The individual preference for solitude, scaled up across society and exercised repeatedly over time, is rewiring America’s civic and psychic identity. And the consequences are far-reaching—for our happiness, our communities, our politics, and even our understanding of reality.
From The Anti-Social Century. Emphasis mine.
In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn’t been good versus evil. It’s hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing.
the best defense, the most meaningful work, the best preparation you can do at the level of an individual life is to boost your local resilience. To become a person of place. To connect with the people and land where you live. This is what we’re built to do.
How I became ‘collapse aware’. This is not a depressing read (or listen, the author read option was great)! /via Dense Discovery
Every place I’m from is gone because it’s not just a place, it’s a place at a certain time. It would take a time machine to go back.
— Should I move back to France? - Mike Monteiro
“It’s the fact that you recognized the thing that is important, not the thing itself. It’s your radar.”
We can engage with people outside the rule-bound linear progression of offline relationships, and discover information about another person, miles and years from the person they were when they were posted it. Try responding to a post on a message board dated a while ago, maybe 10 years or more. That person might have lived in five cities between then and now, and fallen in and out of love three times, but the person they once were remains a notational snapshot trace, as if it were yesterday, offering thoughts on gardens, allergies, movies, or recipe ingredients.
From Lurking: How a Person Became a User by Joanne McNeil. I’m only through the Introduction of this book and I’m already all 👀!
Kinder To Do Lists. I like this idea of using a different phrasing for your to do lists. Example: “When checking off an item that begins with “You promised to email Maria…” I feel as though I’m being a person who follows up on her promises. When checking off “Email Maria,” I feel as though I’ve just won another round of whack-a-mole.”
Effectively, the time costs of doing things over a weekend have diminished considerably for those who don’t have to commute.
The quiet power of introverts. A nice animated short via the always great Converge Newsletter.
I love that my Grandpa Norm told me to put a $10 in my coat pocket when I put it away for the season: ‘You’ll give yourself a surprise treat when it gets cold again!’ He’s been gone for over five years, but I still think of him when swapping coats.
When my dad was sick, I started Googling grief. Then I couldn’t escape it. “There’s an assumption the industry makes that personalization is a positive thing.”
Winnie Lim on looking back at her journals: “I see all these archives of my thoughts and psyche as keeping a personal changelog. They document what has changed in me since.” /via Scott Nesbitt
I, too, see a crisis brewing, among not only people my age but among the peers of my teenage children and the college students I teach. Pushed further into isolation by the pandemic, we’re all losing the ability to engage in what I view as the pinnacle of human interaction: sitting around with friends and talking shit.
From Hanging out: Americans report fewer friends. Could the cure be simple?
The Teenager Leading the Smartphone Liberation Movement. An episode of the First Person podcast.
