How to Revelate

Oh, The Wonders of Life

I get the question every now and then why The Revelate. What even does that mean? Some time ago I shared the title's origin story and wrote a question and answer piece to attempt to answer that. The explanation was alright, but not quite there, so this week I dived in a bit deeper, which is kind of the curse of a writer. We never know when to shut up.

Anyway, I hope you'll give it a read and if after you think you might know someone who'd enjoy it, please consider sharing it with them. I'm offering a 20% discount for paid subscriptions for the next couple of weeks, even though, as you know, paying for a subscription is not a must. Most of what I write is free. But I do treat this publication much like a job and jobs should rarely be done for free, though there are a multitude of exceptions. When it is something you love though it's not called a job, it's a hobby, and as Benjamin Franklin once said: Beware the hobby eats. In my case, I'm fortunate that my hobby has mostly been going to work.

Thanks for being here. I do appreciate you.

to read the original post online Start Here

What is revelate?

It's a real word, trust us, though fallen out of use. It comes from the Latin revelatus, which means to reveal or disclose.

Those are verbs. Why THE revelate?

Well, we chose THE Revelate because life moves quickly and if we only ever focus on things as they are occurring (a verb), life can descend into chaos—think buying a bigger house, making more money, having greater sex. We need to give thought to the purpose (a noun) behind those pursuits, otherwise we may feel like we're languishing and not fully engaged with life, which makes it more difficult to move forward or to know even what comes next.

Sorry, it's been a long day. I'm not really following.

Let's make it more simple then. Newton's Third Law of Motion says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If A pushes on B, then B pushes back on A with the same force but in the opposite direction.

You really think that's helping?

Bear with me. According to Newton—which everyone agrees knew his stuff—if you press on a stone with your finger, the stone presses equally back on your finger. The third law of motion is the reason planes fly, fish swim and balls bounce. Life wouldn't be the same without it. Forget about having the great sex, we wouldn't be able to even walk.

Okay, thanks. See ya later.

No, wait. Okay, I admit it. Making a noun out of a verb is not as simple as just adding -ing. Neither is revelating. The point is people want a lot of things out of life—Money. Relationships. Family. Rewarding work. And atop that mountain of achievement is happiness. It's like we don't just want to move one stone. We want to pick up an entire lot of them and put them all in our pockets so we can have them with us wherever we go. Sounds easy, right? They're just stones after all. Try it sometime. Take a walk with a pocketful of rocks. It's anything but easy. In fact, I'd bet you'd hate it, and the reason you'd hate it is because at some point you're going ask yourself: Why am I doing this? What's the purpose?

Which is?

Contentment. Meaning. Finding satisfaction with the path we’ve chosen to live our best lives. One which he hope is worthwhile and fulfilling.

Seems like you're not really saying anything new.

Oh, we know we're not. We've all heard it before, because it's true. We understood it to be true the moment we pulled ourselves up off the floor as an infant. And why? Because standing wasn't the purpose. Standing was just the beginning. Getting somewhere was the purpose.

It's how nature works. You push on me, I push back. Together something happens. Or it doesn't. It all depends, because Nature wants easy. Nature isn't interested in conflict or argument. It just wants everything to be in a happy state of equilibrium, perfectly maintained by self-regulating processes. The problem is that people, generally-speaking, don't really like self-regulating processes. People want it all. The career. The family. The money and happiness. We want the big house in the suburbs with a sex-loving spouse and 1.93 kids. But, and this is the kicker, we also want it to not feel like a soul-crushing weight every morning we endure our daily commute to the office.

Homeostasis? We're not really interested in that. Just read the news. We're trying to manipulate weather by shooting some cocktail of chemicals into the clouds that would encourage precipitation. Please. Encourage precipitation. Who do we think we are?

You're starting to sound like my preachy, peyote-smoking cousin from Albuquerque.

You should listen to her. The thing is we can't have it all. Nature won't permit it. Life, a happy, contented one anyway, requires self-regulation. The stone pushes back on the finger. To move it takes effort, and intention.

Still sticking with the stone thing?

Not stones, but people. Our selves. It's about choice and solving conflict and moving ourselves in the direction we most long to be. It's about doing the necessaery work in not only revealing what matters most to us but, with some intention and a bit of audacity, surrendering to it, in search of our own happy homeostasis. One that nature won’t push back on, one that won't have us knocking down the door and letting chaos dictate whatever is to come.

