Swim with it: and you are at rest.
I am in Steemit heaven!
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSxpjbW1T4UVZW9PZoyTFNBTuh2aZWf3T4r7QBiNMrVCS/image.png)
Nirvana is to breathe out, let go and not resist change. So Alan Watts reminds me, this morning as I fix myself some kosher cocoa. (No slaves farmers have been harmed in the making of my favorite brand. We hope.)
I was likening Steemit to a newspaper, yesterday, preparing my post, then I slept on it, and first thing this morning, stumbled upon a (very)old post by razvanelulmarin (I spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to pronounce that name and what it might refer to, with many variations possible, considering many languages).
Were there such a thing as a handy indexing system I could try to find a more recent post (which I no doubt exists, since the problems and queries raised in this old post have not been solved in the intermittant two years, if you ask me). This post discusses what makes good Steemit content and the ethics around reposting; but it also raises further queries into what makes Steemit different to other (Wordpress etc) blogs.
It always begins for me, every day afresh, what DOES make RIGHT content for Steemit? Myself as my own guinea-pig am learning fast what does not work for me, what I don't care to read about. Arguably, was anything ever going to work for social-media sceptic me? But no, really, I embarked on this experiment wit nothing to lose and no intention to gain a thing.
In a glass of Steem
From a personal point of view, it's all proving very helpful and sharpening me up afresh. I hadn't "inter-acted" with anyone for at least 5 years, at all. All I had to share is what that does to you. I could be long or short about it, direct or indirect, and generally I remained as unintelligible as my intentions to myself; but I can now be brief and conclusive: I have nothing to share that you don't already have. I can only show what choice is about (nothing much) and that is all there is to say about it from a personal point of view.
Fact is, I am not a likeable or charismatic person in real life (or I wouldn't have ended up alone, so I figure), so it would be preposterous to expect to be liked as a person here (hence I go only by a pen-name). All that is here on Steemit is my writing. Yes, it is of me, but also not me - that which has been. Not the kind of writing that belongs in this stream. So far, Steemit makes a pretty darn good mirror.
The sap in the Steemit tree
It’s not that I wouldn’t want social media to work, but from this huge distance I am at, I can see too many ignoramuses regards the reorganising principle behind this evolutionary idea, joining the michorrizae acivity under the surface, instead of running through this tree rising up out of the clots of earth, as the true life sap of humanity. People struggle to emerge out of the depths of earth-business but, on the other hand, also (the artists and myself mainly) struggle to accept this tree must have roots in an economy. Generally the fungus is a messenger of a structural weakness or ailment. There is a lot of mould I have run into. Something is structurally unsound for the moment. I believe the aim is to let the money follow the content but it is more the other way around. Go figure how like attracts like now...!
Be Free: Eat Air!
The core problem is that content makers want to be rewarded for their efforts. We have to live, after all, and even the air is hardly free anymore - but for those who are afraid of starving: think of trying breatharianism/inedia, it works for Jericho Genesis Sunfire.
I did not come looking for anything here on Steemit, sent for a different reason, perhaps, than most, not here to make friends or useful contacts, unwilling to teach/afraid to preach, hyper-aware nobody listens to anything much but themselves, anyway. Above all I see no personal benefits (only hindrances) to excessive visibility. A thousand views would wreck me in no time at all unless I had a legitimate stage (which can as yet only be determined by your net worth).
Love, Peace and Harmony
I do not mean to enter a popularity contest, so I also am not coming from a place that can understand why we would want so many of us writers and vloggers and artists gathered in one place if it means having to vie for attention. The collective quality is dubious so if this gathering were to reflect the creative side to mankind, it does so only to promote respect for each individual, like Fröbel and Montessori, but also Steinerian schools might. Yes, it feels a bit like a school here. A school trying to reeducate the most destructive species of our planet (maybe vying for first place with bacteria, viruses and funghi only).
Ideally Steemit has to loose the ones who are here for personal gain, if it is to become an ever stronger river of going with the flow. Yes, why not make this a new kind of "employment model" earning your way by simply being you? But then don't expect to be favored over a whole mass of others - maybe only singled out as a better like-minded one by a few.
Truly Free
Decentralisation is about having a few sponsor another few and creating small cooperatives. To speak in terms of community service is confusing. The support we can give is ultra tailored and dependent on clicks. After all, there is no other overriding incentive to be nice (as there was in a world of money)! We must work on a personal basis and serve individual needs unconditionally. This requires a great amount of trust in the commitment, dedication and integrity of eachother.
