The Norwegian Fisherman
When I find myself searching for peace, I turn to a thought I have — the Norwegian Fisherman. I drew this story based upon aspects of life I love and I feel personally connects me to a peaceful and spiritual seeking mind. We have to find a story or thought that anchors us into our root understanding of the goodness we see in the world. Something that we can easily tap into when we feel stressed, worried, or surrounding by negativity. The story of the Norwegian fisherman is rooted in a few things i’ve observed about maintaining a state of happiness. Living a simple life and allowing the slow time of observation is the baseline of happiness. The next would be purpose. For me, engaged good work and visually seeing the progress of productivity, opens up a lot of purpose in my mind. Catching fish, to feed people, is a great simple example of that. I believe our collective thoughts and ambitions have greatly deviated from our original design here on earth. Technology has suppressed our challenges that are necessary for our growth. Western thinking puts the pursuit of money ahead of connections, curbing our time to focus on meaningful areas that are good for the soul. Such as silence, art, poetry, music, reading. Human history tells us this. Periods in civilizations of enlightenment, or a renaissance, were always centered around science, art, music, and creativity. Almost always this produced higher levels of awareness, connection, and spiritual meaning. Only in the last 200 years have we seen such big leaps in technology. Prior to that, an individual, might see one or two technological breakthroughs like a waxed candle or an axe be introduced in their lifetime. They left the world and experienced it the same way as it was when they were born.
Happiness is rooted in simplicity. Too much choice is a problem. This is even noted in consumer behavior. Companies try to corral their customers in A, B, or C pricing for this reason. The customer feels validated in their choice and confident it was the right decision. In life, the happiest people are the ones who focus on clear thinking and a simple life.
Simplicity with little or no distraction allows you to see the beauty in the world.
I think of the Norwegian fisherman because it is a representation of all the aspects I enjoy in life that find me peace. When I was in my college years and a decade after, I lived in San Diego. I loved the city life. I believed I would end up living in San Francisco or Chicago. I loved the busy city. As I have got older, I have grown to desire the opposite. I found beauty in the cold areas such as Alaska and Norway. I find a surreal energy in the cold. I can go deeper in focus. The simplicity of living in a country like Norway is enchanting to me. The beauty, the small towns, the simple life.
What is the simple life? It’s a life of minimum distraction. A lack of impulse for frivolous spending. Creating time for silence. Using silence to think and discover. Making time to read. Connections. Family. It’s basically the life human beings lived before modern technology. In no way am I against technology. I am against technology when it removes the natural grit of the world. Using technology to remove steps and create for meaningful is great. Using technology to otherwise waste time in a non productive lazy state of mind, not so great.
What we choose to consume in the media is affecting us and taking residence in our subconscious.
Cultures in the past were able to deeply connect to the universe and storehouse incredible wisdom that inferred spiritual meaning. They found it in nature. The God force in the universe emulates in the natural world, guiding us. Everything you need to find spiritual enlightenment meant is already in your soul. The world is like a rock tumbler for the soul. The trials, difficulties, hardships, etc are all designed to polish our souls. That is the plan simply put.
Music, art, and poetry should not be seen as extra curriculum in our lives. It should be on the forefront of our lifestyles. Music and art allow our brains to think and regress in thought. The wonderful and hidden mysteries of the universe are revealed to us in these times. In the movie Dead Poet’s Society, Robin Williams makes this point when speaking to his class:
“Medicine, law, business, engineering. These are noble pursuits, necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love…these are what we stay alive for…..you are here. That life exists. And identity. The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.”
In America, our pursuit of happiness, becomes our source of unhappiness.
This goes back all the way to the beginning of post World War 2 consumerism. The advertising age took root in America, blasting citizens with product placement. The advent of production lines and mass producing products allowed more goods to become cheaper to the general public. This drew people out of smaller communities into cities. Longer work hours and unions formed.
Oscar Wilde had a famous quote: “There are two tragedies in life, one is not getting what you want, the other is getting it.”
This is one of my favorite quotes because it really speaks to the pitfall of excess and desire. Too much choice becomes a huge problem in our lives. Having too many choices creates fatigue in our minds, scatters our thoughts. In ancient Japan, their society was so focused on perfecting small tasks. This was accomplished with specialization and minimal load on the job description.
Inundation into media and technology is a distraction to the soul. Every mind should be affixed to a constant journey of discovery in the wonders around us. There should be no other primary focus. Let the mind wander in the expanse, understanding that the answers and key to a deep enlightenment of the love, energy, and vibration in eternity rests inside of us, yearning to be unlocked. This is our true intent. The answers to all of life’s mysteries is found in connection and love for others, selfless intent, silence, and appreciation for all living things.
It’s interesting that the oldest documented distraction in history is in The Bible. When Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit. Now our biggest distraction is our phones. (Oh the irony in the iPhone’s logo.. a fruit with bite taken out of it)— Constantly reminding us and serving as a symbol of human distraction now met with technological interference. Distraction is keeping us from seeing the world that way it was designed. Less distraction means we can think clear and see the beauty around us.
Distraction is a problem to the soul. The world gives us so much beauty to discover and understand the mysteries of the universe, distraction keeps us from seeing this beauty. We need time for silence, time to manifest good thoughts. We need to think outside of ourselves and remove ego. The ego’s job inside everyone here on earth is to keep you alive. In order to be awakened, you have to quiet the mind and open the heart, and suppress the ego. That is our purpose here. We have to get out of the human mind in order to see non material and spiritual aspects to this world. The mind and our ego want to compete with others out survival instinct, to protect yourself, label others as narcissists, etc. We have to learn we are all connected and here together to connect with each other. When I need inspiration, I always like to think of The Norwegian fisherman, to give me clarity and ground me to the realization that life is meant to be lived with simplicity.
Technologies core is make tasks easier and more efficient. This in theory frees up time and capital to expand towards a creative economy. The early onset of technology had in no question improved the lives of every person in a society it was bestowed upon. However, the perpetual progression of technology has shifted to too much comfortability. An early simple example is calculators, it took away the reason to learn how to add and subtract large numbers in your head or on paper. Work out the math as they would say it. The comfort we receive now from technology, blunts the nature effect of the world to our lives that is necessary for our soul growth. Young men in the past went to war, now they spend their time trying to throw a ping pong ball into a cup from the top of a building for YouTube clicks. Ironically…the essence behind the creative freedom we should see from technology does the inverse and draws us deeper into the technology which creates a huge veil of distraction. Think about that. In the past, a new technology that had utility value, for example, a shovel creating the ability to achieve more productivity in less time. This allowed users to perform other productive tasks for greater completion.
In 1973, economist E.F. Schumacher wrote Small is Beautiful.
Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher challenges the idea that economic growth and industrialization as the ultimate goals of society. Instead, it advocates for sustainable development, emphasizing the importance of human well-being, ecological balance, and local, small-scale economies.
Naturally, as humans, we have an innate sense of effort aversion in our lives. We want to remove steps in our lives to achieve outcome. Effort is a scarce resource, just like money and time. Removing steps is good because it allows us to focus on other things. This in theory, should allow us to optimize our time and achieve maximum output in terms of hobbies, family, and connections. But, we are now seeing a level of laziness take foothold. Humans need inflection, we need challenges in our life.
Love compassion and kindness is what we are being called to right now and that’s what’s going to shift society. The good news is…
the light is always winning no matter how dark it may seem.
I love this poem:
https://allpoetry.com/poem/12622463-Manifesto--The-Mad-Farmer-Liberation-Front-by-Wendell-Berry
