Amy and I watched Bridge of Spies over the weekend. We enjoyed it, but particularly loved one interaction between the lawyer (James Donovan) and the accused Russian spy (Rudolf Abel). Donovan: You don’t seem alarmed? Abel: Would it help? At multiple climactic moments, the line “Would it help?’ got rolled out. It had the same kind of resonance with us to one of our favorite movie lines ever (from Argo ). ...
From Ryan Holiday’s amazing and wonderful book The Daily Stoic . Thanks Adam for the email exchange and for sending this to me today.
I watched HBO’s Chernobyl the past few nights. I finished it last night, took a deep breath, and said out loud to myself, “that was spectacular.” One of the final quotes that stuck with me is the title of this post. The full quote is “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.” Read it again. “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.” Pause and ponder it. Think about our current world. Let the line linger a bit in your mind. ...
A friend from a long time ago, who I hadn’t heard from in a while, sent me an email with a wonderful nugget in it. I just got back from Oahu and had an interesting experience on Waikiki Beach. My son and I were boogie boarding and there were several people taking surfing lessons out in the waves with instructors. As the intrepid beginners got up on their boards and surfed one of their first waves, the instructors would invariably be shouting directives to them. ...
Amy’s favorite poet, Mary Oliver , just passed away at 83. In her honor, following is Amy’s favorite Mary Oliver poem White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field . Coming down out of the freezing sky with its depths of light, like an angel, or a buddha with wings, it was beautiful and accurate, striking the snow and whatever was there with a force that left the imprint of the tips of its wings – five feet apart – and the grabbing thrust of its feet, and the indentation of what had been running through the white valleys of the snow – ...
The following post is the one I was referring to when I wrote The Moment You Realize You Aren’t Comfortable With What You Wrote . After I wrote it, I searched around for the quote but came across links to a speech by Ben Shapiro titled “Truth Is A Microagression” along with a bunch of commentary about Shapiro suggesting “Facts don’t care about your feelings” and counterarguments that “Facts do care about your feelings.” ...
At the end of another intense year, after two weeks fighting a difficult cold, surrounded by snow, light, and quiet, this poem by John O’Donohue made its way to the surface, sent to me by my beloved soulmate . Happy new year. When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic, Time takes on the strain until it breaks; Then all the unattended stress falls in On the mind like an endless, increasing weight. ...