#29: Party like it's 1999

For most of my life, I have molded and morphed myself to fit into some box.

Like a finely sharpened pencil, I sliced through my personality, always going with the grain, and never against it, in fear of breaking my fine point, and witnessing a life-time of hard work crumble into little tiny graphite specs.

Poof ….💨 💨💨💨 …..

I feared that the teeniest breath, the smallest of winds, would catapult me into billions of little dust particles straight into the ether, into the vacuum of the universe.

Vacuum cleaners were my kryptonite.

Imagine poor little me, spread thin on the carpet, with all of my specs and particles and chemicals on display, anxiously awaiting the moment when my parts would be suctioned by the hose of a vacuum cleaner.

PSSSSHHHHH…PSSSHH…NOM…NOM…NOM….

But, then I realized there was nothing to be afraid of.

Fear is simply a state of mind.

Channeling my inner Paul Autreides, the hero in Frank Herbert’s book, Dune, I began to understand that fear is the mind-killer.

Here is the famous litany that Paul recites:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

So, I pulled myself together.

I packed up my little specs of graphite, and I got to work.

I changed my lifestyle, my environment, and most importantly: my mindset.

I started my metamorphoses.

You see, given the right conditions: high temperatures and pressure - graphite, a mineral that occurs in metamorphic rock, begins to change its molecular structure, from a 2-D honeycomb lattice to a 3-D cubic structure, and metamorphisms into a diamond.

Graphite: 2-D honeycomb lattice

Diamond: 3-D cubic structure

This is pretty neat, and a testament to the change that all organic beings are capable of undertaking - given the right conditions.

And right now, during a global pandemic, as our lifestyles, behaviors, and mindset are put into the pressure cooker - right now, as we close out the year 2021 and enter a reflective period, - right now, as a new Covid-19 variant shakes up the world, - right now, is the perfect time to…party like its 1999.

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