On this day

October 15th

Civility

October 15, 2023

At the kickoff of an unusually long issue of 7 for Sunday, I’ll try to keep this first part short, because (as I often say, because I really do mean it) I appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted.

Civility fades in the face of entitlement.

~ Seth Godin from, https://seths.blog/2023/10/no-thank-you/

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Godin’s point—that sometimes we choose to assert that something was ours to take, when in fact someone was kind enough to give a gift—really landed for me. I’m reminded of a recently-run-here quote from Kevin Kelly about the growth opportunities pointed to by irritation with others.

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How to tip ourselves

October 15, 2021

From now on I hope always to stay alert, to educate myself as best I can. But, lacking this in future I will relaxedly turn back to my secrete mind to see what it has observed when I thought I was sitting this one out. We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

~ Ray Bradbury

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My no write purty

October 15, 2021

Once, in a dry season, I wrote in large letters across two pages of a notebook that innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself. Although now, some years later, I marvel that a mind on the outs with itself should have nonetheless made painstaking record of its every tremor, I recall with embarrassing clarity the flavor of those particular ashes. It was a matter of misplaced self-respect.

~ Joan Didion from, https://www.vogue.com/article/joan-didion-self-respect-essay-1961

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Aside from this being the first time I’ve linked to Vogue… I’d like to turn a phrase or two like that at some point. But unfortunately, me no write that purty. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sometimes I read things that I really feel I resonate with. I’m honestly not sure if I agree with her—specifically in this essay or in her writing in general. But this grabbed me and so, share I shall.

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Achieving greatness

October 15, 2020

So you want to achieve greatness. You’ve decided that ho-hum mediocrity is not for you. Alrighty then. Well, if you’re going to do that, you have to make a choice: whether to take The Big Road or The Little Road.

~ Hugh MacLeod from, https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2020/09/18/go-big-go-small-just-go/

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It turns out that this rhymes with my vision and mission. (Please start here if you just thought, “what vision and mission?”) I was deep in the workshop trying to find my vision and mission, when this post from MacLeod drifted through my sphere of awareness. I think if I hadn’t already been in the middle of doing the hard work of orienteering, this post would have tipped me into starting the hard work.

So my question for today is: If you don’t feel like you have a clear vision and mission, what would you have to expose yourself to which would be likely to make you tip into being compelled to find them?

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The Guard

October 15, 2017

The Old Guard does not tell the story of when no one talked to each other for a week because of a disagreement over architecture. They don’t talk about those long 72 hours where if funding didn’t show up, they were done. They don’t tell these stories because they hurt to tell, they are shitty awful stories, but they are as important as the myths because they resulted in the construction of trust within the team. If we can get through that; we can get through anything.

~ Rands from, http://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-guard/

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Animal models of atherosclerosis: LDL

October 15, 2016

(Part 5 of 12 in series, Stephan Guyenet's "Whole Health Source")

The bottom line is that experimental models of atherosclerosis appear to rely on overloading herbivorous species with dietary cholesterol that they are not equipped to clear. SFA does exacerbate the increase in LDL caused by cholesterol overload. But in the absence of excess cholesterol, it does not necessarily raise LDL even in species ill-equipped to digest these types of fats. Dietary cholesterol has a modest effect on LDL cholesterol in humans, and it has even less effect on LDL particle number, a more important measure. So there may not be a cholesterol overload for saturated fat to exacerbate in humans.

~ Stephan Guyenet from, http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/07/animal-models-of-atherosclerosis-ldl.html

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In the context of actual amounts that you can actually consume (animal studies feed cholesterol to herbivores as if you eat 20+ eggs EVERY day) there is no evidence (not in animal studies and certainly not in human studeis) that cholesterol and saturated fat cause atherosclerosis. If you think eating cholesterol or saturated fat is bad, I hope you’ll investigate where you obtained that knowledge, and look into the factual basis of that knowledge. If you’re avoiding cholesterol and saturated fat, what are you replacing it with?

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1,800 feet

October 15, 2016

(Part 2 of 12 in series, Williamsburg Bridge QM challenge)

I went for a 45 minute walk this morning! In QM. Went about 1,800 feet (~555 meters). No standing up, just resting in a squat. This is part of a challenge some friends and I will be trying next weekend (Saturday 22nd). We’re going to attempt to bear-crawl across the Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn to NYC. :) If anyone in the area wants to come out and lumber over the East River with us, it’ll be in the morning and we’ll make a Facebook event for it.

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Situation or character flaw?

October 15, 2013

There are two ways to explain mistakes: the person did what they did because of the situation, or, because of who they are. We use the former explanation with ourselves — “I forgot her birthday because I have so much on my mind right now.” We tend to use the second explanation on others — “She forgot my birthday because she’s so self-centered.”

~ Brett McKay from, http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/02/19/how-to-own-up-to-mistakes/

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