Piece of Mind & a Dash of Soul

The worlds which I inhabit and the worlds which inhabit me, collide in the eyes.

In this piece, I take a walk about and reflect aloud on my experience with vision. How to me, seeing is a perpetual discovery of myself, and the world around me.

Is vision necessarily static? Do eyes crave novelty just as much as we do? How does vision blur the lines between physical, emotional, and spiritual? How does distance and focus impact our capacity to imagine? Our capacity to care?

Can our vision be hijacked? Can it be consciously improved?

Who or what is responsible for how and what we see?

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I am out of tune,

and yet still I make music.

Some thoughts and feels about heliocentrism, my friend who found love, our ailing world, and how my dad led me deeper into my heart.

"Everything is okay."

So I was takin a walk the otha day, and I stumble upon a plastic baggy fulla styrofoamy. STYROFOAMY! Someone's gotta do something about this.

So there I was at the dentist thinking to myself... what the heck are ya'll doin in there?

How come we got all these cavities? Cavities in the teeth, cavities in the culture, cavities in civic discourse. Tooth rot emotional rot ecological rot, the whole shabooey!

Listen along as I connect my cavity fillings with the broader erosion of our food systems, degradation of our personal divinity, and the breakdown of those bridges that connect us to each other, and to the stupefying beauty and nourishment of the lands with live in.

"The gravity of our collective depravity pokes holes in our hearts, call that cahdio cavity"

-- Toni R. Toni.

I invite you to sit with me as I play some keys and reflect on myself, and on us.

I'M ANGRY. TOO ANGRY TO HOLD IT ALL IN.

I'M ANGRY AT YOU. AT MYSELF. AT EVERYTHING. EVERYONE.

Please enjoy my pissed-off-poetry about...

• culture
• religion
• myself
• family
• drugs
• MEN
• children
• LOVE

Have you ever dreaded winter and longed for summer! Same!

But what else is going on as our outfits and food specials change with the seasons? How might we expand our awareness and perspective on the nuances and alterations in the landscapes we inhabit, both physical and non-physical? Both external and internal?

Join me in broadening the scope of our seasonal appraisals. Join your body in the yearly challenge of surviving Life's most trying time of year. Is this winter going to be a land of wonder or waste?

Admittedly, I was late to the Adele train. But "I Drink Wine" off of her most recent album 30 has been one of my most listened to songs since it dropped. It's profound, nostalgic, introspective, simple, and melodic. It's a wonderful musical tune with so many important thoughts from one of the world's most renown musical stars. Adele reflects on herself, and the powers that be that have shaped and continue to shape her life thus far. It's relatability speaks for itself, and in this episode I talk about what it means to me, how I interpret some messages, and why I think you should add it to your playlist!!!!! Go listen. Seriously.

The entirety of our lives could be boiled down to a story. A story is something that everybody needs, and a great story is something that everybody recognizes. How do the stories we tell impact the world we create for ourselves? What power do we have as individuals to change the world? Is there an objective reality that informs all stories, or do stories determine objective reality?! Well lets frickin talk about it!

The first year of the Piece of Mind Podcast is through. This year I'll be back with bigger ideas, better topics, higher frequency, and intensified sarcasm!

Thank you to everyone who has listened, supported, offered kind words, and called me a stupid nerd! It's all I can hope for when sharing my thoughts and voice.

Discussions this year will certainly steer towards environmental philosophies, sciences, research projects, and speculations. I aim to do more interviewing, both professionally and casually.

Topics to look forward to include....

• Stories & Reality: who determines who?
• Fitness, Play and the toxicity of "fitness culture"
• Wu Wei Philosophy
• Digitized Romance
• What is Food? Energy, luxury, disease, or power?
• Generational Divides
• Music Rants & Analyses
• Octopuses: miracles of creation
• The Illusion of Civilization
• The Death of Wonder!!!

All the Blessings,

<3 Daniel