “Weekly Roundup: Tuesday, November 24” (November 2015) With about five minutes left in the podcast the crew starts doing this thing where they tell each other what they can’t let go of from the past week. I laugh/cried so hard listening to this mic check. If you need a good laugh check this episode out!

• “Quick Take: Race/Whiteness in 2016” (May 24, 2016) • “Orlando” (June 13, 2016) • “Obama’s Years” (July 1, 2016) • “The Election of Donald Trump” (November 11, 2016) • “Covering 2016 as a Muslim” (December 7, 2016)

I hope you all find these episodes as enlightening and insightful as I did. This podcast is filled with endearing reporters who know their stuff, be it in the White House, Congress, or the Judicial branch. I learn something new every time I listen, and you will too.

You can find the NPR Politics Podcast anywhere you get your podcasts.

61

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

I can feel the burn all the way on the other side of the screen, but if you ask this book reviewer (me), I would say all of the above is exactly what makes this book so great.

ISSUE T WO

VEGAN PANCAKES

by Janine Jahnke

FOR THE PANCAKES:

rk, y, wo nolog ed, at h c e t es— surpris e were r liv w s , in ou us. I wa hnology, Whole30 s g n e i c m k h e g r i t t n a l i h r or the cing unities derstand ow h any o balan n lp us mm ike m s—can he ke about food co It took u sily see some l , d a g e n Foo ionship s I spo amazing Dish. i w r o n ha le relat , that a d to the tainable aviors to will be shing peop first compare , and Sus and beh month we lks teac ies. ess Xx J often om Paleo nsumption So each mazing fo heir bod N t o a . c m n m mp No put i about s fro he ju more e made t te recipe hat they l w i p r o f o o pe r fav dful of ou o be min t w ho

1 1/4 cups gluten free flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/4 cups plant-based milk 1 super ripe banana 1 tablespoon maple syrup 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract coconut oil

TOPPINGS:

Coconut Yogurt Berries Cacao Nibs Mix all of the pancake ingredients except the coconut oil together in a bowl or a blender. Drizzle some coconut oil in the pan to avoid sticking. Make pancakes in desired shape and size.

Serve with the toppings and enjoy

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Recipes

from The Whole30 Fast

Cauliflower Falafel Bowl with Pomegranate and Kale

and Easy Cookbook

Big Turkey Meatba with Roasted Cher lls ry Tomatoes Melissa Hartwig, New York Times best-selling

SERVES 3

Serves 2–3

author and Whole30 Co-F ounder

Not only does for ones save time—i ming 8 hefty meatballs rather tha ter with the roa t also makes for a fun presentat n 24 or 36 smaller sted cherry tomato ion es and fresh bas on a serving platil.

PREP: 15 minutes ROAST: 35 minute s TOTAL: 50 minute s

FOR THE MEATBALLS 1 1/2 pounds gro und turkey 1 large egg 1/2 cup almond flo ur 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons Whole3 0-compliant Italia n seasoning 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed 1 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon sal t 1 tablespoon ext ra-virgin olive oil

CAULIFLOWER FALAFEL INGREDIENTS 2 tsp cumin 1 egg 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 cups minced cauliflower ½ medium onion, diced ½ cup almond flour ½ tsp chili powder 1 tsp parsley

SALAD INGREDIENTS 3 cups arugula 2 cups baby kale ½ cup grape tomatoes ¼ cup pomegranate seeds 1 lemon, juiced 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp Majestic garlic spread 1 tbsp Majestic garlic hummus

INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to 375°. In a food processor, add the falafel ingredients. Pulse until coarse and well-combined. Roll into 1” balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Toss together arugula, kale, tomatoes, pomegranates, lemon juice, olive oil, majestic garlic spread and a pinch of salt. Serve greens in a bowl, topped with falafel and a scoop of hummus.

