Truth, Connection & My 1000-Year Idea

I was drinking an expensive espresso in Florence, journalling, admiring the view.

Then it hit me.

The people, the culture, the thinking of that time has lasted 1000 years.

These expressions of human creativity had such a profound quality.

So much so, that that people - like me - travel from all over the world to sit, drink expensive coffee, and soak it in. Human beings - biologically the same as us - created this shit.

It made me ask: What could I create that might last 1000 years?

Not from ego, a futile desire for legacy, but built on truth.

Because that's what makes ancient works endure - they embody something fundamentally true. Like beauty. These truths apply as much in 2024. Hence the price of the coffee.

My truth.

I believe that what the UN calls a “mental health pandemic” is actually a spiritual health pandemic. Today we see spirituality and myth as no more than stories. Superstition.

Doing so, we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater, losing connection to ancient wisdom about what humans need to thrive. At its core, this crisis of the spirit is a crisis of disconnection - from ourselves, our families, our communities.

We are connected digitally but atomised, disconnected from what is true.

The cosmic bad joke is we live in an era which promises connection - "Hey guys, you can talk on the Internet! Connect! Build community!"

What do words like "community", "connection", "friends", "likes" and "shares" actually mean in the context of “the cloud”? These are corruptions of the words.

We're being systematically disconnected.

Platforms stealing our attention and presence.

The present moment is all there is.

I call it the "attention industrial complex".

It works for Mark Zuckerberg's profit, not yours.

So, what is my 1000-year idea?

My intuition responded to the question, with a question: “how do I repackage spirituality for what the 21st Century?”

To speak to the Fred Again Generation. Those that are told they have it all, dance with abandon but are sad inside. Just listen to the words from 1min:

Something is missing.

That thing is connection, true connection.

Not online community, tribe.

Maybe you think my 1000 year idea is stupid, laughable.

Yet this spiritual health pandemic is - I believe - true.

Pursuing truth recently deepened when I read Justin Murphy's interpretation of miracles in the Bible. His insight was simple but profound: miracles happen when you pursue what is true, even if everyone's laughing at or judging you. 

Look at Elon Musk - he saw the truth in the physics and engineering, pursued it relentlessly, and now his rockets land themselves. It's literally miraculous.

If you pursue truth in the face of doubt or ridicule, miracles can happen.

How do I articulate these ancient principles? Because most won't do deep philosophical study, let alone apply it. Not when the attention industrial complex is tagging at their sleeve. Right now, I do not know.

I sense I need a tribe, revolutionaries. Fellow Artist Warriors. So ping me a note. Join the crew.

Failing that, check back in 1000 years and see how it all panned out!

Stay in the groove.