Last night I painted an onion and watched Great Courses. I got a little depressed about having so much to learn but then I remembered that's a pointless way to think.

September Study

Reading List

The Body Electric by Robert O. Becker (Biophysics)

(skim) Earthing by Clinton Ober (Biophysics? Metaphysics?)

Information and the Nature of Reality by Paul Davies and Niels Henrik Gregersen  (Theoretical Physics)

Classes

The Joy of Science Great Courses Lessons 1 and 2
Lesson 1 Lectures
The Nature of Science
The Scientific Method
The Ordered Universe
Celestial and Terrestrial Mechanics
Newton's Law of Motion
Universal Gravitation
The Nature of Energy
The First Law of Thermodynamics
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Entropy
Magnetism and Static Electricity
Electricity
Lesson 2 Lectures
Electromagnetism
The Electromagnetic Spectrum Part 1
The Electromagnetic Spectrum Part 2
Relativity
Atoms
The Bohr Atom
The Quantum World
The Periodic Table of the Elements
Introduction to Chemistry
The Chemistry of Carbon
States of Matter and Changes f State
Phase Transformations and Chemical Reactions

Actions/Assignments

Begin to offer Spiritual Consulting Services (Business)

Play an instrument every day (Music)

Write about the three books 

Write for 2 hours per week on Program For Joy  (English)
Post in the higher dimension forum or askscience on reddit with questions (Science)
Email physics student Scott Harris with questions on Electromagnetism (Physics)

My 5 year study plan

In light of wanting to go back to school without incurring debt, I've decided to embark upon a five year self-study journey. I am choosing not to specialize, another luxury afforded to the non-student. I will be studying a variety of subjects including things I have not studied before.
These topics include:

• Math (Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry, and Calculus) 
• Science (a brief overview of the basics with a focus on Electromagnetism, Biophysics, and Theoretical Physics)
• Philosophy (Media Studies, the Power of Belief/Prayer, and Religion and Folklore)
• English (emphasis on Teaching and writing at least 3 books)
• Art (performance, digital, drawing, multi-media)
• Music (piano, cello, voice)
• Business (focused on real-world prototyping and creation of designs, networking, offering goods and services)
• Languages (casual Duolingo for French and Spanish)

To ensure success I will:

• dedicate and track a minimum of 30 minutes of every day or 3.5 hours per week to study
• write comprehensive essays, blog posts, or articles about the topics I've learned
• connect with mentors in each subject
• take affordable, IRL classes when needed (as in the case with Math especially)
• utilize resources like Coursera, Skillshare, internet forums, and the library
• carefully track what I've studied/learned in each discipline

I thought at first that I should create the entire 5 year study plan up-front, but as a non-expert in these topics, I can't be sure what books will be valuable and what won't or what topics will benefit me and which will bore me to tears. So instead, I decided to take it month-by-month.

We are all parents to each other.

Poetry

All writing is meant to be clear, to convey a straightforward meaning, idea, situation, or story to the reader... except for poetry. Good poetry is accessible enough, but still a locked box of importance. Every word means only what the other words let it until you're overwhelmed with a general impression of what the poem means and only then can you apply that impression back to the poem to unlock the other meanings behind the coy words. You end up venturing into your own mind and the intent and nonintent of the poet, to the complex Freudian realm of suggestion and association. Most poetry is bullshit because it does not-cannot successfully ride that line of teasingly accessible with a world of depth below. Too many poems are locked away from inherent meaning. This is the damage of academia. While others yet are only obvious, saying just what they mean. I haven't thought about or written poetry in 4 years because the whole world of it is a mess, stuck in ancient tropes and pretension. But all that time I've been wondering, what is the future of poetry? What place does poetry have in the digital world? Not just as an archaic artifact, but as something that lives and breathes the modern experience.

Today I saw a bumper sticker that said, "Abolish Corporate Personhood" and I felt two things.
1. I wonder how many people who read that bumper sticker understand what it means
2. The person driving this Jeep Cherokee understands and that represents a lot.
The interesting thing about the global enlightenment is that we have to have a deeper understanding than we've ever had as a species before. It's difficult because we have to stop letting other people tell us what to think. We have to learn about all the systems of the world on a global scale and understand how they're corrupt. It's a big task for any one person, let alone a community. But as more people catch on to the lies and manipulation that have led them to think in the ways that they think, the more communities will form.
I'm arguing that this difficulty is essential for our enlightenment. We couldn't become enlightened without gaining these extra skills and enduring the difficulties and challenges presented to us.

Daily Enlightenment?

I feel like I can see things from a better perspective almost daily. I wonder if other people feel this way too or if I'm just going through a phase. I could also be delusional. Every conclusion I reach lately isn't a new conclusion, really. It's just a crisper understanding, a more focused view of the structure of wealth or the inequality of power or the strangeness of holding onto broken systems and the obvious brokenness of them? I don't think many other people see this way or we wouldn't be living like this. It would be disruptive but beneficial to change our way of life. Maybe the understanding of how to do that will dawn on us, slowly, through this day-by-day enlightenment. I hope I'm not the only one experiencing it. It's imperceptible, almost, because it feels like natural mental growth at an accelerated speed. I hope I'm not delusional. I really hope the world gets better.