Purely Elizabeth

FOR THE TOMATOES 2 pints red and/or yellow cherry tom atoes 1 tablespoon ext ra-virgin olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon Whole3 0-compliant Italia n seasoning 1/4 teaspoon sal t 1/4 teaspoon bla ck pepper 2 tablespoons cho pped fresh basil Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fah pan with parchment renheit. Line a paper. large rimmed bak ing MAKE THE MEATBA LLS: In a large mond flour, garlic , Italian season bowl, combine the turkey, egg, alolive oil. Form ing, fennel see spacing them eve into 9 meatballs. Arrange the mea ds, pepper, salt, and nly. Roast for 20 tballs on the pan minutes. , MAKE THE TOMATOES: Mea nwhile, preheat baking sheet wit the oven to tomatoes, olive h pMeanwhile, in a medium bowl, 400°F. Line a large oil, garlic, and combine the cherry salt and black pep Italian seasoning per. . Season with the Add the cherry tom ato es to the pan around the meatballs and roa meatballs. Turn the split and the int st for 10 minutes or more, or unt ernal temperature il Fahrenheit. of the meatballs the tomatoes is 165 degrees Top the meatballs and roasted tomato and serve. es tomatoes with the fresh basil

62

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

YOUR INNER

KIDS PAGE

BY LEXI WEBER

FEATURED REBEL:

A A RO N HIBBS

VISIT COSTA RICA!

BY FIONA TAPP

HAVING YOUR SAY.

Costa Rica is a country in Central America and the oldest democracy in the Americas.

That means the people in Costa Rica were having their voices and votes heard when many other nearby countries were being still being bossed around by emperors or kings.

Word Of The Month:

PRODUCTIVITY PART OF SPEECH: (CIRCLE ONE)

NOUN

ADJECTIVE

VERB

DEFINITION:

HABLA ESPAÑOL.

Lots of people in Costa Rica speak English, but if you learn some Spanish words they’ll be impressed (and so will your parents). Try these phrases out:

USE IN A SENTENCE:

Hola (oh-la) Hello Hola, me llamo ____ (OH-la may YA-mo___) Hello, my name is___ ILLUSTRATE:

Por favor (por fah-vohr) Please Gracias (Grah-see-yas) Thank you Quieres jugar? (key-air-es-who-gar) Do you want to play?

QUOTE: “I want to do something that no one has done before.

Aaron Hibbs is a hula hooping maverick. In 2009, he broke the Guinness Book of World Record for Longest Hula Hooping Marathon by an Individual Using a Single Hoop. It took 74 hours and 54 minutes of non-stop hula hooping (we don’t recommend this, kiddos). He had tried to break the record once before but dropped his hoop at hour 59. One year later, he picked that hoop back up and tried again. This time, he nailed his goal.

DID YOU KNOW? Hula hoops go way back to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece where they were used for a similar purpose as they are today. Hula hoops were also a popular toy in England around the 1300s, while around the same time, Native Americans also used them for dancing purposes.

The term ‘hula’ in ‘hula hoops’ is derived from the Hawaiian hula dance that features movements similar to those in hooping.

MONKEYING AROUND

Costa Rica is home to four native species of monkey. Look out for these characteristics to identify each one.

1

White-Headed Capuchins are very intelligent.

They have mostly black fur with white patches around their face, and they often coil their tail when they move around.

2 3 4

Howler Monkeys are loud! They can be black, red, or brown, have beards, and have long thick fur.

Spider Monkeys spend most of their lives high up in the trees. They have very long arms and were named for the way they hang from branches like a spider hanging from a web.

Squirrel Monkeys have yellowish fur with a white face. Their tails can't grip onto the branches, but they do help them to balance when jumping and climbing.

ROUND UP: (If you’re interested in learning more about world records and hula hoops check these out)

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Baño (ban-yo) Toilet

Books:

Guinness World Records 101 Hula Hoop Games for Kids Paperback – 2001

by Joe Dinoffer

Podcast:

NPR’s But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids, episode: “Why Do We Have Daylight Saving Time?”

Activity:

How long can you hula hoop? Practice, record your time, then try to break it.

WANNA DIG DEEPER? Check out the “Activities” section on www.kids. guinnessworldrecords.com Explore the website hulahooping.com to learn how to make your own hula hoop.

