Author Archives: Darrick Dean

Leave the World Behind

“Don’t be afraid to live your life with intense and deliberate essentiality, every day, all the time. However you can find connection to your moments, do it.” – Kourtney Thomas, “What I Learned From a No Social Media Vacation

Whereas tech is a great tool to assist you on vacation (finding places to go, directions, making reservations, etc.), many people let the social media part of tech take over their trip. I once saw a young lady spend so much time trying to create selfies at the Grand Canyon, I wondered of she even noticed the natural wonder in front of her. (And hoped she didn’t fall off the edge.)

Other people cannot fathom going a week without checking email, social media accounts, the news – or most horribly – work-related accounts and apps.

It might be hard to believe, but the world will survive without knowing where you are for a little while. It’s one thing to check in with friends and family occasionally, but for the most part, just go off the grid and remember what vacations are all about.

Leaving that world behind.

Ashlyn Pernice writes:

“Imagine leaving everything —phones, car, home — and traveling across the country on foot. Imagine truly living a simple life, not caught up with friend drama on Facebook or politics on Twitter, not worrying about the future, nor reminiscing about the past. Imagine being able to truly live in the moment and ignore the responsibilities of everyday life, take in all the beauty of new places and new environments, and meet new people without the distractions of technology.

“But how could you travel without technology in the 21st century? This is what truly bothered me. I knew I wanted to travel without a car, but how would I navigate new areas in this day and age without Google Maps at my fingertips?

“I decided that if people hundreds of years before me could find their way around without smartphones, then I could, too. It was just a matter of using actual maps, asking locals, etc. I threw my beloved iPhone into a lake.”

You don’t have to necessarily throw your phone out. However, before you go, deactivate all social media and messaging apps. Buy a map. Use GPS as little as possible. Take spontaneous photos, not staged ones. Immerse yourself in the moment, and wait until you get back to share your experiences.

Maybe by leaving your daily world for awhile, you’ll find the path you should have been taking all along.

“Money, of course, is still needed to survive, but time is what you need to live. So, save what little money you possess to meet basic survival requirements, but spend your time lavishly in order to create the life values that make the fire worth the candle. ” – Rolf Potts

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Would We See the End Coming?

“There is no certainty as scientific progress accelerates and leisure increases…[that] there is any corresponding advance in wisdom or morality, much less radical improvement in innate human nature.” – Victor Davis Hanson

In this absorbing book by historian Victor Davis Hanson, he looks to our past to remind us of the long-term consequences of war. We are also reminded of how power in the wrong hands can lead to the genocide of entire peoples. In an era where many world leaders have forgotten the ripple effects of war which endure for centuries, and treat it like another government program, perhaps we should look to our ancestors and the fates that befell them.

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Dark and Light of Democracy

“We often forget how fragile a creation democracy is – a delicate eggshell in the rough-and-tumble of history. Even in the cradle of democracy, ancient Athens, rule by the people could barely survive for a couple of centuries. And throughout its brief history, Athenian democracy was besieged from within by the forces of oligarchy and tyranny. There were plots led by generals to impose military rule. There were secret clubs of aristocrat who hired squads of assassins to kill popular leaders. Terror reigned during these convulsions…

“Our country’s cheerleaders are wedded to the notion of American exceptionalism. But when it comes to the machinations of power, we are all too similar to other societies and ones that have come before us…no matter where power rules, there is the same determination by those in high places to keep their activities hidden.” – David Talbot

Allen Dulles was the father of the deep state. Anyone who thinks the problems of the national security state, undermining the Constitution, and abuse of power are something new, you’re in for a surprise. Talbot details how it all began. Like Dulles’ daughter said:

“It’s very important to understand it all – the dark and the light.”

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Will You Abandon Humanity?

“The greatest cataclysm in human history.” – Ken Burns


The War is perhaps the best documentary on WWII ever filmed. I am currently watching through the series for the second time, which seems very appropriate considering some things I’ve heard recently.

Certain groups of people in the younger generations are speaking about how depressing and terrible the world seems to them. They see no hope for the future, and many have decided not to have children. I feel bad for those who apparently have no knowledge of their ancestor’s history; for the loss of resilience among these people; for their suppressed human spirit; for the close-minded manner of thinking they have indoctrinated with.

Is anything now so bad – real or imagined – compared to the most horrific conflict our species endured? One that occurred not early in our history, but recently while we were supposedly at the height of civilization.

When the veterans returned from this war, did they give up on life? Did they, after seeing such unprecedented death and evil, shut themselves from society and promise never to have children? Did they abandon the responsibility of ever generation to move forward?

No, they did the exact opposite.

Every time has its challenges, its problems, its obstacles.

Every era also has its people who embody the spirit of thousands of generations before them as they rise to overcome everything thrown at them.

For those who see no hope, let me apologize on behalf of those older than you that abandoned their responsibility to teach you our past. Now do yourself a favor and watch what your ancestors, only a few short decades ago, faced, endured, and conquered.

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Being Present

“Rarely are we ever truly present.” – Evy Poumpouras

People have gone to such great lengths to be connected — cell phones, WebEx, Slack, smart watches — yet we have managed to be disconnected. We no longer know how to give someone undivided attention. The irony is we have been sold that these apps and devices increase our productivity. Not only do they not do this, our personal connections falter. Evy Poumpouras writes in Becoming Bulletproof:

“One of the fastest ways to sabotage you rapport with someone is to keep your phone out. I’ve seen people go to great lengths to connect with others, and yet their phone will be in their hand, splayed out on their desks or dinner table, signaling to everyone around them that there is something else of potentially greater importance waiting to take their attention away. This sends the message that whoever you’re with is less deserving of your time and that you’re not fully present.”

You might think this is just about courtesy or respect, but it’s bigger than that. “…it’s about influence…this signals how much you value” someone and “…you’ll be able to observe and read them better if you’re giving them your full focus…”

For some people, their devices have become an addiction. I see people who can’t walk across the hall to another office for a few minutes without their phone. For those who bring it in the bathroom, what are you doing? Does always having your phone make you feel important? Listen, kids have phones. Devices haven’t been a status symbol for decades. What are you going to miss by being away from your phone for a few minutes or — the horror — a few hours?

“Unless you’re expecting an emergency call, such as news about a sick family member, then the statistical probability of your personal Armageddon occurring during thirty minutes of being unavailable, is, well… statistically improbable.”

Maybe being part of the last generation to grow up without cells phones (Gen X, but some of you older Millennials as well) gives us a different perspective. We knew how to be gone all day, or a whole week, and no one knew we were alive until we got back. We used phones at other peoples houses (they existed). We didn’t check in every five minutes. Could you survive if cell service disappeared? Do you panic when you realize you forgot your phone at home?

Technology is a tool, but tools can be misused. Learn to use them, and not used by them. In our quest to communicate and connect more with people, we quite often are doing the complete opposite.

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Freedom Dies Without You

“We tend to assume that our American legacy promises us liberty and the pursuit of happiness—no questions asked. But I learned from my reading of the founders’ work that just as you aren’t promised freedom in the American contract without the reciprocal expectation that you will risk yourself to defend freedom, so you aren’t promised happiness or even the purely self-regarding right to pursue happiness. That’s a myth.” – Naomi Wolf, Give Me Liberty

Many people think democracy is some sort of self-propagating institution. Once set in motion, it needs little guidance or attention. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As soon as people stop paying attention, those in power abuse their power. A small amount of bureaucrats can shape, influence, undermine and destroy the people’s rights. Once it starts, it slowly gets worse, a little at a time. In modern times, this has been referred to as moving the Overton Window. The Founders of the United States understood this well. It’s embedded in the Declaration of Independence.

As Naomi Wolf writes, the Declaration’s language:

“…is quite difficult; it is the formal language of a very formal time far removed from our own…We tend to think that the Declaration intends something pleasant and benign…but it turns out the Declaration of Independence is about our continual duty as Americans to rebel…[its] first long sentence asserts the ‘right to revolution.'”

In fact, the Declaration “…charges us categorically and always as Americans to rise up in person against threats to liberty.”

Democracy is not a natural state. It requires attention, participation, protest — and when necessary — restoration.

Paying attention only on election day is to not pay attention at all. If you are too busy to understand and protect democracy, you will lose your freedom. Many in history have awoken to an oppressive government, only to ask, “How did it come to this?”

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Starvation or Prosperity?

“Starvation will result if we continue to farm the way we have for the last 80 years.” – Will Harris

As industrial farming continues to endanger our food supply, environment, and health, for over 20 years, Will Harris has led the movement to correct course. Check out The Rebel Cowboy and help save humanity from itself.

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Our Leaders Have Failed Us

“The world’s political and financial elite have access to bunkers to protect themselves and their loved ones from a nuclear blast and ensuing fallout. Politicians have plans in place to protect themselves so they can continue to wage a nuclear war from underground…

“But what about the rest of us? We have nowhere to go. Our leaders have failed us…they have done nothing to protect us…They don’t care about us. We are left to be incinerated…If by some miracle we survive [the attacks] and the ensuing nuclear fallout, we will be left to endure the pain and suffering caused by radiation, no food and water, and a nuclear winter – leaving a barren landscape of death and destruction…” – Tulsi Gabbard

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Not All Solar Storms Make Pretty Lights

With the recent solar storms, I thought this post appropriate to reshare. Sometimes we forget that light in the sky is a massive star, boiling with unfathomable energy.

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The War on Your Health

“If you ancestors ate it, it’s probably good for you. If scientists invented it in the twentieth century or later, it’s probably poison.” – Dr. Philip Ovadia

It’s a strange time. Civilization is at the height of knowledge and technology. Yet people have seem to have accepted:

Over 60% of adults are on prescription drugs.

Chronic diseases are more prevalent than ever, even though over 80% of them are preventable.

Longevity is decreasing.

Birth rates are falling.

People have come to accept they will spend the last decades of their life declining in health, slowly dying, in a nursing home.

None of this is normal. Only a few generations ago, these realities were unknown and unthinkable.

What happened?

We have abandoned common sense, and centuries of healthy eating, in a few decades. Inexplicitly, we’ve left our health up to other people. The problem is, virtually none of what we’ve been told is rooted in biology. Government standards and recommendations are driven by money (corporate influence), not science. The evidence is in the results: The more we have followed their health advice, the worse off we have been, yet they still double down on their failed recommendations.

How do we know what to believe when it comes to knowing what to eat? It really isn’t that hard, and Dr. Philip Ovadia’s quote at the beginning speaks to that truth.

Eat what your body is designed to eat.

It’s not made to eat processed, factory foods. It needs relatively little sugar, carbs, and fiber to survive. Humans are classified as omnivores, but our biology is designed to operate optimally by primarily ingesting animal-based foods. As Dr. Ovadia has said, the food pyramid is completely upside down.

Our abandonment of basic biology has had other devastating effects as well. Molecular geneticist Michael Nehls has written:

“More and more people under the age of sixty-five” are seeing signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. “…age is not the cause…hippocampal dementia takes time due to an unhealthy lifestyle…dementia or Alzheimer’s disease is a modern phenomenon or a modern disease of civilization.”

Healthy lifestyle maintains brain function well into old age. One cause comes from the upside down food pyramid, which gives us a serious, macronutrient deficiency: Lack of protein. As Dr. Gabrielle Lyon details:

“Your bones, ligaments, tendons, liver, brain, skin…are all built from proteins…Proteins are the master regulators of all that is happening in your body, controlling function in all tissues and organs…Proteins facilitate critical cellular functions, including balancing hormones, and serve as vital immune-system mediators…protein [is] critical for longevity, metabolic function, and quality of life.”

Yet government RDA for protein is basically at the bare minimum for survival.

Neither the government, nor corporate or medical culture, is concerned about your health. On purpose, captured by profit motive, or both, it doesn’t matter. The result is the same. Miserable health and compromised longevity for all of us. You don’t have to accept this as your fate. Dr. Ovadia writes:

“You can live healthy your whole life and die in your nineties. We shouldn’t have a ten- to twenty-year period of our lives where we’re progressively dying day by day and miserable the whole time.”

Science and common sense are our weapons to win this war.

We already lost too many battles. Time to turn the tide.

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