The minute a community becomes too big, you steer once more, perilously close to idealist politics and (Communist) systems, equalising all to no purpose other than to control. You cannot build up a reputation by doing "more" or more "visibly" for the community. This would leave slow and quiet workers (veritable backbones) under-rated. The bossy ones would be in charge again. The men with their hard cash would quickly overrun the flowery women, all over again. Steemit must not ask for anyone to fit a specific profile if it wants to discover a New Man. But it is if you allow it to; if you feel pressured to play the game and fit in and aquire the steempower to matter and the currency to proove it to the rest of the world.
The water is turgid because we are still too close to the influx. That which cannot float down-stream will have to sink. There is a call to swim against the current. Some such salmon are amongst us, but there are gizzly bears waiting to snatch them up.
I think the moment we build barges here, collective initiatives, to pull eachother back out of the waters we are creating new fears (of going unnoticed) and thereby conditioning people (all over again). People forget they came here to discover if they could swim. We don't want to turn this into a jetty where the rescued can dangle their legs in false security. Accept if you are on the brink of sinking. Reassess and take more lessons in life. You have to be here with some kind of calling. Hand holding days are over. If this is to be like a Ganges you will have all the problems that come with this awesome river. If it is is to be the stream that flows from the tree of life, through the tree of knowledge, down to root you, and up to make you expand your spiritual truth, then we all need to lengthen our exhale. Puff-puff-puff when that gets tough. (Find a mother to teach you.)
Free-spirited, spontaneous creativity (supposedly flowing through one’s day, every day, as demonstrated by the posting) would be about awakening (bodhi) essential principle (sattva). From this perspective, you bring on board the great vessel that Steemit ideally would be, your naked self with all that it necessarily must wear for its mundane journey.
Surrender to Steemit
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmervJSXpVdS8MbD1ytdFCW1yYScTwJiDaGSSbob6Tg9A7/image.png)
Steemit is no different to normal life. Not an escape, not a launch pad. It is a way to declare yourself in to a new understanding of what humanity could be.
We have arrived at a level of consciousness, in the individualisation process, that there are enough people sufficiently (if not very amply) aware of the limitations of a self only invested in survival. This makes them prepared to renounce (some of ) that self-obsessedness and invest their self-hood into a larger whole. Just like mum and dad invest their man- and womanhood into parenthood. Some are more advanced at this than others. Some are mothers, others fathers. Kidding. A bit.
Steemit remains a paradox as long as it calls itself a social-media platform (not that I expected it to be). It is also not useful to consider it in the too angular terms of the market place with all its shouting and bartering. It is more like a self-contained household. A pool and a channel for the currency that is man's intention to be his best self. In any case, anything static (with archives and pins or any suchlike) does not belong. We cannot stagnate, hence we cannot debate or quarrel or even sustain long threads. Only that which floats can go a little of the way, the rest must anchor itself back to a social media platform. This is Pure Decentralised I-Am-Journalism! Repost or not: it doesn't matter. The news is never that new. unless everything is new all the time. It matters whether it is relevant to the moment and thus the true you (another great name for this site #thetrueyou seems to get this intuitively).
It takes time to stay in time
More paradox: everything is now and here, but it is not about anything altogether instant or only spontaneous, either. There is a limit to how interesting anyone's free-write can be! The best posts have come from a deeper source. Usually quite fermented. They will linger like a unique cask of whisky, a fine wine from a superb year, or a concert you once heard. It becomes decadent to auction a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem from 1787 as the greatest plonk on earth. It is about making potable wine. Love is only in the making.
Is it easier to put up photos than text? Nonsense. A great photo has a whole story behind it (think of what goes into the making of one with a professional model or a landscape you trekked through; but also if you capture the image in the spur of the moment with your phone, because it fits with something you have been giving quite some thought). All such posts weigh in the same as a crypto analysis or a Tai Chi course. Steemit is all about NOT judging or qualifying content as better or worse. Or even paying out according to the time you spent. It is about recognising intent.
A great post may more often than not have an entire day, if not several other months of writing behind it, edited down to what you read here. Only the brilliant writers will be gifted with ideas out of the blue that work for a broader audience. In this there is no difference with writers hired as copy writers or signed on as authors in the real world.
Join the Brotherhood
It is safest, yet, to liken Steemit to a modern monastery and Steemians to a new priesthood! Sorry for the misfortunate connotations with religion, but that’s the downside to similies, and good writers seldom use them! It’s merely said to reassure the minds that need to grasp onto something familiar, but spoken to the souls who are ready for something new.
The content makers relfect Buddha state of mind. All one can do here is be in flow, exemplify change. Nothing is constant, nothing remains.
Waiting on the corner
I have come out of the cold and wait under the light of the chemist’s shop.
I am the hawker, I am the sweeper, I am the 24-hour check-out guy, I am the chemist at the counter under the light that never dies. I begin again each morning. We know the words by now, the night, the street, the chemist’s shop, a light that never dies.
I wouldn't be me if I didn't bring it back to an esoteric perspective.