Look up Aaron Hibbs Hula Hooping Marathon on YouTube to watch him hit his goal and break the world record.

LUNCH NOTE JOKES TO CUT OUT AND GIVE TO FRIENDS

Q: Why did the dinosaur cross the road?

A: Because the chicken wasn’t born yet.

Q: How do you make a tissue dance?

A: You put a little boogie in it.

Q: What do you call a funny mountain?

A: Hill-arious.

63

ISSUE T WO

SIMPLE PARENTING Patterns don’t Simple Parenting: Deconstructing Boxes have to become cycles.

by Lillie Duncan

When I was 17 years old, my mom told me that my only option was to join the armed forces. She was exhausted, and I was lost. This was an ultimatum: join, or leave the house for good. Enlisting was even more unimaginable than leaving, so I left. I bounced from family to family until I graduated from high school, went to college, developed a career as a photographer, built a few businesses, and started a family.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Fourteen years after packing my bags, I have two children of my own. I can look back on that moment through the lens of motherhood, and I see my mother differently. I see a woman raised in poverty, raising children alone when she was still half a child herself.

To her, the armed forces meant stability. She wasn’t trying to ruin my life; she was trying to help me.

As I look back with deep empathy, I also look forward with hope.

Patterns don’t have to become cycles. She wasn’t able to see my skills at 17 as strengths that could take me somewhere. Because she couldn’t see them, she was not able to support me in building them, and could not guide me towards a path where my teenage skills would become a stability-creating career.

When children are born, they are tiny little humans already imbued with strengths, talents, gifts, and also weaknesses. Part of the job as a parent is to guide them in the identification of these, both good and bad. I look back at my younger self, and I see a child who read Walt Whitman at the age of eight, and who was writing short stories (albeit simple ones) by ten. I was a little girl who lived poetry and breathed music, painting, and photography. They were my strengths, talents, and gifts. But they are also not the sort of gifts that my mother was used to. They didn’t fit into the boxes she’d had to choose from, or that she laid before me.

From childhood to old age, it is in our nature to want to be seen and heard. We desire for someone to come alongside us and shine a light on the areas in which we are naturally gifted, illuminating the innate strengths within. When a parent is able to identify, nurture, affirm, and help their children recognize their natural strengths and weaknesses, that child is more likely to feel confident, accomplished, successful, and they are then better able to identify, encourage, and affirm the lives and qualities of others.

So we need to be self-aware of our limitations, and open to the strengths within our children that may be different from our own.

Kids aren’t, after all, little personal replicas of their parents. If they were, I’d probably have joined the army.

Spend time getting to know your kids by letting them lead the way. Dedicate an afternoon to activities they get to pick — and, yes, that means saying yes to daddy-son tea parties, mommydaughter paintball, and all the other gender-construct-bending combinations kids come up with when they’re freed from societal expectations. When you see a weakness, take a moment to reflect without pushing. When you see a strength or skill, affirm and encourage it — also without pushing.

Growing up in the Panhandle, you become accustomed to bridges. I remember the first time I crossed the three-mile-long Pensacola Bay Bridge after deciding to leave home. My window was down, my arm hung over the edge, and the salty sea air embraced my fear. A part of me felt liberated, but much of me was terrified.

I had decided who I wasn’t, but I had no idea who I was. I didn’t know what my strengths were, or how I would ever be successful.

I spent the next fourteen years destroying the boxes I’d been offered, so my kids will never be forced to choose from a selection of preset options. They’ll get to build their own.

Kids Come, Too: Costa Rica Animals and adventure, log off and go.

by Fiona Tapp Where in the world can you recommit to valuing the most precious commodity any of us have – our time? I traveled to Santa Teresa in Costa Rica and found a place where the grumble of your tummy announced it was time to eat, where the swaths of color across the sky and darkening sand beneath your feet announced that the day had come to an end. Known for its laidback surfing community and dedication to sustainable living, this beach town has a variety of outdoor activities, organic juice spots, and fine dining options guaranteed to help even the most tightlywound corporate drones to relax and turn off.

