Reading time: About 5 minutes, 900 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/45
August 13, 2023 — #45 →
Balance →
I’m prone to thinking I should be helping more.
If you’re prone to thinking you should be helping more, that’s probably a sign that you could afford to direct more energy to your idiosyncratic ambitions and enthusiasms. As the Buddhist teacher Susan Piver observes, it’s radical, at least for some of us, to ask how we’d enjoy spending an hour or day of discretionary time. And the irony is that you don’t actually serve anyone else by suppressing your true passions anyway. More often than not, by doing your thing – as opposed to what you think you ought to be doing – you kindle a fire that helps keep the rest of us warm.
~ Oliver Burkeman from, Oliver Burkeman’s last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian
slip:4uteli1.
I was thinking, “oh look, a fire metaphor…” and then, with growing uncertainty, “…or, is that a fire simile?” At which point I spun off relearning the difference between metaphor and simile for the gajillionth time. *sigh*
I am certain however, that I do not need to direct more of my energy into my idiosyncrasies. No, what I need to do is to learn how to be comfortable letting things remain unexplored. I need to think, “That’s interesting.” And then let it go past.
ɕ
25 – RDV day 3 →
Burly final challenge from Roberto on day 3.
26 – RDV day 2 →
Wonder-filled day. Awesome friends old and new, glorious weather.
Eyebrow raised. Chuckle stifled. →
Once I learned how to be a good sport, I began to appreciate getting my delusions busted as the target of a well played, real life, condescending Wonka. I’m too often condescending, and being the recipient is potent medicine.
It is to my great pleasure that such a fine example of 18th-century punking is related to typography.
~ Martin McClellan from Letters From the Hellbox: Caslon, Baskerville, and Franklin: Revolutionary Types – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
slip:4umeai1.
Typography is a field which I find intriguing. People spent tremendous time and effort understanding readability and utility of little bits of lead type, printing presses, and optimizing everything. I find it sublime that someone so into type (go read the essay) was so oblivious about something they held so dear. Yes, do tell me more about that typography minutiae.
At which point I began doing that sort of squinting, glancing side to side, I’m feeling suspicious thing. I’m not a typography nerd, but there are a couple other fields where I could probably use a good punk’ing.
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27 — Parkour →
Terrific first day of Rendezvous, was as much mental as physical. Saturday will be, no surprise, another day of parkour.
28 — Walking →
I love to stroll around, and did miles of wandering around London. Friday’s activity will be day one of Rendezvous.
29 — Yard work →
Nothing crazy, but planning this yesterday enabled me to get this done this morning before I have to leave for the airport :) Tomorrow: Perambulation on a different continent.
It’s in the telling, not the story →
My time is my only real resource. My time is finite. I’m temporarily able-bodied. I’m temporarily in control of my thoughts—and only mostly in control if I’m honest. We feel deeply touched when someone pays attention to us. This is why many people fight (figuratively and literally) for attention. The power of all the solitary experiences (books and music, meditation and personal movement, writing and all other composition, regardless of medium) is that we are free from the constraints of others’ time. With the solitary we remain entirely in control of the use of our own time.
By comparison, the consumption of stories via electronic media can leave us feeling peculiarly undernourished, dissatisfied and unfulfilled, as if we had just gulped down fast food. Despite an insatiable desire for more, we rarely feel uplifted, and it’s not often that we think about the characters for days afterwards. Storytelling is the oldest, purest and most direct form of human communication. Modern technology is no substitute for this unique compact between narrator and listener.
~ Richard Hamilton from, A story told aloud, in person, has a power like no other | Aeon Essays
slip:4uaeea26.
The trick (in addition to T. E. Lawrence’s “not minding it hurts”) is to be aware of when we need to surrender our control to the others’ time. Sometimes we need to be enthralled. Sometimes we need to feel touched. Sometimes we need to feel ourselves given over to the power of others. For that, the power is more so in the telling.
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30 — Walk →
To and from my favorite local cafe is about 4 miles. Tomorrow: I think the exercise will be to power the human-powered lawn mower.