Welcome to Field Notes
On faith, philosophy, fitness, and the pursuit of a well-lived life
In research and journalism, field notes are primary source data - raw, firsthand observations recorded in the middle of the work. They consist of two kinds of information: descriptive (the objective record of what is actually happening) and reflective (the subjective record of what the researcher thinks, feels, and wonders about what he’s seeing). The researcher isn’t above the field, observing from a safe distance. He’s in it.
That’s a pretty good description of what be aiming at with Field Notes.
The “field” is ordinary life. Sleep and food and work and rest. Morning routines and evening rituals. The body, the mind, the soul. The people we love and the habits we keep. Nothing is too small to be worth examining, and nothing too familiar to yield something new if you look at it carefully enough.
The question running through all of it is simple: what does it mean to live well? Not to be an Olympian, a sage, or a saint, but to become a little healthier, a little happier, and a little more helpful. That’s the question Field Notes exists to explore.
And I’ve taken a long road to get here.
A long road for what could have been a short distance. The Hebrews wandered from Egypt to Israel for forty years. It should have taken forty days. It’s easy to snicker, but I don’t. It took me thirty.
In those thirty years, my deepest fear came true: I became an utter and abject failure. I failed in every major area: educationally, vocationally, personally, financially, morally. As a student, a son, a husband, a father, a friend. As a man. I demolished everything I touched. I was a slacker, a crafter of excuses, a financial profligate, a periodic degenerate, and a prodigy in the worst sense of the word. I squandered every potential, wasted every opportunity, and found a way to spoil every blessing.
And yet, here I am. Free.
Not free because I’ve arrived. Free because there is nothing left to protect. I no longer strain, or strain far less, to appear as anything other than what I am. That’s not the same as complacency. I’m striving. But the striving is different now. It’s not performing virtues I don’t yet possess. It’s practicing them, one day at a time.
I approach that pursuit with three practices: Orthodox Christianity, Stoic philosophy, and strength training. Elements of each will make their way into my notes. Use what helps. Leave what doesn’t.
These are the lenses through which the field notes are written. They won’t all appear in every piece. Some subjects call for one, some for two, some for all three. Some may not have any, at least explicitly. What remains constant is the question: How can this help you become a healthier, happier, more helpful person? How can this serve your pursuit of a well-lived life?”
That question is the editorial standard. Nothing goes out without answering it honestly.
The notes themselves are both descriptive and reflective, part observation, part confession. Some of what you’ll find here draws on observation, tradition, and evidence. Some of it is personal: what I’m learning, where I’m getting it wrong, what questions I can’t stop asking. The field is the same one you’re living in. I’m just writing down what I see.
As for the form, I’m letting it find its shape rather than forcing it into one. Field notes, by nature, evolve with the territory. What this looks like in a year may be different from what it looks like today, and I think that’s as it should be. The goal was never a tidy format. It was honest, useful writing. The form will follow from that.
You don’t have to be a Christian, a Stoic, or an athlete to be here. You just have to be curious about what a well-lived life might look like and what it might take to get there.
I’m not speaking from the mountaintop. I’m making my way upward just like everyone else. I have knowledge and skills gained from years of study and experience, but I don’t claim flawless expertise. Just an honest pursuit of better, lessons learned mostly the hard way, and a helping hand.
If you want a finished system, look elsewhere. If you’re willing to think alongside someone working through things honestly, in the hopes of helping other people become healthier, happier, and more helpful versions of themselves, you’re in the right place.
- Remy