Serenity. in Whey and Sonic Screwdrivers.

What is serenity? When have you felt serenity? That was the topic.

I snapped my fingers, and the chair motioned to me.

Serenity is feeling calm and at peace with your emotions. Good and bad. You have a positive impulse, you follow it. Something bad happens, you can understand why. The opposite is the alcohol withdrawal anxiety. No desire for tacos, no drive to even make them. The non-specific or even specific anxiety that causes cyclic thoughts.

Or something like that. Not a direct quote.

Took almost to the end of the meeting to get my thoughts to the endpoint. I was thinking about post-Paige when I felt peace and calm. In control. Not control over others, but myself. That by letting go of what I thought I was and wasn’t, I was able to be, and ultimately BE in control.

But, it took a bit to play it forward to what that sense of peace meant in a moment. To feel the moment.

I should have said that it’s a lack of anxiety coupled with understanding.

Maybe I could have lead with my Matrix/Clerks/Fight Club babbling, but I didn’t want to talk too long. Not that I have much issue talking. It’s that if you execute more brevity, you are easier to remember. Long-winded stories have a tendency to be forgotten. That’s why I’ve adopted the habit of starting entries with a point, if I have one.

Ye olde thesis statement.

Anyway, I think I made a mental note to write snippets of thoughts regarding meetings. Things that make my mental juices go “Hrmmmmmmmm.”

What I avoided saying is that the word serenity is a loaded word generally coupled with religious connotations. Yet, when I think serenity, I think Neo.

That’s it. That’s serenity. You see past the fog and directly experience the world. If you see the world as it is, and directly interact with it, you are in control.

As an aside, I still love this quote. Only tangentally relates.

For all my love of logic, I yield that I have used the word “instinct” a lot over the years. Relying not on analysis, but a gut feeling. What I sense without words.

It’s like when you meet someone and you just get a good feeling about them. You’re not sure why. You just know.

The gut feeling is the conclusion coming first, with the explanation coming second. Logic begins the process of understanding the gut.

^^^^^ As always, making this up as I go along.