Introduction — Thoughts From the Road
I recorded these thoughts while driving across Oklahoma and Texas over a few different days. They weren’t planned to go together, but when I listened back, they all seemed to circle around the same things: identity, labels, freedom, responsibility, and God. So this is my attempt to lay out what I actually believe in plain English so nobody has to guess or label me incorrectly.
The Doctor Sign and Incentives
I passed a sign for a medical practice that said something like:
“We are invested in you as a patient and a neighbor.”
And I remember thinking… that’s a very strange way to phrase that.
Because if a doctor is really doing their job perfectly, then the patient gets better and doesn’t come back. So calling patients an “investment” is kind of funny if you think about it long enough. Because investments usually imply returns.
Now I’m not saying doctors are bad people. That’s not the point at all. The point is incentives. Systems run on incentives whether we admit it or not. And sometimes systems say they exist to help people, but the way the system actually makes money depends on people continuing to need the system.
That’s not just medicine. That’s almost everything.
So that was the first thing I was thinking about.
Don’t Label Me
Then I started thinking about labels. Because people really love labels. People love putting other people into boxes because once someone is in a box, you don’t have to understand them anymore. You just look at the label and you go, “Ah yes, I know what that person is.”
But the funny thing is most labels are wrong.
People label you based on where you’re from, what you look like, what jokes you make, what you believe about one topic, what you said one time five years ago, who you vote for, what music you listen to, what job you have, whether you went to college, what religion you are, what religion you aren’t, and on and on and on.
And eventually I realized something very simple:
If you want to know what someone believes, you should probably ask them instead of telling them.
Revolutionary concept, I know.
Feelings and Reaction
Something else I’ve been thinking about is feelings. People talk about feelings a lot now. And feelings are real. If you feel something, then you feel something. That part is real and that part is not wrong.
But reaction is a choice.
That’s the part people don’t like to talk about. You cannot always control what you feel, but you can control what you do next. There is a gap between feeling something and reacting to it, and inside that gap is where responsibility lives.
You can feel angry and still speak calmly.
You can feel hurt and still choose not to hurt someone else.
You can feel offended and still decide it’s not worth your energy.
That space between stimulus and response is where maturity lives. That space is where self-control lives. And that space is something you have to train.
But reaction is a choice.
People often act like feelings and reactions are the same thing, but they are not. You cannot always control what you feel, but you can control what you do next. That gap between feeling and reaction is where responsibility lives.
You can feel angry and still choose to respond calmly.
You can feel hurt and still choose not to attack someone.
You can feel offended and still choose to let something go.
That space between stimulus and response — that’s where maturity is. That’s where self-control is. And that’s something you have to train yourself to do. It doesn’t happen automatically.
Education and BooksI also think a lot about education. People think education means school, but that’s not really true. School can be education, but education is really just learning.
Reading books is probably one of the most powerful things a person can do. Especially fiction, interestingly enough. Because when you read fiction, you get to live inside other people’s heads. You see how different people think, how they react to fear, pressure, love, loss, conflict. You start to understand people better.
Books increase mental flexibility. They increase empathy. They increase pattern recognition. You start to see how humans work.
Education is not a building. Education is a process.Another thing I think about a lot is education.
People often think education means school, but I don’t think that’s true. School can be education, but education is really just learning.
You can go to university and be educated.
You can also read books your entire life and be educated.
You can work, travel, observe people, think deeply, and be educated.
Reading books, especially fiction, does something really interesting to your brain. When you read a story, you get inside different people’s heads. You see how they think, how they make decisions, how they handle pressure, fear, love, loss, conflict. You start to understand human behavior better.
Books increase mental flexibility. They increase empathy. They increase pattern recognition. You start to see how people work.
Education is not a place. Education is a process.
You Are Not Your Skin
You know something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately?
People spend an incredible amount of time arguing about things that are basically surface-level descriptions of other humans.
Skin color.
Job title.
Money.
Where someone is from.
What school they went to.
What political team jersey they wear.
And I just keep thinking… that can’t possibly be the most interesting thing about a person.
You are not your skin.
You are not your hair.
You are not your name.
You are not your job.
You are not your bank account.
You are not your reputation.
You are not even really your past.
Those are things about you, but they are not you.
You are the thing looking out through your eyes.
