New Mattering (The Void Part 2)
Update: 2024-12-20
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Transcript
00:00:00
Hello, my friends.
00:00:01
Welcome to the Robcast.
00:00:03
This is episode 381, and it's called New Mattering.
00:00:08
And then parentheses, the void, part two, which is the clunkiest title ever for an episode, especially this new mattering.
00:00:18
Maybe by the end of the episode, you'll have a better way of talking about it.
00:00:23
But I had this experience earlier this year that I'm only now making more sense of, because of interacting with so many of you,
00:00:34
here in Ohio and then on Patreon.
00:00:37
And I'm noticing how many people all over the place are witnessing to this change in mattering.
00:00:47
And so what I want to do here is I want to try to name it from an experience I had, but I keep having experiences similar to this, and then noticing when people are talking that this is actually something larger happening in the world.
00:01:03
And of course, there are people who think and study such things who are like, yeah, that's what's happening on a massive, massive scale.
00:01:10
So here we go.
00:01:12
I'll first tell you a story, then we'll sort of take it apart.
00:01:18
And then I want to talk about and name a shift, and we'll see if you find yourself there, because the more I see this, and what it is, the more I'm like,
00:01:28
oh, okay, we don't have to fight this, we can go with it.
00:01:32
So in the end of January, February of this year, I started writing, where did you park your spaceship book two?
00:01:43
There is only one new name.
00:01:45
I didn't know if I could do it.
00:01:51
And by the way, that has become for me like a criteria I'm realizing.
00:01:54
Like, if I have an idea, and I think I have no idea if I could pull that off, generally those are the kinds of things I end up doing.
00:02:03
I'm noticing the pattern now.
00:02:04
It's quite consistent.
00:02:05
The sense of, yeah, I don't know if that's possible.
00:02:08
Generally is like a green light of sorts.
00:02:11
So if you're like that, I feel ya.
00:02:13
The things that are interesting are the things that just create all these question marks about is that even possible, especially because book one was such a, it's like almost like a turn in my entire life.
00:02:26
And it's written from Heen Gruber's, his perspective.
00:02:30
He tells you his story.
00:02:33
And then, and then Nuneye shows up at the end of book one, and you have no idea if she's, she's mysterious and dangerous and we don't get any history from her.
00:02:41
So right away, writing book one was like, oh, obviously book two will be Nuneye telling you her whole story.
00:02:47
Because even by the end of book one, because she takes the whole book one in a different direction.
00:02:51
And, and Heen starts to like, he's on to her.
00:02:54
So he starts saying to her, none of us know anything about you.
00:02:58
You, you don't let on that you have any personal history whatsoever.
00:03:02
And everybody has a personal history.
00:03:05
So book two starts on the planet Mebes and she's a young child and she takes you through her life.
00:03:14
So first, I had no idea it wouldn't just be like, yeah, Rob, I know you're writing from Nuneye's perspective now, but it sounds just like Heen.
00:03:23
Like from book to book, we'll even, we'll even sound different.
00:03:26
Number two, she's a woman.
00:03:27
Is that, you know, is that even allowed?
00:03:29
And then I knew the first line.
00:03:32
I knew the last line.
00:03:35
I knew some of the main events that were going to happen.
00:03:39
But otherwise, the way that it works is you just start typing scene where it takes you.
00:03:47
So on any given day, I could tell you a rough idea of where the scene was headed that I was in.
00:03:54
And then also we'll see.
00:03:55
That's part of why it's so interesting.
00:03:59
And on Mebes is a particular that like no one wanted to settle that planet.
00:04:04
So in the book, I take you through how Mebes is organized.
00:04:08
And there are all these very isolated lonely valleys because there are all these cracks on the surface of Mebes.
00:04:13
And then Scandium, this rare precious resource gets discovered.
00:04:16
And so all these people settled there, but they didn't really intend to.
00:04:19
So I just, it's like build out a whole world.
00:04:21
And here's the thing.
00:04:23
It mattered so much to me.
00:04:28
Making sure that you, the reader, understood the stalls and how often they happen and who gurges and how a sure gets put together.
00:04:38
And then Nune has a pet yak.
00:04:41
She actually has two yaks.
00:04:42
So I did extensive research on the internet about yaks.
