Strength training for your knees
• This educational “pearl” from the University of Maryland Dept of Emergency Medicine; they send brief reviews of scientific papers. Strength training correlates with LESS knee arthritis.
Mirrors
• Intense quote from Portuguese poet and writer Fernando Pessoa:
“Man shouldn’t be able to see his own face – there’s nothing more sinister. Nature gave him the gift of not being able to see it, and of not being able to stare into his own eyes. Only in the water of rivers and ponds could he look at his face. And the very posture he had to assume was symbolic. He had to bend over, stoop down, to commit the ignominy of beholding himself. The inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart.”
• Apparently the very first human-made mirrors date to ~6000BC. Glass mirrors were initially tiny and had poor quality reflections. The first silvered glass mirror came during the Industrial Revolution around 1835. High quality mirrors are a relatively new thing. Not to mention the much more recent forward facing camera, widespread on phones since about 2010, causing all kinds of chaos according to the new book Anxious Generation. More on that book in future newsletters.
Stars and Honey
• New protein bar. Solid protein amount (15g per bar), only 10g carbs, under 200 total calories. The bars have 10 grams of collagen, which is a reasonable daily amount for most people. Excellent taste, a dense and chewy texture but they don’t take 10 minutes per bite like some protein bars. Also ok to leave in the car or a backpack (no chocolate coating to melt). Would love to see these in stores, as of now only on their website.
Books
• From the Six at 6 newsletter, cool story about author Franz Kafka:
A friend once wrote a letter to Franz Kafka to share that he was starting to feel happy. He thanked Kafka, who apparently recommended a few books. “Surely you don’t think that I am responsible for your happiness,” Kafka replied. His happiness was due to some self-revelations for which the books were responsible, Kafka wrote. “Books are the axe for chopping at the frozen seas inside us. That is my belief.”
Awe
• Awe is “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.” Researcher Sacher Keltner’s book about awe describes the eight “wonders of life,” different ways humans experience awe. 1. Moral beauty (experiencing other people’s kind or noble acts [a feeling called elevation]), 2. Collective Effervescence (rituals, dance, parades with multiple people), 3. Nature, 4. Music, 5. Visual Design, 6. Spiritual and Religious awe, 7. Life and Death, and 8. Epiphanies.
• Many thinkers over the centuries describe the paradoxical mix of fear and joy. I will post more in future newsletters about the numerous insights from this book. But one action item involves seeking everyday awe. Experiments that ask volunteers to look for awe in regular daily life find that the subjects have greater wellbeing.
Quote
“Wisdom is the great reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you could have been talking.”
― Doug Larson
