#TheGoodLife

Dec 21, 2022
4 min

The Good Life - 12/21/2022 - Broken seagull *

Life floored me a little yesterday when, after my swim, I met a broken seagull all alone on the sand, dragging a bloody wing across the beach, staring at the setting sun, utterly vulnerable and all alone. I had no idea then what to do. I looked in vain for a red lifeguard truck patrolling the beach, though it seemed they were done for the night. The broken gull was wary and moved away when I got closer for a better look. I was heartbroken and in despair about the situat

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Kurt Bell

Dec 21, 2022
2 min

Day 30 ocean swim

I took the afternoon off work today to see my doctor, which left time for arrival at the beach about an hour ahead of schedule. Not much difference though. Still cold—air and water are both cold. Plus a cold wind. But just an hour ago I took off my shirt at the doctor’s for my checkup. Not a very pretty sight to be sure, as I’m pretty soft and flabby with age—yet my skin did glow sorta, a little bit like the beach. It seems this daily application of the outdoors: the wi

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Kurt Bell

Dec 20, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/20/2022 - When life is “done”

My life is "done" now when I complete these videos each morning. It’s interesting to me how ending these daily videos with the words “my life is done” is really starting to sink in. The challenges of work are less weighty when the real work of life—our decided work—is recognized as finished and complete. Personal problems are more ephemeral and fleeting when our deeper issues have been resolved and put away. And stress feels more like the soft pelting of gentle rain tha

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Kurt Bell

Dec 19, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/19/2022 - Facing Monday

Some Mondays… It takes effort sometimes for me to tackle a Monday in the way it deserves, or at least the in the way I choose to think a Monday deserves: seriously, and with fortitude and strong resolve. I do this by making a bee-line straight away when I start work at 6:30 AM towards the deep-end of the day, by tackling the most difficult task or challenge which needs to be faced, completed or performed. Then Monday looses it’s sharper teeth, and I discover and remembe

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Kurt Bell

Dec 19, 2022
3 min

Day 29 ocean swim

If you look closely you can see two figures by the water as I run towards the sea. They are a pair of teenage girls who’d been boogie-boarding in the shorebreak. I came back to them immediately after jumping in, concerned by the look on the face of the older girl sitting down on the sand. Sure enough, a stingray had got her, and her foot was bleeding profusely and she was in a lot of pain. I explained that she’d be alright, though the wound would bleed for a long time,

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Kurt Bell

Dec 18, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/18/2022 - The Principle of Family

I’ve added a new principal to The Good Life creed, that of Family, and the sub-principle of Catalyst. These were part and parcel of the creed by way of the Social principle and the principle of Purpose, though I’ve discovered family and all it entails needs a home of its own, a place to highlight the importance of sharing and building a life with a partner, and children, and a home and commitment to community and all the difficult work and sacrifice as well as the deep

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Kurt Bell

Dec 18, 2022
2 min

Day 28 ocean swim

Three days missed… And now, even a relatively warm winter day like today feels quite cold. Just last week I was coming here in the wind and rain and near dark and running and plunging without a second thought. This goes to show the power of routine and habit in inuring us to what might otherwise be perceived as hardship. I wonder how far this power might go? A well trained and disciplined soldier can run straight into death. A martyr the same for their cause. How about

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Kurt Bell

Dec 18, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/17/2022 - Sub-principle of family

No swim again yesterday. Duty called. And I, always, heed my duty. I think I’d have made a pretty good soldier, as I respond to duty with discipline more than thought. I jump to attention at once upon receiving orders; and I’m over the top and charging towards whatever needs to be done without a moment of hesitation or second-thought. So, when faced yesterday with my unfinished to-do list and a warm and sparkling 2:00 PM opportunity to go for swim at the beach, I select

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Kurt Bell

Dec 16, 2022
3 min

The Good Life - 12/16/2022 - Year end party

We’re past the company holiday party, which always feels to me like rounding a corner into the new year. Since I know I’m leaving the USA in a few years, events like a company holiday party have become more dear to me, something to savor and truly enjoy. And I really get into the moment: enthusiastically filtering around the room to say hi to everyone I know and to introduce myself to all the new faces, remembering that these events will soon carry on here without me, w

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Kurt Bell

Dec 16, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/15/2022 - A settling peace of mind

No swim yesterday, had to work instead. I Certainly missed it. Maybe I’ll swim twice tomorrow to make up. Retirement has been on my mind a lot lately, though I’m a little scared at the prospect of no work. Sure, I could swim anytime then—but is that a good thing, and would the pleasure of such freedom last? My work is hard, though it sure does fill the days with solid meaning and packs the hours with busy. But then, the clock is ticking hard on this aging body of mine,

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Kurt Bell

Dec 16, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/14/2022 - Summoning my worry

