Vibe Patrol II.

"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful."

-Malala Yousafzai

I want to apologize to myself for my delay in posting this. I am working on improving my personal discipline - I procrastinated heavily during many of my yesterdays, and the result of that functions similarly to financial inertia - this is when past negative actions stack up and make it difficult to do anything but spin your wheels.

If action beats reaction, then what about pre-action? Think profiling, applied to the self, constructively.

What is vibe patrol.

Vibe Patrol is a concept. It represents an ideal. Our world is often crazy, always maze-y, and rarely ideal. Many of us do not know that we are capable of impacting the world around us in any way - let alone for the better. Vibe Patrol distills that sense, refracts it, and reflects signal back to sender in a way which hopes to be constructive at its best, and non-destructive at its worst. I want to write this as a no-nonsense how-to guide for police, from my high horse, feeling that I know better.

Instead of that, I am going to write this as a friendly set of thoughts which may prove useful for any peacekeeper who still believes in change. Many of us find ourselves thrust, without consent, into positions which are full of chaotic energy - or which are otherwise unbearable.

And yet, we navigate them - some have even borne the unbearable.

While I admire them their resilience, I have navigated my own chaos with the hope of curating a vibe shift which forces resilience less often, and instead self-cultivates in such a way that resilience is both prized and intrinsic.

Vibe Patrol is one wave in the Vibe Shift. It's choosing not to, even though you know you could - because you know that there must be a better way. Not necessarily an easier, or clearer way - but a better one.

How to patrol - with vibes.

When I was a kid, learning to play basketball, I would often find myself put in the post - relative to my local talent pool, I was a bigger player, and I had solid footwork. My dad would preach to me the value of putting in the work before the ball is in your hands, especially when you're on the block. You've got to fight for position. Be a teammate.

In an ideal world, perhaps we would only ever operate in familiar, comfortable situations - and maybe this would lead us to a dull, stagnant form of existence; a low vibe state.

In this world, we must often operate in situations which are nearly familiar - reality comes with a set of chaotic wrinkles which are difficult to calculate for.

While we cannot control the fact that there is chaos in the world, we can shape it into some semi-coherent form through preparation and a deep understanding of the substrate of that chaos: the cultures which have shaped the people around us in our increasingly-connected, often-hostile world; the emotional temperature not just of a nation or of a state, but of a neighborhood; the condition of the economy; whether it is hot out; and so many other variables - you get the idea. Chaos.

Vibe Patrol involves operating on a drive to understand those facets of chaos which are comprehensible to us. It involves acting with empathy, and putting in work before the ball is in your hands - like you're the one on the block.

How to optimize a vibe's success rate.

Chaos within our world is probabilistic. This means that there is a set of mathematical formulae which can roughly approximate - through a series of "maybes" of different weights (Note: count) - what is going on. Life hack - it's not all random. Nope. In our world, fortunately for you and I alike, countless billions of minds - human, animal, and natural - have grappled with what seems like every corner of thought. Resultant of that, we have a set of fairly well-defined systems - currents - which underlie this chaos.

Observe the following image. During Vibe Patrol I, I was dressed in these clothes:

While I knew better than to keep my hands in my pockets, my body language was otherwise similar. I dress and carry myself in this way with the intention of projecting a vibe, in keeping with my understandings of Color Theory, Body Language, and Mirror Neurons, among others. When I clench my jaw in a particular way, I know that you know what that means. Similarly, when you look at the clothes I am wearing, you likely draw some inferences about what I was thinking when I put them on in the morning.

Note the layered greys, and the mid-tone blue; also my relaxed, open posture. My hope was to project a balance of intellectual authority and general competence, at balance with humility, and rooted in curiosity and a desire to do good. How did I do?

Take a moment to assess.

While you do, also consider whether it seems that I am someone who lives the vibe I cast sincerely - or whether it strikes you as a performance. Use your intuition. You are in control here.

How to keep it real.

Speaking of control - do you know what that word means?

It means: "the ability to influence - especially others, and events." According to Developing Experts, the word "control" derives from the Latin root controllare, which means "to check" or "to restrain." It is made up of the prefix con-, which means "together," and the verb tollere, which means "to bear" or "to support."

Many today are seeking exactly those things - togetherness and support. Some only need a little restraint and don't yet know it.

I have found in my life, as I am sure you have found in yours, that people look for those things in others who actively live and embody them. Talking the talk can be magnetic for a moment. Walking the walk represents stability. It is gravitational when these two forces meet and combine within one being.

We have all known people who were quietly solid, and thought to ourselves, "wow, if they felt comfortable expressing this side of themselves more openly, the world would be a better place." We've also met people who seem content to embody the "eternal yapper" archetype. While talking the talk can yield some effects, the actual control it yields is minimal. Talk is talk. Intonation, uniform color selection, whatever else - these things alone may alter the tone of any given interaction, true; over time, our collective intelligence adapts - just like with crows and orcas and countless other animals - and that falls flat if it isn't backed by something solid. It has no currency.

How do we build currency? Internal stability over time is as good as gold (or tree labor) here. We begin by building a deep sense of self - one rooted in a detective's or a healer's mind. To Protect and Serve, after all, requires that we be able to. We are only able to do that when we are physically, mentally, and emotionally equipped to handle high-stress, high-variable scenarios.

What did i do wrong.

The colors in this row align with statistics for the Most Common Police Uniform Colors in the US. Dark (Navy) Blue does represent strength, and still, it carries heat (you know that better than I do), and weight. Can you see how each one, while rooted in depth and security, might be viewed in a succesively assertive light by persons with only symbolic and tonal understandings of your language?

I was wearing a dark-colored hat (and absolutely did fail to keep palms below waist, and upturned - like a penguin to an eagle). Obviously. Can you feel my aggression?

How to resist.

Do you want to rage against rage - passively? Consider loosely incorporating colors like these into your uniforms and daily wear instead. If I could do it over again, I would incorporate this artisan's touch into my wardrobe - these colors represent neutral protection in their own right.

They're not soft - have you seen those 'Jake, from State Farm' commercials? You know about khakis. Who doesn't know about grey sweatpants? Slate blue? Can you say 'grey swatpants?'

How to finish strong.

To maximize the probability of success within the Vibe Shift, one should strive to embody an ideal, rooted in what may be attainable within the current shared lifespan - we are all here dealing with each other, for better or for worse, for... oh, wait... huh.

Anyway, we're not getting rid of each other anytime soon, and nor should we wish to (biodiversity is important).

I perceive that ideal to be: a person with a drive to understand, to heal, and to support the substrate beneath the soil - envision Atlas. One should aim to pair that with a drive to serve as a shield - and protect. In a perfect world, no gun needed. Our world isn't perfect. Despite that, I can foresee a shared legacy which builds toward that - not through domination, but through cooperation. Can you?

If you are able to see that in your mind, angle your thoughts toward that. We must carry some ideal with us which represents our best intentions, as a continual reminder of who we are. Don't stress yourself out, but try to be like funnier respectfully insert Holy Person. Then balance that with wildly insert Scientific Person. I believe in you (unless you selected Nazis).