How’s my exchange rate?
A powerful connection that can be had by another person's life is the way we can learn from their stories, their experiences. I listened to a podcast recently where a Senegalese person commented on the passing of someone in their community, "Their death is as if a great library has burned".
A great library is lost
Each of us carries a great library. Of our stories built and written around our life experiences. Curated and compiled without us aware that we carry them and that they might one day be shared, or even be of interest to someone else. Many humans have capitalized on these amazing collections and have created biographies (written and published by someone else other than the person) and auto-biographies (written and published by the individual themselves). Then selling them to those that want to know more about that person and their life experiences.
Anthony Bourdain was a traveler and a chef when he was living on this earth. I really didn't follow his career or stories, but I recently found a post that definitely make me stop and think about how Anthony's library have affected other's on this planet...
"I thought it was impossible to have a better life than Anthony Bourdain. But his final bittersweet gift just knocked me on my ass with the stark reminder that adventure, love, prosperity, prestige …anything we aspire to at all …is really just the currency we use to buy the four things that really matter: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins.
Realizing that even that kiss that melts your heart …only melts it because those four fairy godmothers waved their magic wands and turned your brain into a freakin' princess. But if our brain hits us with a really shitty exchange rate, if suddenly winning that Academy Award only buys us a day’s ration of serotonin, then how the hell are we supposed to stock up for our whole lives? That Anthony Bourdain can stand on the highest mountain and feel nothing but a desire to move toward oblivion is all I need to kick me in the ass and ask the most important question, how’s my exchange rate? What can I do to get more joy out of everything I’m presented with, big or small? How does anyone do that? I guess there begins one’s lifelong quest for God, psychedelic drugs, transcendental meditation, or whatever the hell else you need to do to bring true value to the external pleasures of the world. Anything that promises, not pleasure, but perspective.
There's a good case to be made that those are the things worth seeking first, before even love and success. Because watching my little son flood his brain with happiness because he found a cool stick on the lawn is all the evidence I need that 'how you experience' is so much more important than 'what you experience.' " — Sean Carter, written after Anthony's passing 2018
#life #libraries #death #experiences #human #earth