Where to Stay

The turndown service includes lighting candles leading to your room and your private porch, creating a restful retreat where the sound of ocean waves will lull you into a deep and restorative sleep. This tired mom slept for almost ten hours the first night!

Complimentary bikes are available, and you can bike into the town of Santa Teresa within five minutes. You can also choose to hire electric bikes, which come with chunky tires capable of traversing sand. All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) are also an option.

Whatever you choose, be sure to ask for helmets, especially if you’re bringing kids.

At the hotel, you’ll see howler monkeys in the trees and the friendly resident tiger zheron drinking from the swimming pool. If you're lucky, you’ll even catch a glimpse of a Costa Rican anteater.

Located along the Nicoya peninsula, you won't find highrise buildings or overpriced tourist traps, just unspoiled beaches and a dirt road lined with surf shops, bars, and

A spa, privately-arranged yoga sessions, complimentary cooking classes, board games, and boogie boards are all available for guests.

restaurants. The stunning sunset is a crowd-puller, and it can seem as if the entire town has gathered on the beach to watch.

Children are very welcome here, and the natural playground of the stunning beaches and wide-open ocean will provide more than enough options to entertain your whole crew.

I stayed at Latitude 10, where each of the five casitas (small guest houses) were designed with sustainability and low-tech relaxation in mind. Each is open to the air, without solid walls, doors, or glass windows, and free of TVs, WiFi, or even AC – the soft breeze is a reliable stand-in. No trees were cut down in the construction of this luxury boutique hotel, and conscious choices were made to limit the impact on the local environment, including the use of bamboo straws in drinks, biodegradable cleaning products, and a full recycling program.

The nearest airport is Tambor, which is a 50-minute drive away and serves domestic flights from across the country. Kids and parents will love flying in the 9-seat Cessna Caravan from San José International Airport to Tambor.

How to Get There and Get Around

Food: Costa Rican cuisine is diverse and features an abundance of fresh produce, making dietary restrictions fairly easy to accommodate. Kids will find plenty to eat on Costa Rican menus even if they only stick with the traditional rice and beans.

Tours: Costa Rica is the ideal destination for adventurous families. Choose from zip-lining, waterfall trips, motorboat tours, surfing lessons, ATV adventures, and more.

Safety: Car seats are often available in rental cars, but they

Driving from San José is also an option, but includes a ferry ride and takes about 5.5 hours. Traveling from Liberia International Airport to Santa Teresa requires a similarly long drive.

64

may not be compliant with your home country’s safety guidelines, so bring your own if you are concerned or if you intend to take taxis. The water is generally safe to drink, but bottled water is supplied everywhere for the more cautious, and should always be used for babies.

Supplies: Big cities and beach towns will have small supermarkets where you can pick up essentials like diapers and snacks, but in more remote areas you’ll need to stock up before you go.

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

Befriending Boredom

by Sandi Schwartz

As I approach yet another bright red traffic light, I can feel irritability surge through my veins. These damn traffic lights are always preventing me from crossing anything off my ever-growing list of errands. My rebellious response is to pull out my phone for those 2-3 minute increments of red light “free” time. I can respond to a few emails or text messages, but it only leads to more stress because I’m constantly looking up to make sure I don’t miss the light turning green. God forbid I get honked at by the (similarly) impatient driver behind me! Sound familiar?

According to Elisha Goldstein Ph.D., author of Uncovering Happiness and co-founder of The Center for Mindful Living in Los Angeles, boredom like that felt at a red light is an emotion intertwined with anxiety. “We have an automatic reaction to boredom,” he explains. “We tell ourselves that we should be doing something more valuable with our time . . . so we partake in activities to fill the space, such as stress eating, technology, and other poor habits.”

Many of us spend our days rushing around, irritated by all things that seem to waste our time. This fixation on “time wasters” only exacerbates stress. What if we started viewing these moments as golden opportunities for mindfulness throughout our day, whether we are stuck in the school carpool line, sitting in a doctor’s office, standing in a long line at a store, or working on mundane chores?

