Serious idleness →

Published December 4, 2023  ·  All posts on Dec 4  ·  

It seems I run from idleness. I’m fond of saying I should come with a warning—the kind one finds on the back of the driver’s-side sun-visor in a car: “Does not idle well.” It takes concerted effort for me to idle, and yet I cannot discern what it is that makes me run from idleness. But this guy? He seems to have gone all in…

‘Most of the time I don’t do anything. I am the idlest man in Paris … the only one who does less than I do is a whore without clients.’

Cioran may have been joking, but his idleness was serious business. It was an arduous lifetime project, into which he put his best efforts and which he served with complete dedication.

~ Costica Bradatan from, Learning to be a loser

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Honestly? My first thought was how does such a person support themselves? (They don’t. Others do.) After dialing down my snark, I was left noticing that there’s a sharp polarization to elevate idleness to a virtue, or to revile it as glorified laziness. Nonetheless, I must admit that to be idle requires me to first say ‘no’ to many ideas, things and opportunities. So maybe that’s the key: To be self-aware enough to thread my way between those two poles?

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December 03, 2023 — #61 →

Published December 3, 2023  ·  All posts on Dec 3  ·  

Reading time: About 4 minutes, 800 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/61

I appreciate your time and attention →

Published December 3, 2023  ·  All posts on Dec 3  ·  

There are countless instances where I’m reminded that “tomorrow” is not a given. I pay attention to those, and do my best to do it now. To say— Thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate what you did there. I appreciate you’re taking the time to… You get the gist.

For me, I’ve tried to take from this experience a relatively simple lesson: I tell people how I feel about them when I have the chance.

~ Ryan Holiday, from This Is Why You Can’t Wait Until Later

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Memento mori.

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Decline →

Published December 2, 2023  ·  All posts on Dec 2  ·  ,

Just as I have my own role to play, so does time. And time does its job much more faithfully, much more accurately, than I ever do. Ever since time began (when was that, I wonder?), it’s been moving ever forward without a moment’s rest. And one of the privileges given to those who’ve avoided dying young is the blessed right to grow old. The honor of physical decline is waiting, and you have to get used to that reality.

~ Haruki Murakami

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Because I want to →

Published December 1, 2023  ·  All posts on Dec 1  ·  ,

I value writing because it forces me to winnow my thinking. (And I hear you snarking: If this is the winnowed thinking…) I appreciate that writing begs me to review and rethink. I appreciate that writing slows me down and that hand writing is glacial in pace.

Likewise, they say, handwriting is going the way of the dodo. I don’t think that’s precisely true—it sounds like one of those lazy assumptions about technology, that it exists to flatten, to eliminate anything that brings a tactile, objective permanence. It may be, rather, that the objective has changed. Now we handwrite because we want to, not because we have to.

~ Neil Serven from, What Emojis Can’t Express

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It feels odd to me that “handwriting” is mostly just a noun. Maybe I’m lost in pedantry here, but I’m intrigued by the interplay and overlap of the following simple sentences and fragments, and their multiple meanings. I write. My writing. My handwriting. My hand writing.

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Dogs →

Published November 30, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 30  ·  ,

We give them the love we can spare, the time we can spare. In return, dogs have given us their absolute all. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.

~ Roger Caras

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Memento Morgan →

Published November 29, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 29

This caught my eye in the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah Georgia.

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But can you actually see anything? →

Published November 29, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 29  ·  ,

I love metaphors about hills and valleys. If it’s an uphill struggle, imagine the view. Hills and valleys is a great metaphor for the concept of a local maximum: It’s visually clear (standing atop a hill) and mathematically clear (at a local maximum) that it is “down” in every direction. But only a special sort of hilltop is actually interesting. A hilltop that is really large becomes a flat tabletop. And a hilltop socked in with fog is easily mistaken for not a hilltop. Only hilltops which are pointy enough, and from which we can see other things, are interesting.

[…] our economy—resource allocation based on employment […]—is a local maximum and we cannot expect to arrive at a good outcome without activism.

[…]

But, unless we automate a lot more, we the species will never have enough wealth to offer a decent basic income, and everyone will continue to waste half their lives at work.

~ Gavin Leech from, Automatic for the people

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Is it clear that every direction is “down”? Can we see anything else; if we can’t see anything else we can’t be sure this is a local maximum. How can we explore “down” in some of the directions… when we’re talking about global scale culture and human lives?

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Mindset with Rodrigo Pimentel →

Published November 28, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 28  ·  

Mindset with Rodrigo Pimentel

What can individuals learn from the experience of recovering from a severe physical and mental challenge, such as a stroke, and how can they apply those lessons to their own lives?

Rodrigo Pimentel discusses his catastrophic stroke, and his journey back from the near-death experience.

This is what’s happening— there’s no point in being angry or being bitter. […] and the only thing I can do about it— or rather, in many ways, I can’t do anything about it right now. What I can do is not panic. And not get bitter. All of that will only make me stop… it will only make it worse. This came sort of naturally. I think this is the mindset that I had, this sense— this is what’s happening. This kept coming back to me over and over and over.

~Rodrigo Pimentel 19:59

Rodrigo Pimentel recounts his stroke experience, reflecting on the unexpectedness and uncertainty that characterized his recovery. He emphasizes the importance of acceptance, revealing how his introspective nature, cultivated through parkour, long-distance running, and meditation, aided his coping mechanism. His ability to embrace introspection, facilitated his acceptance of help and changed his perspective on independence. Throughout the conversation, Rodrigo shares insights on handling adversity, and appreciating the current moment.

All of man’s problems arise from not being able to sit quietly, alone in a room.

~Blaise Pascal

The discussion touches on the introspective nature of parkour and long-distance running, highlighting how these activities provide opportunities for profound self-reflection. Additionally, Rodrigo emphasizes the significance of facing pain with curiosity rather than avoidance, shedding light on his approach to overcoming challenges and embracing acceptance in the face of uncertainty.

So in the end, if you look at the big picture, it’s a big basket of the things I want to do, and it’s all in there together, and I’ll shake it somehow, and my week will come out. All this to say […] in the end, I’d describe my practice as ‘bit of everything’.

~Rodrigo Pimentel 34:16

Takeaways

Embracing Acceptance Amid Uncertainty — The necessity of accepting circumstances, particularly during stroke recovery, where uncertainty loomed large.

Introspection Through Athletic Pursuits — Engagement in activities like parkour, long-distance running, and meditation facilitated an introspective mindset.

Navigating Pain and Challenges — Approach to pain, advocating facing it with curiosity rather than attempting to distract from it.

Appreciating Independence and Accepting Help — Stroke alters perspective on independence, leading to a newfound acceptance of help.

Resources

Rodrigo Pimentel’s @hashtagfeet on Instagram.

Haruki Murakami’s, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Cultivate →

Published November 28, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 28  ·  ,

Give fools their gold and knaves their power, let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall, who sows a field or trains a flower or plants a tree, is more than all.

~ John Greenleaf Whittier

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