$11,000 Bitcoin freewrite!

Good day, Steemians! I’m at @caffetto. @tarotbyfergus, @vermillionfox, @guthrie and I are hanging out. I reached my quota of wins in Magic: The Gathering. @tarotbyfergus was playing a pauper deck, so although I’m basking in the victories, they weren’t exactly fair. I’m sitting out the next few games. I’ve been wanting to tackle a freewrite day with the milestone of five-figure Bitcoin. This last two years have been a grinding, lesson in humility. The prospect of a therapeutic writing session on the hopeful bull market seem like an appropriate use of time.

I could make this entire post about how much better my life was during the 2017 bull run, and I still might. Really, though, what this is about for me is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Most, I’m sure are aware, but for the psychologically uninformed, here is the premise. At our base carbon-based lifeform foundations, we need food, water and sleep. Secondly, we aspire for security; a place to live, a roof over our heads. Following that is social interaction and relationships, followed by self-esteem achievements and accomplishments.

That all brings us to the top of the Hierarchy. Self-actualization. This free-write is most about that time in 2017 when I brushed with the highest echelon of the famous Maslow model. I’ve told this story many times, but I was prolific during the dark $0.08 STEEM days. I was driven mostly by a distain for silo, centralized media. Steemit gave me the opportunity to share my work, uncensored, with full publisher ownership and be rewarded for it! My posts earned a few dollars […there wasn’t a lot of author competition at the time], and in a few months, I earned 13,000 STEEM POWER.

Around May of 2017, STEEM hit $2. I called @mada and asked if I, in fact, had over $20K in crypto, to which he replied “You do.”. The bull run that followed was life changing. Not just life changing, by thought changing as well. I grew up in Scranton, PA. Lower middle class, blue collar family. I’d always thought I wanted to be rich. What that parabolic time for cryptocurrency taught me is that I didn’t want to be rich. Subtle as it may be, there is a difference. I bought things I needed. Things I’d typically go without. Once @mada explained @blocktrades to me, I was able to fund my comic book ambitions.

Buying things for my family was also a viable investment. We were able to purchase @vermillionfox a 12.9” iPad Pro, which was the catalyst for her exploration in to art, photography and modeling. What I take from that time most, though, is no being stressed over bills. Not worrying about how I’d fill my gas tank. Where I’d come up with the money for groceries. December of 2017, more groceries than our family could eat in a week was a matter of selling 10 STEEM! I found myself thinking more, about life, about myself. About human beings. Why we’re here.

It was the first baby steps toward self-fulfillment. That threshold most will never know. Obviously, as we now know, that time of prosperity wouldn’t last, and with it’s decline, so did my ability to traverse my own actualization. I was quickly thrust back in to a world of bills, credit card payments, debt, deadlines and stress. I’ve been there since. I have my friends, my family and my career. I am rich in other ways, but systemic disparity and financial hardships extinguished those first flames of my coveted Hierarchical advancements.

Now, I’m watching Bitcoin […as an umbrella statement, encompassing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology] return to a parabolic growth, reminding me of life during those fleeting months of 2017. If you were around during that time, regardless of which project you invested in, I have to imagine those thoughts are on your mind as well. “Is this it?”. “I’ll do things differently, this time.” I am thinking those things, but I’m thinking a lot about thinking as well. Maybe warming the engine that’ll be a return to contemplating my life beyond my day to day existence.

I’m cautiously optimistic, but what the rise and fall of the crypto-market taught me last time is, I can’t wait for it. I need to keep working, keep shooting, keep writing and keep thinking. Do you remember those bizarre magic eye posters in the 90’s? That’s what self-actualization felt like to me. It was something I couldn’t see. Most of us from birth are conditioned to struggle, and that is how we’re blinded to the highest levels of personal awareness. Once you see it, though, you can’t unsee it. Even if it fades, you know it’s there.

With that, I’m going to close this session of reflection. To be honest, it was more for more than anyone else […isn’t that one of the beautiful phenomenons about Steemit? It’s like going to a therapist, then getting paid for it]. The last few days, I’ve been sorting an unusual amount of thought, and seeing $11,000 Bitcoin prices is surging the input/output substantially. We’ll see where things go. I’m excited! For more art, photography, thoughts on life and existence, follow me here at @kommienezuspadt!