Reflections, Advice, Ideas, etc.
In which I re-share many of the things I've learned these last two years for my 100th newsletter.
💯 What began as a place to collect interesting links, thinks, advice and opinions mixed in with personal updates and bad jokes has grown into something hopefully a bit more meaningful from someone apparently just trying to embrace their authentic self. Amidst the music recommendations and articles on film, art, science, etc., there has been a lot of unsolicited advice.
Below, you’ll find some of the sharpest insights, strongest takes and most useful pieces of said advice from the first 99 issues.
👆 This gets to the heart of what I am doing here, hopefully for my own benefit as much as yours. “Let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.”
✍️ Years ago I read Woody Guthrie’s New Years resolutions and the list has stuck with me ever since, including one resolution that has since become my motto:
“Keep hoping machine running.”
📖 In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin shared his thirteen virtues. “Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.”
😃 “Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.” —Jack Kerouac
🚶🏻♀️From my very first newsletter: I took two million steps one summer and subsequently wrote about walking, and the effect it can have on both creativity and productivity.
🌸 Leslie Kern explores the tension between transforming what we can versus embracing what’s already present in our lives. “‘Oh, this is the part where I give myself a hard time over a couple of mistakes. This is just what I do!”’ That moment of recognition is enough to pause the spiral and give a little distance, but it doesn’t require a concentrated effort to stop those thoughts.”
🙉 The art of listening: “Understanding and loving are inseparable. If they are separate, it is a cerebral process and the door to essential understanding remains closed.”
🎷 An open letter from jazz legends for the next generation of artists:
“First, awaken to your humanity. We are not alone. We do not exist alone and we cannot create alone. What this world needs is a humanistic awakening of the desire to raise one’s life condition to a place where our actions are rooted in altruism and compassion. You cannot hide behind a profession or instrument; you have to be human. Focus your energy on becoming the best human you can be. Focus on developing empathy and compassion. Through the process you’ll tap into a wealth of inspiration rooted in the complexity and curiosity of what it means to simply exist on this planet. Music is but a drop in the ocean of life.”
🎭 “Practice any art… no matter how well or badly, not to get money or fame, but to experience becoming. To find out what’s inside you. To make your soul grow… Do art for the rest of your lives.” -Kurt Vonnegut, as read by Sir Ian McKellan.
🚫 Tools for critical thinking: "The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them—especially not from yourself. Instead of turning away in denial when you make a mistake, you should become a connoisseur of your own mistakes, turning them over in your mind as if they were works of art, which in a way they are. The fundamental reaction to any mistake ought to be this: ‘Well, I won’t do that again!’”
🤯 Also, this: “If we can’t work smarter, we resort to working harder. We cut out lunch, skip the gym, and run from one meeting to another so we can fit more in. Being busy seems to matter more than getting stuff done.”
♟ Life advice from chess hustlers: “The one thing I tell my students is that when you get to a confrontation of any type, you have to remain calm. When you remain calm, you can see the board a lot clearer. You can see the person you’re playing or arguing with a lot more clearly, for who and what they are. So you don’t even have to entertain that shit. You understand?”
💪 Some great advice from an interview with Perfume Genius: “I also just do it, you know what I mean? I just make shit. 90% of doing anything is doing it. Not to sound self-help-y, but when people are asking me for advice, my first thought is, you should just do it. You beat so many people already if you just actually make a finished thing.”
📕 An instruction manual for yourself. “When in doubt, take me for a walk. Are you sure you drank enough water? Maybe there’s something you need to stop doing.”
🏀 On working with others: From Sacred Hoops, by Phil Jackson, who won two championships playing for the Knicks before winning 11 championships as head coach of the Bulls and Lakers, the NBA record. “The Lakotas’ concept of teamwork was deeply rooted in their view of the universe. A warrior didn’t try to stand out from his fellow band members; he strove to act bravely and honorably, to help the group in whatever way he could to accomplish its mission.”
✝️ The radical theology of Mr. Rogers. “"Love is like infinity: You can't have more or less infinity, and you can't compare two things to see if they're ‘equally infinite.’ Infinity just is, and that's the way I think love is, too.”
🗞️ Food for thought: news is bad for you. “News is bad for your health. It leads to fear and aggression, and hinders your creativity and ability to think deeply. The solution? Stop consuming it altogether.” (Pulled from a list of the 75 “Best articles from the Guardian.”)
📓 From Kurt Cobain’s journal:
1. Don’t rape
2. Don’t be prejudiced
3. Don’t be sexist
4. Love your children
5. Love your neighbor
6. Love yourself
Don’t let your opinions obstruct the aforementioned list.
⚔️ From Ethan Hawke’s Rules for a Knight: “Excellence lives in attention to detail. Give your all, all the time. Don’t save anything for the walk home.”
✉️ This letter from a dying mother to her daughters may or may not have wrecked me, but it is very much worth the read. “My sweet babies, I do not have the answer to the question of why, at least not now and not in this life. But I do know that there is incredible value in pain and suffering, if you allow yourself to experience it, to cry, to feel sorrow and grief, to hurt. Walk through the fire and you will emerge on the other end, whole and stronger. I promise.” A reminder to lead a life worth living.
❤️ “Folks, I'm telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean—so get yourself a little loving in between.” —Langston Hughes
🙏 Dostoyevsky, just after his death sentence was repealed, on the Meaning of Life. “When I look back at the past and think how much time was spent in vain, how much of it was lost in delusions, in errors, in idleness, in the inability to live; how I failed to value it, how many times I sinned against my heart and spirit — then my heart contracts in pain. Life is a gift, life is happiness, each moment could have been an eternity of happiness. Si jeunesse savait!”
And what does “Si jeunesse savait” mean? If youth only knew!
Indeed.
🤔 Make sure you are having a good day, every day that you can. “Did I sleep enough? Did I connect deeply with people I love? Did I get some time to myself? Did I make choices for my body that felt good—like, did I take a good walk, did I eat healthy, did I exercise? If I get those four things in place, usually my days are pretty good.”
✌️Some words from a lovely novel, Timbuktu, in which a homeless man speaks to his beloved dog, Mr. Bones.
“That's all I've ever dreamed of, Mr. Bones. To make the world a better place. To bring some beauty to the drab humdrum corners of the soul. You can do it with a toaster, you can do it with a poem, you can do it by reaching out your hand to a stranger. It doesn't matter what form it takes. To leave the world a little better than you found it. That's the best a man can ever do.”
⏲️ And finally, a recipe for life from Muhammad Ali:
“I would like for them to say, he took a few cups of love. He took one tablespoon of patience, one tablespoon of generosity, one pint of kindness; he took one quart of laughter, one piece of concern, and then he mixed willingness with happiness. He added lots of faith, and he stirred it up well. Then he spread it and expanded it over a lifetime. And he served each and every deserving person he met.”
❤️ Thank you for reading, and remember that resilience isn’t always a loud anthem. Often it’s a half-whispered vow made in the dark, when no one’s watching and no one can hear it but you. It’s the quiet art of standing up with a sore back, with the bruises of yesterday and the doubts of tomorrow, and still deciding to move forward. And hope… hope is that flicker in the distance that doesn’t necessarily promise anything, but dares you to take one more step anyway. It’s not always noble. Sometimes it’s stubborn. Sometimes it’s funny. But it’s always there, as long as you keep the machine running.
Love,
Luke