I’m going in to work at the office today, which is something I stopped doing since moving to the beach. It’s a long commute to the desert—which is too bad, as I prefer working from work. I like my cubicle, and I like the feeling of being at the office; the sense of putting on the work day like a nice-fitting shirt, seeing my coworkers, hearing them talk and laugh and even getting upset sometimes in the surrounding cubicles. “You alright over there?” “I’m good, I just fo

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Kurt Bell

Dec 13, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/13/2022 - Woo be damned *

A light switched on in my mind last night, prompted by a comment from Juan about taking charge of the visualization of our challenges, issues and opportunities. So, instead of merely fretting over my perceived life worries, I witnessed them completing and closing well. And that did something real. It’s like I fooled my mind that there was no monster in the closet (though there really is a monster in the closet) which helped me to return to sleep a little faster and more

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Kurt Bell

Dec 12, 2022
2 min

Day 27 ocean swim

A man came up to me after my swim today and while I was toweling off in the red glow. He said, “I walk here every evening and I see you running.” There are others too. A woman who always sits one tower down and with whom I usually exchange a pleasant wave. Plus a father and his teenage daughter who are here most nights practicing soccer upon the sand. Those two always stay until it’s beyond too dark to see. They must truly love soccer, or the beach, or maybe they just l

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Kurt Bell

Dec 12, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/12/2022 - Distant thunder *

Lightning and thunder this morning, way out over the sea. That’s the best kind—thunder and lightning from somewhere else: a high mountain top or across the plains or way out somewhere over a dark ocean. The lightning flash and then long seconds of waiting—a muffled growl, growing strong, deafened a bit by distance, with all the sharp angles removed. That’s what it’s like now a little at age 58. Soft pain in the joints where arthritis might arrive in a few years, the sam

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Kurt Bell

Dec 11, 2022
3 min

The Good Life - 12/11/2022 - A rainy Sunday morning *

It’s a rainy day. Good thing our housework and shopping are done. It’s tempting now to rest, to sit on the sofa and watch a movie. But I’ve never been very good at sitting, so maybe I’ll go walk in the rain. Perhaps a walk on the beach in the rain? I haven’t done that since Humboldt—since the days when youth propelled me out the door of my potato-chip truck at Moonstone Beach where I lived, to walk on rainy nights out over the sand past Karen Rock and then wade across t

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Kurt Bell

Dec 10, 2022
2 min

Day 26 ocean swim

Chores and shopping are done. “I’m going to the beach, Yumiko!” ”Ok, see ya.” There’s at least another thirty minutes of light, enough for a good winter soak of cold ocean and sunshine. It feels better after the sea. A little tingling heat across so much shivering skin. Skin that’s becoming brown and a little red from this daily dunk and raw standing on the sand getting dry, letting the sun dry me out. I could live like this always. A more deliberate living to be sure.

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Kurt Bell

Dec 10, 2022
3 min

Spooky abandoned orange farm 不気味な捨てられたみかん農園 - Abandoned Japan 日本の廃墟

I’ve begun moving videos from my Abandoned Japan channel to my main channel in an effort at gradual consolidation ahead of our return to Japan. This video is the first to go. I found this abandoned mikan orange farm at the very end of a long and winding abandoned one-lane road I’d discovered in the mountains behind Yui fishing town, an hour and a half south of Tokyo. While walking alone, I’d passed at least a half dozen abandoned farms being strangled in green on either side

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Kurt Bell

Dec 10, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/10/2022 - A good day of work

A good night’s sleep. And I know why. It’s because I literally clobbered work yesterday. With just two meetings and a quiet email in-box I was able to focus hard on some different challenges, organize ahead of next week’s meetings, and align with leadership about next steps. Damn it feels good to get ahead, and my mind rewarded me with a good night’s rest. Still, I’m dreaming of escape, my little fantasy farm in Japan, days which are my own, and an end to these weeks of

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Kurt Bell

Dec 9, 2022
2 min

Day 26 ocean swim

I stumbled and cut my leg open on my way to the beach. warm blood trickling down to my ankle. No biggie. The sea’ll sort this out. And so in I go, running and grinning and laughing and bleeding like an idiot down the cold sand to plunge in and wash the blood clean. And a lot more than spilt blood goes away—there’s the stress of work, and the sense of dawning old age, the forgetfulness that’s begun to plague me, plus the malaise of middle age turning the corner to what i

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Kurt Bell

Dec 9, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/09/2022 - Distracted by Juan *

I was distracted by Juan yesterday, by his excellence and professionalism, and his self-control and his poise. Juan meets others where they are for the betterment of the mission—doing so without regard for fame or acclaim, reward or recognition, but just ’cause that’s what’s right and the best way to further good and worthwhile ends. Yeah, he distracted me yesterday while we did our work, like Venus distracts in the morning and evening sky, sharp, bright, unwavering—a s

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