Mindfulness gives us an awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, and allows us to quiet the endless and distracting chatter of our mind so we can focus on the now. According to the Greater Good Science Center at University of California, Berkeley, thousands of studies have indicated that mindfulness improves our physical and mental health because it relaxes us and reduces stress and anxiety. To be more mindful, Dr. Goldstein recommends that instead of seeing dull tasks as a nuisance or impediment, we start engaging with them with a sense of curiosity. “Engaging with a ‘beginner’s mind’ causes our brain to light up and helps us feel excited and energetic,” revealed Dr. Goldstein.

“By learning to befriend boredom, we can consciously choose what we want to do in that moment and no longer be enslaved by negative emotions.

Mindfulness can help transform our perspective during instances that we may otherwise consider to be boring. Being mindful . . . can be filled with curiosity, daydreaming, awe, and even bliss.” We have endless opportunities to introduce mindful curiosity throughout our daily routine.

In the Car Dr. Ronald Siegel, author and professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, suggests drivers practice a taillight meditation while waiting behind other cars. Simply focus on the colors and shapes of the taillights in front of you while remaining relaxed and alert. Let your body soften and your eyes lose focus for a few moments while stopped. Another idea, when stopped, is to look around to savor nature’s beauty. Take a moment to notice the luscious trees, colorful flowers, and ever-changing clouds in the sky.

Kitchen Chores

Next time you find yourself dreading repetitive kitchen duties, try to turn them into a mini-meditation session by engaging your senses. When you are doing the dishes, think about how the soap feels and smells, see the colors reflected off of the bubbles, hear the water, and recall the flavors of your meal.

When you are setting or clearing the table ask yourself: • How heavy does each cup, plate, utensil, and napkin feel in your hand?

• Are the objects smooth or rough, hard or soft?

• What sounds do you hear when you place each object on the table?

• What colors and patterns do you see?

• What do the plates smell like as you clear them off the table?

Putting Your Kids To Bed

Kate Hanley, personal development coach and author of Stress Less, suggests parents look forward to their children’s bedtime as a chance to practice mindfulness. “When you snuggle with your kids you can count your breaths. If your children insist that you stay in the room while they fall asleep, instead of getting anxious about everything you could be doing, use that time to meditate until they fall asleep and you can quietly sneak out.”

Our kids are like clever little spies — watching our every move. By turning irritating parts of our day into a more relaxing, introspective time, we are not only helping ourselves, but also passing along an invaluable tool to our children so they can live happier, healthier lives with a little mindfulness magic.

Fun mindfulness exercises to share with your kids.

MINDFUL EATING

MINDFUL BREATHING

MINDFUL COLORING

Ask your children to describe the food on their plates by color, texture, smell, taste, and sound as they chew. While on the go, bring along some snacks to practice being mindful.

Teaching children to breathe mindfully is the cornerstone of stress reduction.

Bubbles: Have them practice breathing by taking a deep breath in before blowing some bubbles. Once they have mastered this activity, you can always ask them to simply visualize blowing the bubbles. Heart Hands: Create a heart shape with your hands. As you breathe in, expand your hands to a heart shape.

As you breathe out, collapse your hands into two fists side by side.

In the last few years, coloring books for stress reduction have become all the rage. Creative activities like coloring have been scientifically proven to reduce stress levels because we become so focused on what we are doing that we forget what is going on around us.

65

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

How parents can turn those irritating time wasters into golden opportunities for mindfulness.

ISSUE T WO

Hey Fam. Our next big off the grid adventure is to the island of Amorgos in Greece, this October. You should come.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Below is a passage from my diary while living on a Greek Island.

One morning I was introduced to a Greek man on his morning stroll. After we did the name exchange and pleasantries I said "So, Niko, what do you do?" He responded with "Well, each day I wake up and go for a walk to see the sunrise, in the afternoons I see my mother for lunch and enjoy a glass of wine, and in the evening I play tennis with my best friend and we laugh til our bellies hurt. What do you do?"

Jaw. On. Floor.

I'd never heard an answer like that. Nor was I prepared to share anything other than my "I'm a marketing executive" go-to identifier which now seemed so stupid and trivial. I stuttered. He laughed and said, "So you're American."

