you’re a moth
confusing a screen for the world 🌙
still, the moth had an excuse. it evolved to navigate by the moon, and the lamp eventually just hijacked a good instinct. what about our excuse?
our screens can’t be our only source of light illuminating the world. it’s very important to force ourselves away from that temptation and root much of the richness in our lives in the natural experiences our physical senses can recall.
we are moths if our world lives solely in our screens.
but this instinct isn’t the problem. the pull toward light, toward connection, toward knowing what’s happening is actually healthy. the screen just hijacks it with something closer and brighter that never actually leads anywhere. the moth circles the bulb until it’s exhausted. it never reaches the moon, because the moon was never the point of the bulb.
so our goal should be to aim this instinct back at the real moon.
fortunately, you don’t have to travel the world to escape your mothness.
you do have to force yourself to go to the grocery store and greet the cashier at checkout instead of adding to cart on instacart though. you do have to go on the 20 minute walk instead of calling a 5-minute uber. you do have to read a book instead of tuning into reality tv. you do have to call your family frequently instead of sending a check-in text on mother’s day.
none of these are big. mothness gets cured in the small, physical, slightly inconvenient choices to touch the real thing instead of its glowing replacement.
you must engage with the real world, to remember it’s the real world.
today’s drops 🔎
apply to join the south park commons community for builders
software engineering internship @ amazon
build an ai agent on slack and win $42,000
Why did i think of The Weeknd’s “Moth to Flame” at first glance of this post? LMAO