☕ saturday mornings - may 13, 2023
☕ saturday mornings - may 13, 2023
unlived lives, good times & playing cards with friends
Happy Saturday!
I hope you’re having an excellent start to your weekend.
What I’ve been up to:
More Write of Passage, more altMBA, more book marketing. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to focus on in June once the courses end.
I published an essay on the pitfalls of podcasts. There is an epidemic of people who listen to podcasts instead of their own thoughts. While podcasts can be a great way to hear new ideas, constantly filling every moment of your day with noise severs your connection with your self.
Here's an inside look at the most interesting ideas I've explored this week.
Enjoy.
✍️ quote i’m pondering:
Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist, on unlived lives:
“Sometimes I can feel my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.”
📚 book passage i loved:
Life is worth living and no matter what it throws at you it is important to keep your eyes on the prize of the happiness that will come.
Even when the Death Railway reduced us to little more than animals, humanity in the shape of our saintly medical officers triumphed over barbarism.
Remember, while it always seems darkest before the dawn, perseverance pays off and the good times will return.
― The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart
💡 idea from me: play your cards
I spent a lot of time playing Euchre with my friends while I was in university. As I look back, it was one of the defining experiences of my post-secondary education. (I'm sure my parents are thrilled.)
It was a near-daily ritual, born in the empty boredom of COVID lockdowns, flourished on trips to Costa Rica and Kelowna, and persisted all the way up to graduation.
Most weeknights, I'd finish work for the day, slam my laptop shut, spin around in my swivel chair, and bound out of my room to join my roommates. We'd gather around this wobbly wooden table, that could lean 15 degrees in any direction, put some 70's classics on a speaker, and play for a few hours.
One of our favourite things to do was complain about the quality of our cards.
It was a habit that grew out of the cracks of silence at the beginning of each hand, once the cards were dealt and each person was rigorously reorganizing their hand.
We'd be smug and silent if we got dealt good cards. But, several times a game you'd hear a "Who dealt me this shit?", or some other pained profanity, as the shuffle's unlucky victim stared at their hand, glanced warily around the table, and shook their head in utter disbelief. Some of us would even lean back and snap a picture of our cards just to dramatize how terrible they truly were.
It was one of those jokes that somehow got funnier with each repetition. Perhaps simply because of the repetition.
It was clear who the dealer was and it's a definite faux pas in Euchre to reveal anything about the quality of your hand. But that made it all the more amusing.
Sometimes we'd all chuckle deliciously as they played their pathetically useless cards. Sometimes the cards didn't turn out to be so bad. Sometimes they'd win.
There's a famous cliche: "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand".
While true, it's still annoying.
The conclusion that we’re expected to arrive at is: Don't complain about the cards you are dealt (aka your fate) because there's nothing you can do about it.
I don't agree.
Complain about your cards.
Life can be uncaring, insensitive, and bitterly unfair. Despite the fact you can be doing all the right things, some days can still feel unnecessarily hard, a hurricane of chaos can still descend without warning, and life can still hit you right where it hurts.
But, I try to remember: Misfortune is a gateway to inner growth.
The trials of life are there for a reason.
Each is an opportunity to demonstrate my character, show dignity in the face of life's indifference, be "worthy of my sufferings".
All we can do is trust that each twist in fate is preparation for the life we need to live and the person we can become.
Hölderlin: “If I step onto my misfortune, I stand higher.”
So shake your head, clench your fist, look up to the sky, chuckle at your misfortune, maybe even mutter a "Who dealt me this shit?" under your breath.
Then, play your cards.
❓ question i’m asking:
Am I trying to live an enviable life, or one that feels true?
📸 photo of the week:
Last December, I took these pictures outside an antique bookstore in Paris.
Similar to an old copy of Don Quixote my Dad found in Spain.
The time, craftsmanship and attention to detail that once went into making books amaze me. They were part literature and part art. More like the author’s life work and less like a money grab or ego play.
Especially when you look at the huge block letters, basic graphic design, and blown-up portraits that are slapped onto the cover of most modern books.
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Much love to you and yours,
Tommy
Well written, practical, and enjoyable essay on "playing your cards." Everyone has their own process. Some can complain and move on. But for others, to start complaining is to never get over the bad hand they were dealt.
It's important to know your own process. At the end of the day, action eat intention for breakfast.
Damn, that quote about the ‘weight of unlived lives’ hit hard. Definitely have been feeling that a lot lately. I think it has to do with the way I compare myself to hyper-successful people on social media