I'd never been embarrassed to be American. But that was my first reaction.

What did he know? Why was he laughing? Flustered and angry I wanted to get away from him. When I left he said "Don't worry. You're young and there's still time. Greece will show you."

This summer I learned to walk and pick spices to use in dishes for family style dinners....every night. I learned that a tomato can get so ripe you can bite it like an apple. I learned to pause each day for the sunset as if I was watching live art.

I learned to not ask questions which would allow me to instantly size somebody up: What do you do?

Where did you go to school?

How old are you?

Instead I learned to ask: How are you feeling?

What was your high/low of the day?

If a stranger, I'd ask: How do you like to spend your time?

Who is most important to you?

I became more connected to myself, the breeze, the smells, the food I was cooking, my desires and goals, and my new community.

This conversation changed who I am to my core. I’m headed back to America, not embarrassed to be one, but with a new somewhat European outlook on how I was going to live my life.

Everything is nothing and nothing is everything, Jess

66

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

67

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Life Lessons From Bathroom Stalls

Matthew Zaremba @MatthewZaremba

Ellis Rosen @ellisjrosen

@scribblesbynicole

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

DAVID FERRIER @DAVIDFERRIERCARTOONS

ISSUE T WO

FUNNIES

68

Kayden Hines @kaydenhines

Kate Bingaman-Burt @katebingburt

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

AMERICAN POETRY

BY NOËL WELLS

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

69

ANALOG ALTERNATIVES TO NETFLIX & CHILL

Advice from Dispatch founder Jess Davis.

Dished to whoever asks for it. Follow advice at your own risk.

Charades & Malbec

What does "conscious connection" mean to you on social media? - @mollybryn

Do you let your son use tech?

Ah, parenting and tech. It's so convoluted. Yes, I am trying to follow the guidelines recommended by pediatricians, scientists, psychologists, and some pretty smart folks I have the pleasure of knowing. My son is almost 7 now.

We let him have an iPad for about a week when he was two and a half.

What his dad and I noticed was that he became, well, not the kid we knew.

He threw temper tantrums, he wouldn't go to sleep easily, he wasn't as chatty, he was in a hurry to get inside. The quick and drastic change connected back to the introduction of the iPad, so we agreed to toss it. Yes, though, there

We have some simple rules we try and uphold: • iPad is for watching only, and only when absolutely needed. No games, no reading apps, just watching.

• No phones. He is not allowed to touch them unless it’s a phone call with someone or FaceTime with a grandparent. We have a house line, and we prefer him to use that.

• TV or "shows" as he calls them: one in the AM while we all get ready and one at night. When he is sick, though, it's like 48 hours straight.

• Movie night is a special occasion where we have popcorn and sit together facing one screen.

Does this work all the time? NO. DO we try our damnedest? YES. Do we disagree from time to time? YES.

Scrapbook & Fraternize Read & Sit Friendship Bracelets & Hangs Swiffer & Slip Look Up Something in an Encyclopedia & Argue

Adirondack Chairs & Meditate

Oh wow. “Conscious” and “connection” are two words that have unfortunately been commoditized and swallowed whole by advertising, media, and capitalistic companies. Let’s try to steal them back :) Consciousness is simply having an awareness of one’s surroundings. Connection used to mean a relationship with a person, place or thing. Today, it leans more towards the social media as a digital leash. But I do feel that there is a chance here to use social media the way it was originally intended….to foster connection.

Being connected doesn’t mean 1,246 friends on FB that you never see or speak to. When used consciously we can now connect with strangers across the world. With the click of a button, you can find a date, a person with a shared interest, or someone to admire.

But that’s just the first step. Conscious connection means that you take these digital connections, intros, and people you follow, and then try and grow them in real life. Following each other is fine. But if you asked that person for a cup of coffee...what would happen?

are times he gets gadgets. I drive four hours to visit family and that last hour is BRUTAL. Flights? I try, God how I try, to make it all the way….but Hawaii is a little far.

