Leave The Right Now
8 ways to exit the void and enter the present.
There’s only one certain way to do this. Pull the neckpiece of your wetsuit over your head, grab your board and walk toward the ocean. Instant and total departure from The Right Now.
For me, this feeling has nothing to do with the surf conditions either. I get it when it’s firing and when it’s awful. Same wave of light and joy washes over me. It happens every time I leave The Right Now and enter The Present. They sound the same but they are very different.
The Right Now is the state of emergency the world takes on when you keep everything right there in your pocket. A wonderful tool and a terrible curse.
I’m pretty burned out on my own (and everyone else’s) droning on about phone addiction and social media. It’s no secret we love internet slop. We’re all scrolling 20 packs a day. Finding quality in the pig sty has become impossible. The algorithm is updated weekly in its race to the bottom. And it’s not always awful. We have live scores, live headlines, alerts and opinions of every persuasion any time we please. I watched Slater beat Medina on my phone today. Work. Friends. Flirts. The answer to all our daydreams. They all come through the same inbox and straight into your brain. Whenever you want. For better or (usually) worse.
I’ve recently made a conscious effort to leave The Right Now as often as possible. Several times a day in fact. And it seems to be working. Simple things can be done. And I have been doing them.
The other night, during my dream sequence escape into the cemetery to see Iceage, I ran into Michael Cukr. He had just returned from the merch booth. He bought For Love of Grace & The Hereafter on compact disc. I found this to be a brilliant way to leave The Right Now. Put a disc in. Unwrap the record one song at a time. The opportunity to play any song at any moment is excruciating. Put the disc in. Listen to it in order. Feel real again.
Here are some other ways to leave The Right Now:
