A lovely tree from my Albuquerque Academy campus walk this morning.

We’re 10 days into November, and my No Media November has gone pretty well so far, I think.

And I have to say, there are aspects to not having a TV available and not using social media at all that I would consider embracing permanently.

For one thing, I find myself feeling a little more focused each day. And I am certainly burning less time (significant chunks at that) staring at the computer screen, filling my time with the pictures and posts of other people. This means my mind is less fragmented each day between making sense of my life in relation to the lives of others, and simply making sense of my life.

I am looking more closely at my life, to a great extent, with minimal distraction.

The week has not been without moments of temptation, though.

I still love sports, and wanting to watch a few college football and basketball games have challenged my resolve a few times. I still do go to Flickr and find myself five minutes later looking at other peoples’ photos, and I have to cut myself away from the site. I like Thursday evening movies. I have moments where I also want to post a quote or photo to Facebook to enlighten all of my close friends there with it. But no- bad idea.

I am trying hard to keep myself off of any that stuff.

The greatest area of gain I have experienced doing this No Media November, though, has been in my sudden ability (and availability) to read.

Coming into 2019, I had set my reading goal for the year to be 20 books, based on an average of the last few years.

Coming into November, I had read 4 books.

Through these 10 days in November, I have finished 5 books, and have felt a renewal in my mind towards reading and wanting to read a range of books. I actually feel like I can tackle a reading list and get through a decent number of books before year end.

I have read one man’s long unpublished memoirs on his horrific existence and survival in the Treblinka death camp in World War II. I read a history on the largest single day air armada ever, when over 2000 American aircraft supported Allied troops trapped in the Ardennes on Christmas Eve day in the Battle of the Bulge. I read a collection of stories from Picuris Pueblo. I read the 8th Chee and Leaphorn mystery from Tony Hillerman. And I lastly read “The Bassoon King” by Riann Wilson.

The last one, I picked up from the library on a whim, thinking I might casually like the memoirs of the guy who played Dwight on the American version of the TV show “The Office”.

I learned Riann was so much more than Dwight. With a childhood partially in Nicaragua, youth years in Seattle, high school graduation in Chicago, and then a committed path to and through NYU’s prestigious drama program to become an actor, Riann talks about everything from his D&D years as a teen to his dark years in New York City, the dysfuntion in his family, being born into a Baha’i family and leaving faith and returning to his Baha’i religion, bad jobs he’s held, best albums from the early 80s, working in NYC theater, what it was like to finally land and live on a huge and crazy gig on The Office, and what he discovered about himself and people along the way.

For a giant outsider dork, Riann dishes some pretty good wisdom through the funny paragraphs in his book, and I wanted to copy a little from the book into this post as a way to keep a little of that book close to me.

Riann’s final chapter in “The Bassoon King” is titled “Ten Things I Know For Sure”, and within it, he gives us his last list of the book (because he is really excellent at making solid lists). I thought that was good enough to post here for posterity, without explanations.

Ten Things I Know For Sure

1. The deepest happiness comes from service to others.
2. If you think you’re being funny, you’re not being funny.
3. Gratitude changes everything.
4. Rome is the greatest city on earth.
5. The opinions of other people are not something to worry about.
6. Game of Thrones is our greatest teacher.
7. Sushi is about the fish, idiots.
8. My son is my sensei.
9. Stories make the world go around.
10. I don’t know anything.

I left the book feeling like he was selling himself short on that last point.