Catan & Absinthe

ADVICE NOT FOUND ON GOOGLE

Scrabble & Shots Take Out & Cruise It Rock Paper Scissors & Hobnob Debate Politics & Deep Breaths

Why do you think we need to rebel?

There’s a quote that sums up how I view our current relationship with tech, consumerism, media, superficiality, prescribed beliefs, societal norms, money, retirement, advertising, news, busyness, perfectionism, college, politics, religion, and so much more.

“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.” — Mark Twain.

We are consistently being pulled down the rabbit hole of “eat me, read me, watch me, buy me, listen to me,” by the Alice-in-Wonderland stupefying that the big corporations, tech companies, and media are using to profit off

71 71

of us, plug us in, and keep us coming back for more. People are digitally exhausted and addicted, and yet when they feel lonely they turn to their social media feeds instead of another human.

We’re being force-fed a diet of marketing garbage convincing us that “fat” is the enemy when in fact it’s the company making us think all the diet drinks and waters full of vitamins are healthy.

From the moment we wake a constant barrage of patronizing “not-goodenough-unless-you-have-____-(insert: body, car, house, shoes, attitude, vacation, etc.)-and-we-care-about-you-andhow-you-feel“ advertising and media giving us something to feel bad about and something else we SHOULD strive for. Filling our lives with clothes, celebrity culture, fake news, empty calories,

and virtual lives is leaving us unfulfilled.

With good reason. The only ones benefiting from all the eyeball awareness, calories, and debt are not the consumers... but the creators.

It’s important to look behind the curtain at who’s pulling the strings to understand how these hidden powers-that-be affect us and to bring to light the distraction traps, deceptions, and tactics of conditioned behaviors. A "question everything" attitude is rebellion in its truest form.

And just to further prove my point —after digging a little into Mark Twain's quote and it's attribution, it is in fact not his, or at least, it can't be proven that he said or wrote it. Refuse to be fooled.

X-WORD

ISSUE T WO

By Brendan Emmett Quigley 39. Utensils used with pastas

Across

33. Disables a security camera, perhaps

2."Can't you see I'm busy?"

36. With 46-Down, Ryan Gosling's

1. Actress Kunis

40. Fix a drink order with a bad head

9. "___ Go" ("Frozen" showstop-

44. Setting for a posterized picture

3. Townies

5. Dictator's order per)

14. Years of Spanish class

43. Record label for Big Star

his shoulders?

9. Thirsty dog, say

54. "Big Eyes" director

10. Household util.

21. Weightlifter working on his

56. Weightlifter who keeps track of

12. Piano, slangily

poet

61. Fairway obstacle

26. Lost GI

27. Feast day figs.

28. "Pretty Little Liars" writer Shepard

30. Gets the word out?

22. Comic Barinholtz on "The Mindy Project"

62. Big name in chocolate

24. Grains in breakfast cereals

64. Parts of bread often the last to be

29. ___ Taylor (clothing store)

34. In medias ___

his presses?

35. Weightlifter who is working on 38. Abbr. for a king or queen

(Friends, Lovers, Affectionate,

54. Loud explosion

58. Was on a November ticket

3 8

4 9

5 10

F= FRIENDSHIP L= LOVE A= AFFECTION M= MARRIAGE E= ENEMIES

72

Repeatedly count the letters of the word FLAME, restarting at F each time you get to E until you reach your Love Calculator number. (Ex. 4 = M, 6 = F)

Count the remaining letters.

The total is your Love Calculator number.

Determine your future relationship. Use the acronym "FLAME" to figure out just what the future holds for your relationship!

FLAME

Want to know if you and your love interested will end up as friends, lovers, affectionate, married, or even enemies? Like all games similar to MASH, FLAME isn’t a precise science, but it is a fun way to spend a rainy day. And who knows? It may just be right.

LOVE CALCULATOR

Married, or Enemies)

Strike out all of the shared letters in your names. (So if you both have an ‘A’, X them out!)

53. "Shane" star Alan

Write down your name and the name of your love interest in the box to the right.

