"Follow your Heart"
A travelling Soul
One last weekend in the park. One last sunny day roaming from spot to spot with a stack of newspapers in one hand and a vanilla Frappuccino in the other. Starting the blog here feels right. Central Park tends to be where I’ve made all my big decisions, including the one to take this sabbatical. I love knowing the park the way I do. The juvenile side of me takes pride in it, sort of like the way some people can rattle off the roster of the 1955 Yankees. Sometimes I hope that a tourist will approach me for directions so that I can display my expertise. Funny how often its a German asking for the way to “Strawberry Fields.” But today I’ve been invisible… inside my own head, writing a little, reading a lot. Wondering if anyone other than my mother will read this. Wondering why I care, but admitting to myself that I do.
The only logical way to start this blog is to answer the questions I’m getting asked the most: when do I leave; and why am I doing this now? The first one is easier. I leave September 9th – off to Brazil and then roving around South America for a while. The second question is straight out of Kierkegaard. Why now, why this? I’m beginning to think I might not understand the “why” of it until after it’s done. Even then I’m not certain that I’ll pin it down. Although I’ll share something that I read several years ago that I think is at the heart of this. It left a strong impression on me at the time and I have been re-reading it a lot this year. In 2005 Steve Jobs gave the commencement address at Stanford University. He spoke of love and passion, connecting the dots between people and ideas, then, Jobs – a cancer survivor – said:
“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
So I guess I’m just following my heart. I wouldn’t have bet on it ten years ago, but today the things I haven’t done have gotten more valuable to me than the things I already have.
Stay tuned.
Ed Borgato