Tag: life

A meditation on loss 

Carl Setzer2 Comments

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News received
Unpleasantly
Deeply tinged
With sadness

Into a mirror
Gazing, wondering,
Unshaven for this
Weekend
Grey dominates
My beard

Change comes,
Celebrated at times
Or with dread
But it comes
Inevitably

Flame flutters
Victim of the breeze
Candles flicker
Departing from
Pedestals
Into the
Stars

I recommend you watch “A Strong Mind” on YouTube

Carl Setzer

This video features Ashima Shiraishi, an amazing young rock climber out of New York. It’s really exciting to see people so young grab hold of a dream, making it happen. Of course, supportive parents help immeasurably. Her dad, who gets screen time, looks like someone I’d enjoying having coffee with. Which is about as high a compliment as I have.

What do you think?

https://youtu.be/TrS3Q0IeXHk

Thoughts on Casey Neistat’s Vietnam Notebook

Carl Setzer

I’ve been enjoying Casey’s work for sometime now. It’s really a 2016 discovery; one I’m happy I made. I get ideas of things to film, someday, that mythical someday when I have plenty of free time. 

Moleskine junky that I am, I really love what he did with his notebook. Cutting out/adding in tickets, maps, key details, blah blah. Things I wish I’d done with my trip to Yellowstone Grand Tetons this summer. 

I think it’d be fun to craft some videos like this, too. My son is going deep into videography. He really wants to collaborate, and I really want to embrace that. 

Lastly, Casey makes note about nothing drives home how fast time passes than watching kids grow up. And I’m really feeling that this fall. We’re preparing for highschool, talking college, cars,and well, being grown-up. I’m so damn glad I made the time to be here, to be part of his childhood. So many men I know regret missing this, and feel pain as they try to connect with their grown children. Trying to find a place in these lives that were filled in their absence. 

There’s nothing I’m more proud of than my simple integration with my son’s life. He’s a great kid, and an amazing young man. I’m very happy. 

https://youtu.be/hQa4GouJYA4 

Thoughts upon this evening 

Carl Setzer

​It was lovely day, by my standards, at least. Yeah, a bit wet in the morning, but the afternoon turned out nice. Well, not pouring down. 

Got a walk in after lunch. Still haven’t made my 10,000 steps, though. Ah, my sedentary life! My fitbit drives me forward to a more active life. Helping me clear my mind, enabling me to focus better, to be more present, not all lost, in my head, dealing with some random element or another. 

Spent the evening talking with some friends, and the daughter of one of them. It was quite a charming hour. Reminded me of the “plan” all those many years ago to have a second child, ostensibly a daughter. 

I was struck, as I considered time, how intensely short it is from diapers to adulthood. Talking with this girl, it hits me that she’s existed only a tiny fraction of my life. And yet she’s clever, witty, bright and engaging. Full of ideas, knowledge and life. 

This is why I work so hard to be in the “now” of life. It’s so fleeting. This girl will soon be in middle school, driving, off to college. As will my son. It’s fleeting. I must savor this moment, as it will waft away, watched or not. Once gone, it’s dead. 

I see this as the ultimate manifestation of love. To be here, be aware of the now, fully engaged in this moment, with these people. Now. It’s all we got. 

Thought of the day

Carl Setzer

What’s done is done. Lesson learned, move forward.

I have a tendency to obsess over things where I was less than perfect. It’s rather destructive.

I’m learning to simply say “I can’t undo the past” and move along. Learning…not there yet.

Going forward. Feels like more of a challenge than it should be. I guess that means I have work to do.