Is this why I have been sent here? Not to become a Buddha. But to understand that I have already reached Nirvana and must now return to life to deliver all other beings?
By what authority can one do that? Precisely by renouncing all authority and surrendering the self to what is. All that remains is what happens around me. What I am doing. Somebody is called #whatamidoing and he might have the right end of the stick!
We all have to become much more zen here to make Steemit work. Not zen-masters. No need to go out and buy a mat, #street-yoga would never approve. Just find a bench in the park. Muse. And report back.
Nirvana is where you are - providing you don’t object to it. Alan Watts
A very nice quotation ;-) Thanks for this post!
This is powerful. I like that you write prose as if it were spoken word. Makes me slow down from my normal state of speed reading and enter a new mind-space. And learn new words, like michorrizae.
The best I can do is contribute a less-than-impressive half cent 100% upvote and a follow!
Talk about changing a mind-set here! Daily struggle to find the appropriate voice (like you have an academic background which is not much appreciated here).
I'm a huge fan of your voice. It's so unique, and who cares about appropriateness anyway? Be you. You is great. (Personally, at this stage, I don't care much about being universally palatable; I'd keep writing about crypto if I wanted to win over the masses of Steemit.) I like that you go on these mini tangents that can be read on multiple levels and then you rein it back in to the narrative. Every time I reread one of your paragraphs I notice something else. I can really appreciate prose that is written with a poetic kind of cadence. And your second sentence is brilliant. Anyway, I'll stop it with the gushing compliments before it gets excessive; just know that in this little niche audience that I may or may not represent, your voice is thoroughly appreciated.
I can only redouble lavish admiration for YOUR voice! It is inspiring me greatly - above all to get back to my more serious research work.
General feedback has been, so far, that my writing is fairly unpenetrable - which comes as no surprise to me after umpteen years of being more than willing to share a piece of my mind hither and thither, but meeting with practically zero appreciation. For somebody who is otherwise known to be changeable, you'ld think I'd have changed tack by now....I'm studying (with much envy) all the photographers and who knows I might still, as yet...
Added to the ideosyncratic style (of a woman doing too much mumbling to herself) is the subject matter which is not my weird and wonderful mind (which is but a processor) although that would be debatable by modern psychiatric norms. How to write about the science of not knowing what we know?
Trust me, eventhough I allow at least one night to pass, usually, before I reread, re-edit and then (only maybe!) post, if I wait too long, I become clueless regards my own writing. Or really fed up with it. (I love the #fiftywords challenge as break away from this non-work that takes up all too much of my rapidly fleeting real-time). This is how I know ye all struggle and the trick is to find a way in and allow that current (which is hopefully never too much my "own") to take you along to somewhere you need to go. In that sense my writing is a little bit Sumerian or Egyptian or Greek or anything pre-Enlightenment basically, that relies on "inspiration from the muses". But I refuse to "free-write" and "get lost" in that. I expect to be held accountable for every word and demand to remain my own voice coach!
There! your private behind-the-scenes blog (since I didn't post any besides the competition today, swamped ever since it went up by a flood of entries...c'mon you KNOW this one, I bet you 2SBD you do! I don't think they would have let you into university if you didn't...)
Well, many of the postmodern greats are also fairly impenetrable. Can't say I've ever attempted a Thomas Pynchon novel, but I hear they're great! Personally, I'm contemplating using this as a platform for a project I've been thinking of doing for years, which will likely attract zero readers.
I'm still working over the challenge in my mind, but for the life of me I can't
EDIT: somehow I lost my sentence there. I was going to say that I can't imagine what chapter would incorporate Jesus, elephants, old ladies, and wolves, but maybe I am just thinking too literally. I am far from giving up.
Yep, they are all in there. Only you have picked up on the very one that takes a bit of liberty: the wolf. What is mentioned in the chapter looks similar but isn't a woolf exactly. Can't say more, google reveals too much if I start using specific words this writer used.
Oh, the brilliant Pynchon, yes. No time for him, alas. I've just done Knausgaard (all of it) so I deserve a break from endless wittering. Nor have I embarked upon the Infinite Jest (watched the film about the author "instead"!). Pynchon is on an audio file somewhere on a NAS drive, and the Jest rests on top of Ulysses behind a stack of books, as Onnovocks, the commenter below already knows and wholeheartedly approves of.
Infinite Jest occupies a place on my bookshelf as well, still unread. It was a birthday present years ago. I always feel guilty when people give me birthday presents and I don't consume them, but Infinite Jest just seems like such a commitment. I mean, the thing is a massive tome.
Plus it seems to be revolutionary in the eyes of guys.... I suspect we gals may feel quite a bit bored after a while.