2 7

51. Composed

32. Salmon variety

plates

1 6

46. See 36-Down

31. Stories follow them

eaten

uses polar bear-shaped license

HOW TO PLAY

45. Hard pressed?

57. Monkey house spot

25. Feminine

63. Like verbose writing

44. "___ of the Jedi"

49. Mournful bell toll

18. Opens up at the dentist

60. Student ___ debt

32. Country with a territory that

Flame

42. Long, narrow inlet

13. Magnetic induction units

how much he lifts?

59. Carefully avoid

24. "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright"

41. Web forums' ancestor

11. Shawnee chief in the War of 1812

55. "Dude!"

23. NBA executive Pat

"The Desert Fox"

8. Bright aquarium fish

19. Wild West legend ___ Bill

biceps?

40. WWII commander also known as

6. RN's room

7.Word said with a finger snap

52. Weightlifter who lifts barbells to

20. "The Audacity of Hope" family

38. Wars of the Roses monarch

know myself": Macbeth

17. Weightlifter working on his legs?

better half

37. "After the break," in TV lingo

5.Wikis alternatives

50. "To know my deed, ___ best not

16. OTC analgesic

35. 1983 arcade eater

4."I know everything!"

47. ___ rampage (tearing) 48. Some turban wearers

15. Have a sore spot?

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Down

1.AAA player's goal, with "The"

YOUR NAME:

LOVE INTEREST'S NAME

THE TIME & PRODUCTIVIT Y ISSUE

CLASSIFIEDS WANTED

I was last seen sitting behind a screen in a cubicle revisiting every major life decision that led me there.

Web browser was left open and search history shows extensive research on how to rewind time.

If found, return to present moment as soon as possible.

Also, please tell me everything is going to be okay.

SOMEONE TO HOLD MY HAND DURING FAMILY DINNERS. It’s just the questions when will you finally get a real job and will we ever see you married, sweetie that scare me. After that, I’m all good.

SEEKING

HUMAN CONNECTION CO-PILOT TO MY AUTOPILOT. I need someone to pay close attention to my life and record things I keep missing while I’m busy going through the motions.

There is comfort in habits, but also I forget how many cups of coffee I drink before 9am, the story my daughter shared with me yesterday after school, and the name of our mailman.

FOR SALE

LOST + FOUND I didn’t lose anything or find anything. I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention.

LOST: Contentment was last seen experiencing serious FOMO while scrolling through the Friyay hashtag on Instagram.

LOOKING FOR:

BRAND NEW ALARM CLOCK IN BOX.

DIY KIT TO ESCAPE THE WORLD.

Never used.

Because we have phones for that now.

MISSED CONNECTIONS: To the Audi SUV on Route 50 at 9:30 Sunday night, I was the one giving you the middle finger from the driver’s side of the 1997 white Jeep Cherokee. Sorry not sorry for going the speed limit. Especially not sorry for dropping down to ten miles under the speed limit and enjoying an air guitar moment to Boston’s "More Than a Feeling" after you continued to ride my bumper and flash your brights. You want fast? That’s what left lanes are for, asshole. Bye.

REPAIRS NEEDED: NEED TO REWIND TIME TO

1986

Crosswalk, Baltic & Clinton.

I almost killed you with my Toyota Prius while texting.

We made eye contact for a brief moment just before you yelled “look out!” Did you also feel that spark? If so, I’d like to buy you a cup of coffee. No cars or phones involved this time.

That was a good year for me.

To place an ad email classifieds@folkrebellion.com 73

FOUND: Day planner laying in the middle of Warren Street with fuck this scribbled across yesterday’s date.

LOST: Productivity was last seen trying to close out all of her open tabs.

LOST: Someday last seen running off with my big dreams and plans.

FEBRUARY CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS:

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

MISSING PERSON

SUBSCRIBE

Never Miss An Issue.

Lessons For Living IRL. Adventure. Wisdom.

Long Reads. Inspiration. Analog Activities.

Insights. Community.

Includes a monthly merit badge patch, access to online resource library, and discounts for Folk Rebellion store.

Go to folkrebellion.com/subscribe-now