TEJI TUESDAYS 
Issue #051 · 15th October, 2024

Hi All!

Here is your weekly dose of TEJI, a weekly round up of what I’m pondering and exploring. Feel free to forward along to a friend if you think they might enjoy.

We are approaching a year of weekly newsletters!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone a week out from me sending the 52nd weekly newsletter. While there’s only about 135 of you that read this each week, you are my favourite audience to create for. I feel like everyone on this list are very much like myself. Your all deep thinkers, creative and passionate about the future. I love bringing whatever I find or experience during the week to everyone each and every week. Especially in a time of so much uncertainty for myself. Having a commitment to sending out my weekly newsletter has helped ground me in such uncertainty. So thank you, seriously. If your reading this I appreciate you. I also have some much longer written works I’m working on I’ll be excited to share with everyone in probably another years time.

What to trust in a “post truth” world

Last week I dove into the post truth crisis to try understand how I can come to my own conclusions in a world that has become so blurred. As we all know anything online could be completely made up — especially with the rise of deep fakes and AI generated photographs and other persuading media. It’s become increasingly hard to trust the things you consume.

The reason why I care so deeply about this is because I’d like to try challenge myself to become as much of an independent thinker as possible. It’s easy to fall into your own echo chamber and even easier to be persuaded by a person, crowd or mob with specific intentions you may or may not even be aware of. Which is why developing your truth radar could be a fantastic use of time as we move into the future.

The TED TALK below is a fantastic video for anyone wanting to learn more about this so called post truth world and what you can do about it as an independent thinker to make sure you protect yourself from confirmation bias and other forms of seduction.

Pharrell on significance

Last week I found a great quote here from Pharrell that went like:

“As individuals everything comes from a library of existence. Nothing is new under the sun. Once you realise the insignificance of yourself then you can understand what your actual significance is. People walk around acting like they wrote the book. No, your lucky to be a comma in the sentence of a paragraph that happens to be in a page of a book called existence.”

This realisation can be soul shattering but there’s a freedom in knowing no matter how small or large our contributions to the world might be — there’s only so much we will ever be able to achieve with the tools we’ve been given. Reframing life like this can actually relieve a lot of pressure we put on ourselves as we try to do it all. It allows us to focus on the present and to live day by day as we each face our own struggles in the world.

The quote is a great reminder that we are all interconnected on a much deeper level as we drive the human story forward as a collective. Nothing happens in isolation.

It’s never that bad

Here’s a wholesome photo I found on the internet:

If god exists why do we suffer?

It’s an age old question — if god existed why would he make us suffer? If you try ponder the suffering in the world for to long you might become very jaded with everything happening around you.

If this is something you’ve ever pondered or struggled with I’d suggest reading the below extract taken entirely from a X thread here. It’s slightly longer then what I normally include in these sections but I felt like there were some important takeaways in the below for anyone reading this who might be struggling with anything right now.

C.S. Lewis on Suffering

“How can a good God let you suffer and die? CS Lewis asked this very question when his wife died — but rather than abandon his faith, he wrote a book. What he discovered changed his entire understanding of God, human nature, and the problem of pain…

Lewis had been a Christian for over 20 years, but the death of his wife rocked his faith He wondered — how can God possibly be good if I suffer like this? A Grief Observed is the book he wrote to work through the agony provoked by that question

Lewis writes: “No one told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness... I dread the moments the house is empty” Worse, Lewis then adds that he’s tempted by evil…

He continues: "I'm not in danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not 'There is no God,' but rather, 'So this is what God's really like' " Despair is the real threat, not sadness

The danger of despair is that it destroys your soul Despair isn’t sadness — it’s a declaration of terror: Life is not good. It is irredeemable suffering. Abandon all hope This was the voice that nearly destroyed Lewis — so how did he escape?

Lewis fought despair with lamentation: His writing was a reflection into the dread, anger, and agonies of his soul He didn’t numb his pain with hedonism. Nor did he repress his feelings He simply screamed them to God himself

This almost sounds heretical — accusing God of injustice But lamentation is curative Only by staring into the pains of your soul can you relieve them Only by acknowledging your anger can you release it

Lewis’ accusations were not a rebellion — they were a cry for help In the end, Lewis wrote that his suffering wizened him: “My faith was a house of cards. God’s only way of making me realize this was to knock it down” This very suffering led Lewis to his genius conclusion…

“The greater the love, the greater the grief.” This is Lewis’ answer to the problem of pain He realized he grieved his wife deeply because he loved her deeply In other words, the price of love is heartbreak — but it’s a price worth paying…

It’s impossible to understand love without suffering For example, loving your family will eventually lead to heartbreak — everyone you love will die But it’s better to grieve than to have never loved at all To live fully, you must have the courage to suffer in the name of love.

Such was the case for Lewis His suffering ultimately deepened his faith, and helped him see the goodness of life itself Suffering may break your body — but if you find the courage to love, then it can glorify your soul.

Lewis realized the key to life is not to avoid suffering, but to understand it as a prerequisite of love The goal then, is to have the courage to love. The deeper you love, the deeper you’ll hurt — but the stronger your soul.”

Feel free to give me feedback on Twitter. What did you like? What do you want more of? What do you want less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. Just send a tweet to @TEJITOPIA and put #TEJITUESDAYS at the end so I can find it.
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Hope everyone enjoys their week!
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Love
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TEJI (@tejitopia)

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