Patiently waiting for 0.10%
What a man, what a man, what a mighty virtuous man. (Any patience from a Twin is worth double the appreciation.)
I had to burn up a lot of resources but did manage to stay true to my principles. Needless to say my VP is down, but my rep is mostly intact. Looks like the bot is good on his word and has not returned so far.
Twin? Are you referring to Zodiac?
Another interesting, out of the norm for Steemit, thought provoking post. Thanks!
P.S. The 0.10% has arrived.
That is promising news! Glad you found your second wind and hung on in there. I figured if you can't do something in your fierce mask, who of us ever can!
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Yes to the Zodiac.
Thanks for the .10%. Too generous. And you know you shouldn't have, as the Brits politely say, since stopping by is already a pleasant tinkle of the shop-dooor bell. Then again, I trust you are a strategic man which means you have to bank your steempower wisely if being here means needing to have comrades in arms, at the ready, with any muscle power.
Mock Strong Man
I fear my moral support will have to do.
How many years does one stay stuck on level 48 anyway?
Plus how does it work: people with low reps might still have big wads of steem.
What is the thing you or I want most of? Rep, SBD, steem? Is that the same as everybody wants? (I only keep bumping into people besotted with getting more and more followers - to no practical avail most of the time, in as far as I can count the votes).
Oy, ..erm. It's complicated mix of things. Yes there are folks with a rep in the negative who still function because they have a lot of SP. After pages of flags that came in at 16 per post, I expected my rep to get destroyed after 80 flags in a row, but it only dipped to 47 for one day and came back up to just over 48. It seems that my vested Steem of 105 was enough to save the day as long as I didn't do anything too stupid.
I was fully prepared to burn all my resources, but ending up with a bitter former user with an active presence on 10 other platforms isn't the way to grow either, so it's just as well to leave it where it was.
I did learn a few things though, and knowing there is a bit of support from others is a big positive.
I think the follower thing has to do with limited visibility, and I think they are playing the law of averages. In terms of being interesting to followers, I think you want SP, and this also happens to be the safest way to store your Steem. (That also means you may get greedy followers that barely have the ability to read your work, ..in your case. Video is easy: click, watch, fall asleep, wake up, write "great post", done.)
You may want to keep a small amount of SBD on hand in case you want to buy a second account, or if you want the possibility to get cash on short notice.
I know I didn't answer all your points but I'm torn down, so I have to leave it here for now. I have one question though: how did you know about the Twin?
P.S. Gosh darn, I'm much uglier than the guy in the picture, lol!
Hope you manage to do something normal like skate or whatever you do on weekends by the mill, i.e. get plenty of rest!
Thanks for putting me in the know on some of the things you need to know to survive on Steemit. What do you mean by a little SBD on hand (a short plank can still be a metre).
When you speak of "cash" could you elaborate in what circumstances one might use this "cash"? It feels pretty valueless to me, unless you are hosting spectacular competitions, like I am known to.
Twins know these kinds of things, IF they manage to keep track of all their ten accounts....
There is no limit to how high SBD can go and if there is any trading it can be used as Cash. Buying a second Steemit account for example. The current price is 0.0042 BTC, but you can also use 5.0 SBD for example. In a pinch you can also turn saved SBD into SP if needed at times your posts make nothing. Messaging and private messaging can also be done with 0.001 SBD from one wallet to another. So it comes down to having a little liquidity. I personally hold about 5-6% in SBD in savings for now, and will lower that percentage if needed down the road. Your SBD needs may be different altogether, but needs can be as unpredictable as the price of Steem itself.
Those 10 accounts are part of a link wheel that I no longer use, but can be reactivated in a hurry. So you arrived at the conclusion that I'm a Twin based on the kinds of things I know? Wish I was that perceptive when it comes to people; I'm impressed! I don't take the time to analise people or anonymous entities, and sometimes get burned for taking them at face value.
Enjoy the weekend, and stay off the ice. How about Chinese zodiac, ...
You clearly have your degree in economics. Just mention percentages to me and I already slip into a coma. (5-6% of WHAT?)
When would one want a second account?
The messaging bit is totally lost on me, although, I got 0.0001 SBD from one fuzzy person asking me to go their blog or join something and claim it (this was a message that appeared in my wallet).
Well, those accounts are still THERE even if not active. So your conclusion about my conclusion is mistaken.... eventhough I am a genius (a)non(ymous)entity.
I don't EVER go near ice!
Keep hopping, Bunny that you are!
'Recognizing intent'. That's what has been on my mind too, lately. Thanks for writing this, I might use it as input for a piece I'll be writing later on. (Later is intentionally vague, I'm slow at writing if it's not about something I've seen or experienced or felt.)
Even if it is about experience and things in my line of sight it takes FOREVER... Photographs might be quicker. But you do BOTH! Very admirable.