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Nothing Rhymes with 18 it's episode 18

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Welcome back to the arena hundred show the weekly podcast where I reach 100

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brain fart into your ears. Ew, why did I say it like that? Today we're gonna talk

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about the topic getting away. Getting away. Going away. Away. Out there. The

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first thought that comes to mind is vacation. Vacation. If we need it,

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does it mean we hate our lives? Yes. No. I don't know. I think even if we don't, I

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mean if we do hate our lives, definitely time for a vacation. The problem is most

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of us can't really afford a real vacation, but you can, if you, I don't know,

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a cheap vacation. Maybe even just one day where you do something completely

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different, you know. You just call out of work one day or on your day off and you

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just don't do your chores and you just go somewhere calming, somewhere near

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trees or nature or somewhere to get away and clear your head. But even if we don't

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hate our lives, isn't it good to take a break from what you're doing all the

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time? Isn't it nice? Doesn't it give you some perspective on your habits or maybe

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just give your brain a way of forming new pathways from what you're always

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from the well-trodden roads in your mind? Perhaps you can take the road less

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traveled. Why am I still doing that accent? It gives you perspective. Like, you

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know, when you're standing on the mountain, you can't really tell what it

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looks like. But when you go down the mountain and away a little bit, you can

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look up at it and say, whoa, I was on a mountain. That's a lot. Maybe I should

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give myself a break, you know. And that's really important to just every once in a

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while take the time to reflect on what you've been doing. Take some inventory,

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take stocks, you know, to make sure that your life is moving in a direction

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that you can be comfortable with, you can be proud of, you can stay invested in. So

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yeah, and always I think it's also just good for your brain to break your habits

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every once in a while just so it can remember how to scramble and try

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something new. Even if you love your habits, it might be good. I mean, don't do

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it in an unhealthy way. I mean, I remember as very often on the way to

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work or school, I'd be in the metro and just be like, what if I just went the

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wrong way for no reason? I loved doing stuff like that when I was younger

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because there were way lower stakes if I messed up. I mean, like, if I miss a day

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of school, maybe I'd get in trouble, but like my life wouldn't fall apart. I

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wouldn't miss a bill payment, you know, and then I could just live in a world of

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possibility, which is really what the world should be for all of us, I think.

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I'm a bit of an idealist, but the world is rich with mystery and adventure and

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we should be tasting it every once in a while. We shouldn't be cooped up behind a

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screen replying to emails or whatever it is people do at normal jobs that I don't

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understand what's really happening there. Getting away, I mean, getting away can

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also mean getting away from something that's unhealthy. It's good to take

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space if you're feeling like something or someone that you're around all the

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time is just shutting you down, pulling you down. It's okay to take a little bit

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of space from that just to, and it doesn't mean you're never going to talk

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to this person again. I mean, obviously you don't have to. I don't know, but I

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think it just means like then you can come back refreshed, re-strengthened in

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the face of the negativity and maybe approach it in a different way. I mean,

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it's hard not to reflect people's negativity back at them and if you don't

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take time to refresh yourself then you might just fall prey to their

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habits without even injecting some conscious ones of your own. It's just

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good. It's just good you can allow for new possibilities and shift your

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perspective. Maybe you'll even realize like, hey, if I come at this person, I'm

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not saying it's your fault or your responsibility to do this, but if I come

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at this person or situation with a refreshed mind full of positivity and

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mystery and adventure, maybe they'll reflect that back at me a little bit. Of

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course, some people are just black holes and it doesn't matter what you throw at

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them and that's a whole, it's just hard not to get sucked in, but sometimes it

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really does help. On the other hand, it's totally okay to just dislike someone and

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just be honest. But yeah, it's good to get away, you know, because

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not every society is the same. I mean, on a broader way, it's good to, I think, good

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to travel, although it feels wholly unnatural because we just shouldn't be

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able to zip around the globe at the speeds that we zip. I mean, and that's

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really, it's like you're just changing the channel on earth. Like, you're just

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like, oh, I went from, you know, Texas to Saudi Arabia. Actually, there's too many

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parallels there. I think of things that are more different, but you just flip

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the channel and suddenly you're in backwards land or forwards land or

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everything's upside down land and in a language that you don't speak. And you

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got there in half a day, you know. That's very fast, rather than those long, scenic,

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sea-bound journeys of the days of yore, where you'd have months to reflect on

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the transition that you were making culturally, mentally, emotionally,

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spiritually, some kind of pilgrimage, some kind of relocation, some kind of

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exploration. Now you just zip on, you go to the airport, zippity-doo-dah, get some

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bad food, and then boom, you're, you know, you're in Southeast Asia from here. And

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it's just, it's just, you just flip the channel. And that's weird. And that's

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good, I think, because then at least you can be viscerally reminded that not every

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society operates the way ours does, and that allows for new possibilities as

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well. That you see that it's possible for, you know, a well-run, for a country to be

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well-run, first of all, for a country to care about its citizens, for a country to

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have tax-funded health care for all, and for the middle class to thrive. Okay,

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I'm not gonna make this a political hodcast, but you get the idea. And even

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within a society, I mean, you go from a city, excuse me, to a small town in the

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United States, boom, culturally very different. You flip the channel. Or even

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between cities. Chicago's not LA, LA's not New York, as we're very often reminded

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in many a comedy routine. I'm talking here. I'm talking here. That's what I

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should have called my podcast. I should have called it I'm talking here with

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Rena Hunter. Why didn't I do that? I'm talking here. I wonder if that's taken.

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Anyway, so yeah, even within every small town, between the small towns,

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you know, the elements change and the people are different and the vibe is

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very specific, I'm assuming. Or maybe there's no vibe because none of those

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towns are walkable anymore. So I don't even know how much these people are

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meeting up with each other rather than just holing up in their living rooms

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looking at funny YouTube videos. But I hope that's not true. Another way that we

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can make space is internally. Making space inside. I mean, and this is

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especially useful if you're in an emotionally crowded scenario. Let's say

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like a funeral or just somewhere where there's a lot going on around you and

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you need some some place to feel comfortable, safe, feeling whatever it is

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you're feeling and maybe it's not so comfortable to display it outwardly, you

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know. Or maybe it is. I'm not saying it shouldn't be. I'm just saying if you

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need a space and there isn't any space outside, there's always a space that you

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can create inside. And you always have the power to do that with your

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imagination and your mind and your heart and your spirit. God, I hesitate before

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using the word spirit. Yes, I live in California. Yes, that's probably why I

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said that word. But anyway, you always have the possibility of making space

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internally. Now the flip side of that obviously is disassociation. But that's

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like an extreme version of making. I mean, it's not just making space internally.

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It's making space between you and your body and you floating up into space away

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from your body. I've never fully been able to do that with my consciousness. I

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realized I watch a TikTok. God, every fucking episode I bring up a TikTok

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video. I watched a TikTok video yesterday. I shouldn't say a TikTok video. I

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watched a TikTok. God, I'm such a millennial. I watched a TikTok yesterday

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and in the TikTok the girl is like, where is your consciousness located? Because

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we're all behind our mouths, right? And I was like, what? What? I'm behind my eyes.

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I've always been behind my eyes. That's where my consciousness sits in my brain.

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And then I just realized, oh my god, everybody's consciousness is sitting in

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a different spot in their heads. And that's so trippy and weird. And I don't

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like to think about it because it makes me feel like an alien. But that's

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interesting too. You know, and stuff like that forces me to make space

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between my old ideas and my new ones. And isn't that fun that we're always growing

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from the old into the new?