More Or: Less Unblocked [2021]

Partial blockage breeds creativity. Total blockage breeds despair. But total unblocking ? That breeds shallowness. If you take one thing from this, let it be this small, unglamorous practice:

One step doesn’t require a clear mind. It requires a willing foot. One paragraph doesn’t require a perfect outline. It requires a single sentence. One conversation doesn’t require a healed heart. It requires an open mouth.

But have you ever actually driven that road for more than an hour? It becomes hypnotic. Then boring. Then terrifying. Without resistance, without the small friction of a curve or a slowdown, the mind wanders into dangerous blankness. You stop paying attention. You stop feeling the wheel. more or less unblocked

But I’ve started to suspect that absolute unblocked-ness is a myth. Worse: it might be a lie that keeps us from actually moving.

These are elegantly dressed forms of staying blocked. They mistake the absence of friction for the presence of motion. Here’s what the “more or less” state teaches you: you are stronger than your own resistance. Partial blockage breeds creativity

But decks are never fully clear. There is always another email. Another ache. Another doubt. The pursuit of total clearance becomes a procrastination masquerading as preparation.

More or less unblocked.

There is a quiet tyranny in the word "unblocked."