00:04:47
And here's the thing.
00:04:51
It matters so much to me.
00:04:55
Even now doing interviews with some of you about the book, talking about it, I love it so much.
00:05:02
And telling this story and the details of the story and the names.
00:05:07
Nune's first friends are these twin brothers named Shux and Wush.
00:05:11
And then later, she meets the stonkings, Shodwad and Garner stonkings, these three brothers.
00:05:17
And Shodwad and Garner, their tree trimmers, but there's been a drought.
00:05:22
So there's no trees to trim.
00:05:24
So they go to other planets to try to find work.
00:05:26
And oh, God, I love the stonkings.
00:05:28
And there's those twin sisters, Awa and Akka.
00:05:31
And they end up dating Shux and Wush.
00:05:34
So two brothers start to hook up with two sisters.
00:05:37
It's a whole thing.
00:05:39
And then Rog Rido shows up.
00:05:41
And I'm there day after day telling this story almost like seized or overwhelmed with how important it is.
00:05:58
Now, the reason why I tell you all this is because I used to talk about how important what I was doing and what we were doing was.
00:06:08
I used to use phrases.
00:06:10
This was like nine robs ago in a whole in a galaxy far, far away.
00:06:15
But I talked about the mission.
00:06:17
I talked about going to the ends of the earth.
00:06:20
I talked about changing the world with a straight face.
00:06:24
I talked about God calling us.
00:06:27
I talked about how important this is.
00:06:30
I talked about giving our lives for this work.
00:06:33
I talked about how much this matters.
00:06:35
Yeah, 2003.
00:06:38
Rob Bell, 1998.
00:06:44
Oh, man, that was my jam.
00:06:47
That was my business.
00:06:50
That was what I was all about.
00:06:51
We've been changed to bring change to the world.
00:06:56
I like, I'm just a beggar who's found bread, trying to help other beggars find the bread.
00:07:02
I can give you all the hooks.
00:07:04
I can give you all the phrases and give you all the clever, catchy, cringy, little, uh, whatever you call them,
00:07:14
little hooks and statements and things you say that everybody goes, oh, that's powerful.
00:07:18
And then years later, I'm telling this story about this girl named Nunei with a pet yak who lives with this mysterious woman named Gerge who seems to be missing a social ship on the planet Mebes.
00:07:33
And it matters to me in such a way that dwarfs.
00:07:41
It just completely blows out of the water that earlier when I used to talk about it with a straight face.
00:07:50
And it's also so absurd.
00:07:51
And notice for you, something grabs hold of you and it talks to you and it speaks to you.
00:07:58
And sometimes it's the absurdity of it that has come to rattle you to your bones because if you try and rationalize it or defend it or explain why it matters so much to you,
00:08:13
you just, it just, it almost induces a sort of reverent awe.
00:08:18
Like, I don't know, it's just where the life is.
00:08:23
It's, it almost becomes a matter of life and death.
00:08:26
Like, yeah, no, this story, I'm, I'm, yeah, this is what I'm doing.
00:08:31
It almost moves past the thoughts.
00:08:33
And I know a number of you know exactly what I'm talking about because I've literally heard you say things over and over again this past couple of years about something arises and asks you to give yourself to it.
00:08:46
And it's almost like there's no question.
00:08:48
It's just like, yeah, it's even past the idea of whether it matters it not.
00:08:52
It's just, yeah, of course, we're going to give this what it's asking for.
00:08:58
And the absurdity of it, the, the, just like, what kind of joke is this?
00:09:06
What kind of universe is this?
00:09:09
They would spring this one on me and the number of ways in which we deny it, avoid it, repress it, pretend like it's not tugging on our sleeve and go about our business doing more practical legitimate things that,
00:09:22
you know, whatever, pay the bills that, that the people around us understand.
00:09:28
And yet, whatever it is, it's still there.
00:09:31
It doesn't go away.
00:09:33
And for me, the absurdity of, yeah, yeah, I got to tell, yeah, I need to tell this story so that book three will do,
00:09:44
and then book four will refer to book one and book two and take the thing and book like, it's a larger thing.
00:09:50
The absurdity of it.
00:09:52
And yet, why am I sitting there typing and laughing and literally tears because something happening in a scene, I don't even know why it moves me so much.
