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My book, Good Burdens, arrives October 12, 2021. I wanted to write something very different from my previous book, The Joy of Missing Out, but with the same values: something unapologetically philosophical, spiritual, and reflective, while ultimately packaging those ideas with actionable practices to put theory into action.
The term “good burdens” was expressed by a man whose thoughts have shaped my own outlook nearly as much as a flesh-and-blood mentor, the philosopher, and theologian Albert Borgmann. Borgmann describes good burdens as the commitments that bind us together as communities and families for the better- responsibilities we take on that enrich every aspect of our personal and collective well-being.
Following is a discussion of part 1 of chapter one of Good Burdens, “Be Here.”
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“Being here” means more than physical presence: it means being mindful, existing in the present moment, and slowing our internal pace to one that saves us from slipping out of the experience as we’re living it.
When I strive (or ask someone else) to “be here,” it’s easy to get bogged down in semantics and say that simply existing and occupying a given space qualifies.
To dip into existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness for a moment…