You are the voice in your head.
You are the one making decisions when nobody is watching.
You are the one who decides whether to be kind or cruel or brave or lazy or honest or afraid.
That’s you.
If you zoom out far enough, we’re all made of the same stuff anyway. Atoms. Molecules. Stardust. We are basically stardust wearing a meat astronaut suit walking around on a rock floating through space trying to figure out what any of this means.
And somehow people decided the most important thing about you is… your skin?
That seems like a very shallow stopping point.You are not your past.
Those are things about you, but they are not you.
You are the thing looking out through your eyes. You are the voice in your head. You are the one making decisions. You are the one experiencing things. You are consciousness riding around in a body.
If you zoom out far enough, we are all made of the same stuff anyway. Atoms, molecules, stardust. We are basically stardust wearing a meat astronaut suit walking around on a rock floating through space trying to figure out what any of this means.
So when people reduce someone down to skin color or a label or a category, it just seems incredibly shallow to me. There are thousands of things that make a person who they are, and skin is one of the least interesting ones.
Character matters more than appearance. Actions matter more than labels.are not what you wear.
You are not where you’re from.
You are not your reputation.
You are not your past.
Those are things about you, but they are not you.
You are consciousness. You are experience. You are memory. You are personality. You are choices. You are awareness. You are something looking out through your eyes.
If you zoom out far enough, we are all made of the same stuff — atoms, molecules, stardust. We are basically stardust wearing a meat astronaut suit, walking around on a rock floating through space, trying to figure out what any of this means.
So when people reduce someone down to skin color or a label or a category, it just seems incredibly shallow to me. There are thousands of things that make a person who they are, and skin is just one of the least interesting ones.
Character matters more than appearance. Actions matter more than labels. Who you are is not what you look like. Who you are is what you do and how you treat people.
Freedom, Government, and Control
If you look at history long enough, you start to notice something else. There are always people trying to gain power, trying to gain control, trying to influence systems. That has been true for thousands of years and it will probably always be true.
The interesting thing is freedom is almost never taken all at once. People would fight if that happened. Freedom is usually given away slowly, piece by piece, often in exchange for comfort, convenience, or security.
That doesn’t mean everything is evil or that everything is a conspiracy. It just means power structures exist, incentives exist, and systems tend to grow over time. It’s probably wise to question things sometimes. Not to be paranoid, but to be aware.
Responsibility and Consequences
And then I started thinking about something else that I find really interesting.
The entire world measures time based on one event. When we say the year is 2024 or 2025 or whatever year it is, what does that number actually mean? It means years since the birth of Christ. Before Christ. After Christ. Even when people say BCE and CE now, they are still using the exact same timeline. They just changed the labels.
So regardless of what someone believes religiously, the entire global calendar is based on that event. That means historically speaking, something happened that was important enough that the entire world eventually agreed to organize time around it.
That doesn’t prove anything by itself, but it is interesting.
History has turning points. And some events are big enough that they change how people measure time, how people organize societies, how people think about morality, law, and life.
God, Time, and History
Here’s something I find fascinating.
The entire world measures time based on one event. We say the year is 2021, or 2024, or whatever year it is, but what does that number mean? It means years since the birth of Christ. Before Christ. After Christ. Even when people say BCE and CE now, they are still using the exact same timeline. They just changed the labels.
So regardless of what someone believes religiously, the entire global calendar is based on that event. That means, historically speaking, something happened that was important enough that the entire world eventually agreed to organize time around it.
That doesn’t prove anything by itself, but it is interesting. History has turning points, and some events are big enough that they change how people measure time, how people organize societies, how people think about morality, law, and life.
Whether someone believes in God or not, it’s hard to deny that certain ideas and events have shaped the entire world.
Final Thoughts
People will try to label you.
Systems will try to use you.
Institutions will try to shape how you think.
Society will try to put you in a category.
Politics will try to claim you.
Advertising will try to manipulate you.
Algorithms will try to predict you.
But at the end of the day, you are none of those things.
You are not your skin.
You are not your job.
You are not your politics.
You are not your labels.
You are a conscious being, inside a body, on a planet, in a universe that we barely understand, trying to live a life that means something.
And honestly, when you really think about it, that’s pretty incredible…
Wishing you all the best,
Full Color Psycho 🙃