00:10:04
I don't even know what's going on.
00:10:06
And the absurdity of, I used to write books that like, you know, paid the bills and those books actually sold.
00:10:20
And now these spaceship books, I don't know what the math is, I might even lose money, like which forces me to rearrange all sorts of elements of my life.
00:10:33
We should do some other Robcasts just on the ache of always needing to pay the bills.
00:10:37
I don't know what these, these books sell one five hundredth of those other, the earlier Rob Bell books, the phase one Rob Bell books.
00:10:49
I don't need to call them one six hundredth is me.
00:10:52
They literally don't pay the bills.
00:10:54
They create bills and yet, yeah, my God, they stir something in me and move me and I don't,
00:11:08
it's like almost aren't words.
00:11:11
Yeah, they're really at some level aren't words, but we're doing a Robcast.
00:11:16
So let's keep talking.
00:11:18
This shift, let's try to name it because I know a number of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
00:11:26
This shift from external metrics, pay, legitimacy, validation, effect,
00:11:36
influence, this shift from measuring what I do and it's important and whether even to keep doing it by how it is externally received and how that comes back to me.
00:11:53
This shift from that external marking to an internal gauging.
00:12:00
I've noticed how many of you talk about being in your body, in your heart, being in your truer self in our authenticity and it's like a new kind of navigation system where you're trusting that something is emerging from within you and you follow it and it's almost like the job is simply to follow it and be true to it and then oh,
00:12:37
we've got to figure out some other way to pay the bills.
00:12:40
Oh, we've got to stop rationalizing and explain it and trying to defend it to somebody.
00:12:44
We barely understand it.
00:12:45
We just know it's where the life is.
00:12:47
And so the old markers, the old navigation system that was doing what we're doing constantly look around like do you like it?
00:12:59
Do you validate it?
00:13:00
Do you think it's worth my time for me to do it?
00:13:03
We kept looking around outside of us for external justification to keep going.
00:13:09
The shift to deep listening to our own knowing and then following it because it's lighting us up like exponentially,
00:13:23
it feels like exponentially more perhaps than things earlier that we would have said this is the thing.
00:13:29
Yeah, that right there, that shift can be profoundly disorienting, bewildering at some level.
00:13:40
Yeah, yeah, because something it's like it's a whole new way of moving through the world.
00:13:49
Yeah, they call some call it the cross of planning, which is previous generations who build it, strategize it,
00:14:00
systematize it, expand it up and to the right, more, more, more.
00:14:06
These external markers of success, what kind of job and every tribe and every family and every which jobs were acceptable, which ones aren't.
00:14:14
What kind of house?
00:14:15
What kind of car?
00:14:16
What are you aware?
00:14:17
Where do you go?
00:14:18
And when in doubt, keep working, keep expanding, keep growing sound familiar.
00:14:23
Yeah, this cross of planning, which knew how to build and build and build and grow and strategize and scheme, but often built a whole world without any actual connection to heart,
00:14:39
to soul, to joy.
00:14:42
The answer was just do more.
00:14:45
That'll fix it.
00:14:47
And it didn't.
00:14:48
Yeah, so at some level, it's a generational, it's someone say it has lots to do with what the planets are up to.
00:14:56
Lots of different people have lots of different ways of naming it, but this shift that is happening all over the place.
00:15:04
And obviously, if you have kids, you see kids going, there's a whole world of playing the game that, then I always say they come in with the software upgraded.
00:15:15
They're like, yeah, I'm not doing that.
00:15:17
Not doing that.
00:15:17
Yeah, not interesting.
00:15:19
Not an interesting game to play.
00:15:21
Now, because this is also the void part two, I also notice, besides so many, giving some language for this shift,
00:15:33
I also notice how many of us are having experiences of the avoid, the abyss.
00:15:39
And there's an earlier Rob cast about this.
00:15:41
And I noticed how many people just wanted to talk more about that.
00:15:45
And the relationship between new mattering and the void.
00:15:50
Now, let's back up to earlier this year because in January, my, I don't know what I'd call it, the spiket, the faucet just got turned off for me.
00:16:02
No mojo, no energy, no, nothing to say.
00:16:06
I had one of those, which I used to fight.
