wonder(people + place) = magic

Browsing through our shared photo album I get all these glimpses of the trip through everyone else's eyes. I admit, though, I have maybe like a genetic predisposition to Augie's photos, taken with an old camera without any AI algorithms in it to goose the color saturations and sharpness and all that. And Augie also seems to have a very literal eye--when he takes a picture of a dog, it's just a picture of a dog. Or a tree and some rocks. Or just some mostly invisible mist. Maybe a cloud, if you're lucky. The zen monk in me likes that quality of is-ness to whatever it is in the photo.

And so the Augie picture above is just a picture of Gigi, visiting a place. And not to try to force things too deep, but what I see in the photo is a person in a place who's maybe just a bit out of place. And the place itself is wildly layered with so many different types and ages of things it's almost incoherent, almost tearing itself apart not knowing what it even is. But all of that comes together in this amazing tapestry-like thing that just works for me.

This latest trip helped me see that I'm the kind of person that likes to find a space of quiet in the middle of a riot of stuff. I've always been this way I think, but this trip helped me put my finger on it, and now it's become a part of who I think I am. I'm never happier than when I'm in the middle of 10 super weird things happening around me at the same time. I feel the most calm and centered when other people are freaking out. The only thing I didn't like about the volcano night, for example, was I thought that if Augie had to be carried off the mountain, his mom was going to murder me and people would say I was a deadbeat dad. The dad version of mommy guilt, plus the fear of being murdered by the mom. But other than that, the weirder it got, the more I loved it all and wanted to go back and do it again immediately. Well, not quite immediately, but, you know, after 20 minutes in a shower and a real bathroom, I was rarin' to go.

Anyway, that's what I learned about Me. But what I learned about Us is in the title to this response, which could be boiled down to a simple algorithm: Place + People = Magic.

I think it's just that simple, except for writing it down I immediately notice I'm missing the one key, sometimes hidden ingredient: Attention. So maybe we should write like this: Attention(Place + People) = Magic. Attention transforms any place into a riotous, multi-layered, endlessly fascinating tapestry of electric connection and meaning such as is evident in everything that surrounds Gigi in the photo above. And likewise, deep attention transforms any "ordinary" person into someone you can see is actually a visionary with a totally unique view of the world and its possibilities, and also a receptacle of the wisdom and stories of all their infinite generations of elders which you can hear all about if only you ask, and listen. When you bring that kind of attention to people and places, magic unfolds, every single time. It's foolproof.

For the sake of consistency and branding, and in the Augie-inspired spirit of is-ness, maybe I should just say Wonder instead of Attention. Okay. It's all about Wonder, here.

Something else that is completely evident in the trip album is that bringing Wonder to a situation is not only fun, it's extremely practical. Look at all the connections we formed and strengthened with so many new and old friends. Look at how many possibilities for new work we identified and got fired up about. This is exactly how all new ideas, connections, and coordinated social actions come into the world. And it's also so fun.

Anyway, now there's so much to do to keep the energy building on all these new ideas, actions, and relationships. Time to get to work. But also, how about let's pick a new place and do it again? Whatever you loved about this place and these people, let's find it all again in a new place with new friends. Whatever kicked your butt, made you scared and uncomfortable, why not face that beast again? I swear, we could climb that volcano in such style, with such grace and dignity. Who's in?