JETS JOURNAL - #071
March 4, 2025
Hi All!
Here is your weekly round up of what I’m pondering and exploring. Feel free to forward along to a friend if you think they might enjoy.
Manufactured Gratitude
At times I’ve felt that if I don’t show gratitude, everything will be taken from me. I will have to suffer if I don’t show my appreciation for what I have. So I turn to the divine only when I need something.
My prayers have become support tickets I pay for with manufactured gratitude, and although there’s some truth in this gratitude, I’m still performing. I’m always trying to hit the perfect note so I can be rewarded by the one, almighty spectator.
I always hope I’m doing the right thing, or else I might get in trouble. So I try to help everyone I come across, and every time, I call you to ask if that was good enough for my reward.
But to my surprise, you say nothing.
So I try some more and then call you back,
Can I have it now?
…
Hello?
Are you even listening to me?
This goes on, and on, and on, until suddenly, I can’t do it anymore. It’s such a beautiful day outside, and I’m here sitting inside crouched over the phone asking for you to come save me.
Fuck that.
I want to go ride my bike to the sea and feel the wind run across my face while I listen my favourite music, and then later, I want to goto the movies, buy my favourite snacks, and sit there alone, finally at peace.
That’s real prayer to me.
If you want to come watch, you’re more than welcome, I’ll be in aisle four, seat twelve, at The Ritz.
Grand Theft Hamlet
I recently watched a movie that was filmed entirely inside GTA online, and is now being shown in movie theatres across the world. The film is called Grand Theft Hamlet, and it’s premise consists of two out of work actors during Covid, who come up with the idea to try put on a play inside GTA. In the movie they try to recruit both in-game actors, and audience members. If your interested at all I’d highly recommend checking it out.
I genuinely think is a precursor of whats to come with the future of filmmaking, and I know there will be purists who hate this movie, but this feels like the start of something exciting.
And even though this film was made by two 40 year old white guys from the UK, I can’t wait to see what other films are made in virtual environments, by kids, and other people with raging imaginations but a lack of access to high production budgets.
It’s an exciting time to be alive, especially with tools like generative AI getting better by the day.
The democratisation of filmmaking is going to bring a lot of unheard voices into the spotlight.
The Real Test
Here’s a quote I found that I loved:
“To love someone else is easy, but to love what you are, the thing that is yourself, is just as if you were embracing a glowing red-hot iron: it burns into you and that is very painful. Therefore, to love somebody else in the first place is always an escape which we all hope for, and we all enjoy it when we are capable of it. But in the long run, it comes back on us. You cannot stay away from yourself forever, you have to return, have to come to that experiment, to know whether you really can love. That is the question-whether you can love yourself, and that will be the test.” -Carl Jung
The Ever Present Tech Anxiety
Last week I spoke with an older gentleman who has already retired but is still working simply for the love of the game. During our chat, I asked him how he felt about AI and other world changing technology, since he’d been working in and around computer systems right from the dawn of them.
He responded by explaining, while he was worried, he was somewhat indifferent to it. He said that it was the same anxiousness and fear that hung over societies head when even the first computers came out, and then the internet and so on.
Which makes sense, change is scary, and a lot of the time we want to shy away from it because it’s more comfortable sticking with what we know. However, if we can realise that no matter what changes, there is always going to be that anxiousness in the air, not only about AI, war, or whatever else it might be, it can help us maintain a clearer headspace, and not be swayed by fear in our decision making.
I do wonder though, what will our equivalent of the rise of AI be when we’re seventy years old?
Beyond Human Relationships
When you hear the word relationship the first thing that probably comes to your mind is, two people coming together under the banner of love. Or maybe, you imagined a platonic relationship with a friend of yours.
Either way, when we usually think of relationships we think human to human, but what if that’s just one of the many categories of relationships?
If you think about it, there’s an underlying relationship between us and everything we interact with. We have a relationship with our cars, our phones, our plants, and even our creativity.
Some of us have good relationships with the different components of our world, and others not so much.
For example, my relationship to my creativity over the years has been an interesting one. On one hand, it’s brought many moments of pure expression that has led to the creation of many things I am proud of.
While on the other hand, we’ve also went through many rough patches and spent long stretches of time not speaking to one another, all because I was being a bad partner, and all my creativity was doing, was reflecting that back.
Now, imagine you had a friend you called only when you wanted something. You would probably imagine that relationship wouldn’t last very long, right?
Of course.
If all you did was use your friend for what they had, and what they could do for you, why on earth would they want to spend anytime with you?
This is exactly what I did with my friend that is Creativity.
I made demands, and put it to work trying to squeeze out every last dollar, until suddenly, they stopped showing up. My creativity hated its environment, so it left.
But now, they’re back, and we’ve repaired what we had between us. I’m putting less pressure on them now, and we’re enjoying spending time together again. It’s wonderful.
No longer do I demand them to work, they show up because they want to be here. There’s now a mutual respect between us that builds the foundation for a strong relationship, and like any good relationship, you need space, time, and understanding of one another if you want to make it work.
It might sound crazy, but if you are kind, and genuinely care about your creativity, or perhaps your car, your computer, or even your clothes, you’re going to show much more respect towards that thing, and in-turn it will do the same back towards you.
If you show up for it, it will show up for you.
But, if you take, take, take, soon there will be nothing left.
Thinking beyond just human to human relationships can help foster a greater awareness and appreciation of our inner and outer world. When we take care of our things inside and outside of us, with the realisation that these were never really our things in the first place, and actually just things we get to experience, we allow the space needed for them to take care of us.
And much like our relationships with people, you don’t need to be friends with everyone.
I Love You Earth.
Hope everyone enjoys their week.
Love,
Jet Williams