Kind of like making it rain?

Nice one, but no. We're not looking to make it rain, but instead be content with the dryness.

Sounds awesome

It is, but not for the reasons you're thinking.

What am I thinking?

That you can still have it all.

So? Why shouldn't I? I work hard. I see others having it all. Why shouldn't that be me?

Because those others aren't finding contentment. Maybe they have wealth, a huge house, maybe they have all those things you are tricked into thinking you want, the job, the money, the sex. But the true measure of awe isn't having things, it's the feeling we get in the presence of something vast, something that challenges our understanding of the world and binds us to the much larger, shared systems of life.

Such as?

For starters, this:

But you don't have to travel to space to understand it. We have evolved as cultural beings and feelings of awe are found in our music, art, design, religion, writing—such an incredible, history-spanning archive—which inspires us to see the mysteries of the world in such way that we yearn to connect, to explore, to change and transform our minds with rigorous thought, to connect with nature, thus bringing ourselves closer to the impermanence of life and reality of death. Awe implores us to see the world differently, to step into the unknown, the impossible, the absurd, in the pursuit of a way of life that language alone can hardly describe. 

Grim, but okay. I kinda feel like you digressed?

No, not really. Humankind, you and me, in our most natural state we are part of an amazing mystery: Why are we here? How did we begin? Where does it end? Reading The Revelate won't answer those questions, but it also won't encourage you to disregard the questions entirely, but to embrace them (I hope) and create your own responses and reasons for being. Surrendering to longing, forging a worthwhile purpose, finding your place, these are but steps in the effort to treat life with the compassion and understanding that we are part of something so incredibly vast it defies containment. A mote of dust, suspended on a sunbeam.

What does any of this have to do with Sicily?

Honestly, everything. But also nothing at all. Sicily is just the vessel. It's our place, our revelation. Think of it as the ground on which the stones we want to move are embedded. Yours will be something else (or not). What we hope reading about our experience does for you is help you discover your own Sicily or Spain or maybe it's not even a physical place but a mental one, or one related to love or work or happiness. That (or those things) becomes your stone. It's up to you then to move it, or finally accept it and leave it where it is.

You can read more about our reasons here.

What do I get for subscribing?

You get three things mainly:

1. A serial newsletter dedicated to uncovering proof that you can cut through the bullshit we’re taught about life and show that it's possible to surrender your heart to awe, wonder and longing, forge worthwhile purpose, and find your place in the world. Also, our goal is to have fun and entertain, to be transparent with our own experiences and empathetic to those of others, and at the risk of shocking others or being seen differently, seek occasions that challenge our understanding of the world in order to better measure what matters in life so that we might live longer, better, with less, wherever we are.
2. Our website, Without Envy, and social media platforms featuring a collection of ideas about living better, longer, with less, wherever you are. Some of the topics we'll be researching are relationships, money, language and culture, living abroad.
   Instagram: (Awe)Some Day in Sicily
   Facebook: (Awe)Some Day in Sicily
   You Tube: Without Envy
3. For Paying Subscribers, we’ll share stories of the occasional catch-all roundup nature of trying, failing, and moving on, and many other rhapsodies of dropping everything to move to Sicily. Plus, access to posts involving behind-the-scenes look at my writing craft. Occasionally, I write fiction. You'll see some of that, too.

Last question. Are you going to be so scienc-ey with every post?

No, not always. But we believe any advice should be pragmatic and based on science and not just some bullshit vomit to convince you to buy or believe in something we're selling. They only thing we're selling is a story, and proof that it's possible to live your most authentic self. It just takes a little audacity.

♺ Invite a Friend: Share what you read here with others you know via email or wherever else you fancy spending your time online, every mention helps! Facebook, LinkedIn, X.

☯︎  Be Yin to My Yang: Most of what you'll read here is free, it's everything else that costs money. Become a paid subscriberfor as little as $5 per month, or make a one-time donation in any amount, to help me bring balance between the two. Keen on the Bitcoin? No problem. Shovel a bit (or two) my way: bc1qn56cg3htqq77zm4y06900m0u05xpy57zxkkmz9