Ron Bronson: On Hustle
3 ♥The internet breeds a kind of familiarity that I find interesting. For all of the knowledge we have about people we meet through various social media; for all of the conferences and activities that bring us in close quarters, it’s very different than interacting with the people who know us by our childhood nicknames or you feel comfortable enough to have burp your kid or something.
Yet, this coziness sometimes offers a false comfort that makes us think we really know people. The opaqueness of the challenges that affect many of our lives simply isn’t meant for 140-characters or Facebook status updates sometimes.
Even with friends I consider especially close, I am increasingly finding out that phone calls, lengthy emails or texts don’t substitute for the sort of context that being there and experiencing it really provides. So much gets lost when you’re only using half the page. It’s a matter of perspective. I struggle often with understanding what constitutes these relationships. There’s not much literary criticism that I’m aware of about existential friendships. Sure you can have a pen pal. But interactions with people who encompass a sliver of your life and yet, you can talk to everyday as easily as it used to be to talk to the dude sharing a cubicle next to you. It’s a change in how we live, but it provides us with this (sometimes) mistaken belief that we know the lives we peer into. The truth is, we only know a fraction of what’s really going on from day to day.
This is just a quote of a longer post of me riffing on the #hustle meme. Still, this part is the most striking because I think about a lot now. It’s getting increasingly difficult to muster up the energy to constantly give people this run-down on my life.
At first, I wanted to type that I just feel like I’m always in stasis and never fully blossomed. But that’s not really accurate. 18 months ago, I felt like I was repeating myself too much too. That my reality seemed like it would never flip or get better. I look at the challenges in front of me now and believe that there’s something better forthcoming.
There’s a challenge where I’m trying to find a balance between making perfect the enemy of good, while also making sure I don’t just give up the keys to the farmhouse in an effort to have someone occupying the space. There’s a fine line in there somewhere. Luckily, people are slow to make decisions. Life gets in the way and so, it makes it a bit easier and yet…I’m not sure where it really leaves me.
This is another post waiting to happen.
