Author: Carl Setzer

A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.

Defining “Grown Up”

Carl Setzer
I love this comic from xkcd.

It sums up a key idea I’ve been meditating on lately: that we get to define our lives. We get to choose what “success” means to us. We don’t need to be stuck in the destructive loops of our culture’s history. We can find a new way forward. That’s a key beauty of life today.

When I consider Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain’s suicides, I think that there’s something inherently wrong with our culture’s definitions about success. We need to work to define “success” so that we’re feeling fulfilled as we progress. I can’t imagine anything more miserable to achieve everything we’d dreamt of, and feeling empty and miserable.

 

They grow up so fast

Carl Setzer

​My phone buzzes

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p style=”font-family:"”>A beautiful woman

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p style=”font-family:"”>Who I remember

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p style=”font-family:"”>I feel joy

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p style=”font-family:"”>At the blessing

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p style=”font-family:"”>Witness 

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Anthony Bourdain: A Eulogy In Haiku

Carl Setzer

anthony-bourdain-suicide-death

His death striking me
Suicide’s painful cruelty
What ate his heart so?

I learned a lot from him
Though we weren’t friends, nor had met
But that’s not the point

His show connected with me
I felt a kinship via his journeys
And deeper knowledge

His travels: unique
He went off the beaten path
A road less taken

His show; self-aware
Acknowledging some deceits
Never caught a fish

No angel was he
A comfort with his darkness
Yet not quite enough

Bourdain won Emmys
And also a Peabody
Awards can’t save us

“Everything” he had
All the pieces he held up
Yet he felt despair

His pain surfacing
After great wealth and great fame
Worse than in failure

So many faiths
Preach there’s more to our lives
Than wealth or our fame

There’s an emptiness
In this life we envision
We must be wary

Exploring Passion: Today’s Haiku 

Carl Setzer

Exploring passion

Seeking to understand me

And what feeds my soul 

One of my mentors challenged me: does my current work fill me with joy, is it what I imagine doing for years to come. I’ve never asked that of myself before. I’ve drifted from job to job. I’ve never had direction or mission in this part of my life. 

I will fix that. It is time. 

Writing is that joy giving thing. Now what? I’m unsure. 

It’s exhilarating and terrifying. 

A Flower After The Rain

Carl Setzer

As the rain had passed

This flower’s glory shines forth

And then the light shifts

Why I love creating short form poetry

Carl Setzer

Short form poetry

I seek out life’s core essence

Light through a prism

Today’s Quote of the Day

Carl Setzer

Felt it important to add something positive to the world this morning. So much anger, negativity, distrust and simple rage, I’ve grown a bit weary of the internet. However, I still see great value in the platform.

Anyway, with that, I thought this quote by Einstein was perfect. People are important, but we need to focus on goals, build a mission and drive forward. We need to allow toxic people to go and bring healthy people into our orbit.  Positive energy can feed back into itself, growing powerful and more effective. It’s not magic, taking time and focus, too. But it pays off

Anyway, what will you do to make this real? To make not just your life, but the world a better place? I’d like to know.

 

Pity

Carl Setzer

A worthless feeling
Are those focused on demeaned?
Seek dignity’s path

New Mexico Meditation

Carl Setzer

These adobe walls

With vibrant reds and deep browns

Feeling the desert