00:16:09
I was like a master of giving you how to avoid the void, but I now know the void is some sort of gift.
00:16:15
The void is when almost like you lose your taste buds for the thing.
00:16:18
You lose your taste buds for life.
00:16:19
You have a, it's like a crisis of meaning.
00:16:21
Like, what am I doing?
00:16:22
What's the point of this?
00:16:23
The void is when you're, you're driving to do whatever you normally do.
00:16:27
And instead of being like, all right, here we go, you're like, what is this?
00:16:30
What am I doing?
00:16:31
What am I doing?
00:16:31
And sometimes they go all the way to existential.
00:16:34
What does it mean to be a human being or to the very street level?
00:16:37
I don't even know if I want to do this anymore.
00:16:40
The void, the abyss is when you can't rationalize or my friend Brent calls it mentalize.
00:16:45
You can't just think your way out of it.
00:16:47
You can't self help your way out of it.
00:16:50
There's great temptation to numb in those moments and we have all sorts of numbing devices at our disposal.
00:16:57
Yeah, it's a very ancient thing.
00:16:59
The abyss, the void, that feeling of like everything goes flat.
00:17:05
You can't find the same motivations, the same meaning, significance, purpose, all those big words.
00:17:12
Yeah, so I used to fight these, but now, especially over the past couple of years, a couple of years, I'm noticing that when I go through the void and the only way to go through the void is just let yourself go through the void.
00:17:26
Yeah, you just let it pass through.
00:17:28
You have to get real still and just let the mind get real quiet.
00:17:32
But I'm noticing now that when I have those void seasons, generally out of those void seasons come all kinds of new energies.
00:17:46
So I had assumed I would start writing book two at the beginning of January.
00:17:52
And here also, the void messes with your timetable because you're like, I got plans here.
00:17:57
Why am I in this existential funk?
00:17:59
I got stuff I got to do.
00:18:01
But I just had like a nope, not time yet.
00:18:05
But then when it was time, my God, the words just started coming.
00:18:12
So this relationship between the shift from external,
00:18:23
how do we navigate the world?
00:18:27
To this internal trusting this internal navigation system, often brings with it these periods of void and abyss.
00:18:37
And I used to fight this, but I can now see, oh, perhaps what's happening is because we would all agree our new ways of being in the world needed.
00:18:51
War, economics, relations.
00:18:53
Yeah, we all go, yeah, yeah, we need some new ways of being caring for the earth.
00:18:59
We need some new ways of being.
00:19:01
Right.
00:19:01
So for so if we all would agree, let's welcome in some new ways of being.
00:19:06
Some old ways of being are going to have to die and leave.
00:19:10
Yeah.
00:19:11
Yes, old ways of thinking will have to leave those behind, which means the mind will have to be quiet,
00:19:21
like it does flushed out.
00:19:24
And of course, of course, we're experiencing these periods of the void and the abyss.
00:19:31
Yeah, can you see that?
00:19:32
Can you see how that's all part of it?
00:19:35
Yeah, that may in fact be exactly how it works.
00:19:39
You want a new world?
00:19:40
Great.
00:19:41
Get real still and let the old world die.
00:19:44
Yeah, there'll probably be a moment when it doesn't feel like you're in a new world.
00:19:48
And you've left an old world and it's pretty wobbly and your navigation system just got smashed to pieces.
00:19:56
It's lying by the side of the road.
00:19:58
Yeah.
00:20:00
Yeah.
00:20:00
So that's invitation for us is to stay calm and to trust this is actually how it works.
00:20:12
Yeah.
00:20:13
And what's fascinating, like this week, a bunch of people were here in Ohio and person by person as they sat across me watching somebody go, "I've been doing da da da da da for a while and yet I've come to the end of something and feel like a whole way of being is dying."
00:20:32
Yeah.
00:20:34
And it's disorienting and it's bewildering and can be anything from irritating to so maddening and agonizing.
00:20:45
Yeah.
00:20:46
Yep.
00:20:47
Yep.
00:20:48
New mattering.
00:20:51
Yeah.
00:20:51
And then all the rearranging of our lives around whatever's new.
00:20:58
And that's its own art form.
00:21:02
Yeah.
00:21:03
So this episode is for every one of you who it used to work a particular way and it was fine.
