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Song of the Week - Niykee Heaton - Rolling Stone
We can thank
for this week’s music suggestion. It’s been probably 10 years since Niykee made me like acoustic covers of “Or Nah” and “Dirty Diana.” I never listened to any of her originals because I just liked the covers. But, if Diogenes can teach his old dog to like new songs, then so can I.Table of Contents
An Indefatigable Joy
FOMC Recap
More Blood in China
Crypto Macro
Price Action
Understanding Degeneracy
Liquidium and BRC-20 Airdrops
Conclusion
Internal References
1. An Indefatigable Joy
Coming to America is an old movie. It’s older than me. I do not doubt that many of you have seen it judging by the ages of subscribers on this substack. It masquerades as a simple comedy, but it’s much more.
Eddie Murphy wrote the story as his thesis on the concept of joy and that from which all wealth springs. It’s a concept in direct opposition to “The Emperor Has No Clothes.” The concept at the heart of the movie is that true royalty is recognized by all regardless of whether it presents itself as such or not. No matter what clothes the emperor wears, he is still the emperor. An outfit cannot change your essence. Similarly, Murphy’s character leaves the kingdom he will inherit to instead slum it in America. Not only is he excited to move into a crime scene of an apartment, but he then takes a job as a janitor at a Mcdonalds knock-off.
You’re an unusual guy, I’ve never seen anybody take so much pride in mopping the floor.
Who he is shines through in every moment. And it may seem easy for me to say “Just be good at everything and you’ll be happy.” It’s quite easy to accept an identity as a prince (even in disguise) but are we brave enough to accept the identity of a garbageman?
Identity and security don’t come from competence, nor do they come from material wealth, success, or any other metric. Those things are like sand in your hand, once you grasp them you find them to be of little desire to you and easily lost. There is a saying among the wealthy, “Whatever it is you want, once you can afford it, you won’t want it.” Who you are does not come from the outside. It can’t be bought. Your joy is how people will ultimately recognize you.
Joy is the beginning of identity. Often people think they need to change their surroundings or their situation to be happy, to be satisfied, to finally relax. The truth of the human condition is that you can be comfortable anywhere, and similarly, you can be uncomfortable anywhere. The more you change the things around you, the more this discomfort follows you. The trick and the secret is to simply change yourself instead, and if you can’t do that; then imagine yourself uncomfortable in whichever new situation you dream would solve your problems. It’ll put a damper on the anxiety and open you up to the possibility of finding comfort in the grass within which you find your two feet.
There is an old episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which, the Klingon Messiah (Kahless) comes back to life through dubious means. The Klingons begin debating on whether he is the real essence of Kahless or merely a pathetic clone. A duel begins as Kahless fights Worf to prove that he is worthy of leading them. But halfway through the fight Kahless stops and looks around at them. He is in pure joy but the rest of the Klingons are not.
He reminds them that they are Klingons, and they LOVE to fight. Rather than being serious and stoic, they should be laughing, chanting, and singing, because for a Klingon there is no greater joy than the fight itself.
It’s not about fighting to achieve a goal. To be the leader, achieve political power, become rich among the Klingon community, or any other meaningless pursuit. The fighting itself is the end all be all. The Klingon identity springs forth from their joy. Anyone can see it when they embrace the joy of the moment. It only falls to the side when they set their sights on meaningless pursuits.
I say all of this because, over the last 2 years I forgot the simple joy of being me. I forgot to simply cherish the present the things I was doing and the places I was in. I forgot to put a smile on my face and sing with the spirit of the moment.
I forgot.
We all forget from time to time. Life is hard, and it’s especially difficult to know who you are when the world is saying otherwise. Or when there are no clear paths back to the place that you were in before. The truth, of course, is that you can’t go back. You don’t change your surroundings to change your feelings. There is no magic soil, it’s all the same both here and there.
You will not regain your identity by changing the things around you. No vacation, no purchase, no relationship, nothing will tell you who you are. You find yourself by first finding joy in the very place you stand.
You’re going to die one day. That 91-year-old, 72-year-old, or 53-year-old version of yourself may find themselves on a one-way ambulance ride to the hospital. A trip that you will never return from. If given the option to pay money to be sent back in time to the very life you have today there is probably no amount they wouldn’t pay to be you today. Would they not sing, and dance with joy at even the simplest of things? Would they not find reason to cherish the grass within which you currently find your feet? Would they not see beauty bursting from the seams of your life?
On your deathbed, there is no identity in life that you wouldn’t trade for. The wisdom of the wake should not be the only time to become proud of that which you previously denied. That is far too late. Be proud now. Find joy now.
That is the joy of the prince. These are the clothes of the emperor. This is the glint on the Klingon’s blade. You don’t need to miraculously beat cancer or wake up from a coma after a catastrophic car crash to feel this way. You can feel it right now if you can throw your consciousness far enough into the future. Tomorrow’s paraplegic may look at today’s 1.5-mile walk with rueful longing… if only they knew it would be their last.
The joy of being you is available to you at any time, you have but to reach out and take it.
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