Conversations For Transformation:
Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More
24 / 7 / 365
Sterling Vineyards, Calistoga, California, USA
January 14, 2008
This essay,
24 / 7 / 365,
is the companion piece to
Full Tilt.
I assert we live life as if we have to stop, as if we better not go
too far. In terms of our
Self-expression,
in terms of expressing love for the people in our lives, in terms of
sharing ourselves in
the world,
we drive
with both feet at the same time: one foot's on the gas and
simultaneously one foot's on the brake.
There's work, and then there's life. Life only begins
when work ends at the end of the day or when vacation starts. That's
how it is. Everyone knows that. It's hardly examined further.
Everyone also knows we have to stop. So we take breaks. We take breaks
from conversations. We take breaks from commitments. We take breaks
from promises. We take breaks from relationships. We take breaks from
intimacy. We take breaks from Self expression. And if we tell
the truth unflinchingly about it, from time to time we
even take breaks from honesty and from
integrity.
There's not much agreement being alive comprising work, conversations,
commitments, promises, relationships, intimacy, Self expression,
honesty, and integrity should or even could continue
twenty four hours a day seven days a week three hundred and sixty five
days a year ie 24 / 7 / 365. Of course it
can't! Everyone knows that.
In spite of what's known to the contrary, I'd like to invent the
possibility of being fully alive 24 / 7 / 365.
In order to recondition the listening for what I've just
said, what I'm not saying is "don't take breaks". What I'm
not saying is "don't take vacations". What I want to do in this
conversation is violate the belief that breaks are
essential, that some kind of time out from life is
required, that's it's simply impossible to live
full tilt,
flat out all the time 24 / 7 / 365. This conversation
isn't about whether or not to take breaks and vacations. This
conversation is about being fully alive as a possibility
24 / 7 / 365. The access to this possibility is
giving up the handed down inherited belief it isn't.
What stops us living
full tilt,
flat out all the time 24 / 7 / 365 I assert is
simply we know ("everybody knows ...") it can't be done,
so we don't. This isn't a useful piece of information to convey by
debate and argument. Rather, it's something to try on for size.
If you look, for example, you'll see how far you're willing to go in
expressing yourSelf. The question I'm asking is this: do you stop there
because it's not possible to go any further? because
there's some kind of restricting barrier, some kind of finite
limit? or because you
believe
you can't go any further, that you shouldn't go any
further?
I'm suggesting we can cruise all the way, any day,
full tilt,
flat out all the time. I'm suggesting 24 / 7 / 365
is a possibility.
There's a world of difference between believing life
doesn't work without time outs, therefore taking time outs out of a
perceived requirement ... and choosing to
take time outs, therefore taking time outs or not simply
because we choose to take time outs but not because we have to.
To some, that's a daunting, exhausting prospect. I ask those to
consider the possibility that having it be daunting and exhausting is
to live in denial of who you really are.