00:21:11
And now that doesn't work that way.
00:21:14
And there's a mild panic like what's wrong with me.
00:21:17
There used to be what would you call it?
00:21:20
Markers.
00:21:20
There used to be these reference points that told you, "Hey, you're doing great."
00:21:26
And they don't work like they used to.
00:21:29
It's not even that interesting.
00:21:31
Or they're simply not there.
00:21:33
Yep.
00:21:34
Yep.
00:21:35
That's all part of it.
00:21:37
And you go to try to explain this to somebody or justify it or rationalize it in even in many ways of mystery to you.
00:21:44
Yep.
00:21:45
Yep.
00:21:45
That's part of it.
00:21:47
And something that you would dismiss feels trivial or like, come on, I'm a grownup.
00:21:53
What am I doing thinking about that?
00:21:55
And yet it comes in.
00:21:58
Sometimes it comes in hot.
00:21:59
Sometimes it just starts gently tugging on your sleeve.
00:22:01
And it's almost like it's inviting you to dance with it, to follow it, to give it.
00:22:07
There was a woman who owns a very successful business a couple days ago here who said, honestly, and she has a whole team of people and all kinds of clients.
00:22:17
And she said, honestly, I actually just want to garden with my kids.
00:22:22
Yeah.
00:22:25
That's yeah.
00:22:27
Yeah.
00:22:27
So those of you who are like, I'd actually just like to grow my own food.
00:22:32
That just sounds like a good time.
00:22:33
Or those of you who have like some, I would like to learn how to do.
00:22:38
And then it's something that you know absolutely nothing about.
00:22:41
And you would be starting what feels like so far behind.
00:22:44
And yet it's like calling to you.
00:22:46
It's almost taunting you with like, come on, come on.
00:22:49
Let's try this.
00:22:50
You're like, but I wouldn't be any good at it.
00:22:52
And you don't even care.
00:22:54
Because you just know, or especially those of you, you're really good at something.
00:22:59
You're like really good at it.
00:23:02
And you built up all these muscles.
00:23:04
It's like a craft or a trade or a skill.
00:23:07
And yet you find yourself one and maybe even pay the bills doing that.
00:23:13
Maybe even like you go around and talk about it because you're an expert.
00:23:17
And yet there are moments when you're quiet, when you're still.
00:23:20
And you have this sense of actually, am I done doing this?
00:23:24
But if you were to share that with people around you, they'd be like, what are you talking about, especially if people around you who depend on you doing that.
00:23:31
Yeah.
00:23:32
Yeah.
00:23:32
Yeah.
00:23:33
Yeah.
00:23:33
New mattering.
00:23:34
Something is rising from within.
00:23:36
Yeah.
00:23:37
Yeah.
00:23:37
Sometimes it involves a retrieval.
00:23:39
You know what?
00:23:41
That should be able to do a whole another Robcast episode on that because there's something called the retrieval, which I'm seeing again and again as well, retrieving an earlier impulse that you left behind because you need to grow up and pay some bills.
00:23:52
But now somehow later in the game, it's asking you to revisit it in some new way.
00:23:57
But we'll do a whole thing on that later.
00:23:59
Yeah.
00:23:59
Yeah.
00:24:00
Uh-huh.
00:24:01
And these periods avoid like what even nothing matters.
00:24:05
Yeah.
00:24:05
Perhaps the sense of like things going flat is because new mattering is on its way.
00:24:11
Yeah.
00:24:11
So the old mattering, once again, if you invent a new verb, just go with it and just beat it to death, perhaps the old mattering is what's passing.
00:24:21
So that requires the mind has to be somewhat confused and some disoriented and one handed clapping because that's, yeah, we're leaving that behind.
00:24:32
Yeah.
00:24:33
Isn't it fascinating to be human?
00:24:36
Yeah.
00:24:36
Yeah.
00:24:37
What a wonderful thing.
00:24:39
Was it the poet Rilka?
00:24:42
To be here is glorious.
00:24:45
Yeah.
00:24:46
And maddening and agonizing and thrilling.
00:24:49
A number of other things I would add to that word glorious.
00:24:53
And this, my friends, has been episode three, eight, one.
00:24:59
Peace and love to you.
00:25:02
