How a musing
I once-upon-a-time considered calling my podcast ‘A Musing Fox’ because the play on a musing and amusing amused me. Thankfully, I decided not to. (It’s easier to evoke humour when folks don’t expect it.)
Anyhoo—I have a few musings to share with you.
Wait, you’re not still ambitious are you?
I present to thee a musing on firesides, ambition, and vocation.
Dr. Jason Fox
The word ‘ambition’ has come up a lot in my extended circles in recent times. It’s not a word I particularly relish, though I can understand why folks grasp for it.* “Ambition is,” as David Whyte writes, “a word that lacks any real ambition, ambition is frozen desire, the current of a vocational life immobilized and over-concretized to set, unforgiving goals.” If you’re working in a complex domain, one of the least helpful things to do is ‘set concrete’ and ‘unforgiving goals’. Quite the contrary.
Is your ambition crowding out your calling? Are your goals getting in the way of meaningful progress? Have a read and ponder.
* We don’t quite have any non-woo words to describe a willingness to ‘dream big’ and invest discretionary effort above-and-beyond the default, and so I am empathetic to folks who use ambition in this way. Still, any named ambition is stultifying. Gauntlet thrown—read on!
As to the magic
In the above musing, I shared a sneaky photo snapped moments before I was to play the role of ‘wizard philosopher-futurist & fireside provocateur’ for a mix of executives (at a secret special event held in a mansion). I don’t often share the words from my many happy clients, as I don’t like to sully these museletters with self-promotion. But these fresh words from Hayley Westoby of Gambit Collective are wonderful, and gesture towards elements that many would miss.
Jason is - Unusual. Considered. Unforgettable.
Jason brought a rare kind of depth and magic to our gathering. The kind that doesn’t just deliver insight it stirs something. His presence invited reflection, curiosity, and (dare I say) a little enchantment - exactly what we needed to shift the room from “just another corporate offsite” to something far more meaningful.
With a room full of senior leaders who’ve seen it all, Jason managed to create a moment that cut through. He doesn’t do cookie-cutter, and that’s why we wanted him in the room.
His words, his presence, his perspective - crafted and deliberate, but never forced. A masterclass in intellectual hospitality.
Jason, thank you for making our event not just smarter, but richer. You were the right kind of different.
Not all can discern the magic. So many fixate on the content—but context is what matters. And we can shape, shift, and enliven the relational substrate of a gathering so that it gives rise to more honest, generative and authentic interactions. Thusly, we shape context—allowing much of the content to be emergent.
It’s nice to have one’s work appreciated.
Meanwhile, I’ve since received a professional photo from the event, taken by Mikhail of Cass Brothers Productions. Behold me flash my clams.
Hayley and I talked of where we see the event scene going. I’m hoping to do a podcast conversation with her some day, but the tl;dr is: more intimate, authentic, and intentional gatherings. Less emphasis on alcohol, large venues, and standard scenes. More emphasis on shared experiences conducive to deepening relationships and enlivening emergent conversations.
Huzzah to all of this!
Would you like salt with that?
I did a short musing on ‘metamodern grandpa energy’.
Dr. Jason Fox
I feel I might have been trying to do too much with this one. It was partly inspired by the gruffness of ‘grandpa food’—and partly vexed by the gruffness of Dave Snowden (a complexity scientist I greatly respect) in his recent conversation with my friend Tim Adalin on the voicecraft podcast. In this post I try to communicate my tangled admiration and consternation for Dave. I didn’t succeed—but I did make a decent food metaphor. <(￣︶￣)> 🧅
Where clams might live
Finally—inspired/corrupted by my friendship with John Anthony and the episodes we’ve made for Kindred Spirits—I thought it might be apt to start using my site as a bit more of a ‘personal blog’. Not that I am evidently ready for microblogging. But, still: baby steps.
Dr. Jason Fox
Here I share my tasting notes on an exquisite limited bottling of a 14 year old whisky from Caol Ila. As per my Whisky: a gateway to mindfulness guide of many years ago, a whisky tasting is a portal into sensorial poiesis (In the Heidegger sense of ‘bringing forth’). This whisky took me to the rocks by the ocean at dusk. It also has a perturbed-looking wizard on the bottle, as you’ll see.
What’s upcoming?
I feel like I have been indulgent in my writing once more. And in the meantime I have folks asking me about the rogue wizard academy, the rekindling, the ritual of becoming, and of the foxmagic mentoring I hinted at a while back. So, this month I intend write of all of these—which means I might need to write in a manner that is practical, compelling, succinct, and easy to read. This will only be temporary, I assure you.
The Rogue Wizard Academy is in stealth mode. I’m currently working with executives who are preparing to rogue one day, and want to be able to hit the ground running as something more than a ‘thought leader’.
The Rekindling is coming back! Our next gathering will be in September to celebrate Tyson Yunkaporta and Megan Kelleher’s phenomenal new book Snake Talk. More on this soon (we are just firming up dates, venue, and such).
The Ritual of Becoming is moving to this site (foxwizard.com), soon. This is a hefty piece of background work, with much tedium. But in the mid-to-long run it’ll be worth it. I’ve come to deepen much more into the world of mythopoetic development, and am keen to revitalise the ritual. I now see it as a generative way to approach a seasonal/situational molting of our ‘middleworld’ identity. This shapeshifting is distinct from a deeper descent into the underworld (soul work)—but the practice of it better equips you for the journey(s).
The foxmagic mentoring is for those seeking an advisor-friend. And when I say ‘advisor’ I mean this more as a dubious/enigmatic thinking, sensing and way-making companion. Particularly for those of us questing amidst the liminal, betwixt life chapters and/or roles. I’ve enjoyed the relative ambiguity of all of my offering here (there is utility to obliquity)—but I am coming to see that it would be helpful to provide a bit more sense of what’s involved, and how this works. So: look forward to that.
I’m also noticing a shift within me—a desire to show up in a more teacherly manner. I’ve resisted this for so many years. Partly due to a legitimate curse (of knowledge), and partly due to a knowing that the attention economy is saturated with folks offering steady stream of seemingly sagacious advice. Epiphany cannot be ‘taught’, nor can it be spelled out step-by-step. It comes to us in the gaps and juxtapositions; it sneaks upon us by surprise. But... since writing my piece on firesides, ambition & vocation I have found a re-awakening of something.
The concluding lines from that piece—borrowed from another writer, who was inspired by another writer, who was sharing something her mentor said—remain resonant for me. Perhaps they will for you, too.
I offer them out-of-context for you here.
“Don’t cling to your smallness. You are needed. Be big.”
Warmth,
—fw
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