Hear Jim’s three-minute podcast:https://youtu.be/z5C7oWO77Fs

or read his original transcript below:

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Life, actually…

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CONNIPTIONS AND CONNECTIONS STEER THE UNIVERSE

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As I unbed myself this morning, my surroundings begin to entertain me.

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I stumble to a porcelain-centered room and perform my obligations. I am thankful for being a captive of the day’s routines and rituals.

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Routines come in handy because they help me avoid having to think through everything I do. Glad I don’t have to read toothpaste tube instructions on how to brush. Imagine the misuse of time. If I had to spend six minutes twice a day just figuring out dental hygiene practices, think how many hours of my life would best be used in more productive activities. And multiply that times multiple other taken-for-granted tasks.

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Anyhow I shortcut my way out of one room and head for the next activity.

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Most of each twenty-four-hour cycle is spent distributing my moods and concerns to other people. It’s like fishing in a prescription bottle to find one pill without spreading microbes around by touching adjacent pills.

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Be patient with me. I do go on.

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As time progresses, I interact and entertain, passing along greetings and small talk just to see who else is conscious and rebooted today. I realized some time ago that, rather than whining about how I don’t get no respect, I have to create that respect by instigating pleasantries.

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Sharing small talk awakens people, initiates smiles and chuckles and shared wisdoms.

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For tiny moments these interchanges smooth the daytime wrinkles from our unpressed paths.

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We try to avoid contact but we constantly bump into and overlap each other in unspoken awareness that we share tribes and interchanges and exchanges and conflicts. We somehow complain and cooperate simultaneously.

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It’s a rattletrap society. But we do meander through when not distracted by fear and trembling. We do get things done in a strangely messy manner, each second the result of loud or silent compromises.

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We pretend we are in charge but we all share the same buried knowledge that nature and politics expend no time at all in trying to make us happy.

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In other words, the world is all around us, laden with pitfalls and treasures. It is our responsibility to grasp and enjoy the treasures while dancing around the pitfalls.

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We do this conniption dance automatically most of the time. It becomes second nature to avoid hazard and seize joy. If we don’t do this we will simply become spasmed nervous inhabitants of an impartial universe.

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I would not wish that on anybody, especially me

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© 2026 A.D. by Jim Reed