Empathy
• I missed when this amazing video went viral; it is almost 10 years old. From the Cleveland Clinic, it shows what is going on in the lives of each person encountered in a hospital.
• Anyone who works in healthcare must watch this, but honestly everyone will benefit. Reminds me of the Robin Williams quote: “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”
Social Connection
• If you weren’t convinced of the importance of social connection, check out the science. This review article looks at 148 studies with over 300,000 subjects to see the effects of social connection on mortality.
• Figure 6 is impressive, comparing social connection (and lack thereof) to several other medical interventions. Hanging out with your friends is more powerful than quitting smoking! Social connection is much healthier than avoiding alcohol, taking medication for high blood pressure, avoiding pollution, and even exercising. Thanks Mateo.
Hyperpolyglot
• This man who works as a carpet cleaner in Maryland can speak 8 languages fluently but can converse in at least 24 total. Apparently many native speakers are impressed with his accents as well. Amazing.
Rebbl drinks
• When they are on sale (pricey stuff), try to pick up one of the flavors of Rebbl drinks from Whole Foods. The Gold Label Mayan Elixir is a startlingly complex combination of flavors. They have lattes, golden milk, protein shakes, etc. Reasonable amount of sugar and most varieties have fiber.
Daylight Savings Mistakes
• We just had Spring Forward, now it is dark in the morning, tougher than usual to wake up my kids. Many have argued that we should get rid of Daylight Savings altogether. Living in the far West of a time zone predicts risk for heart disease and cancer. Check out this 2017 study with four million cancer diagnoses in residents of 607 counties in 11 U.S. states. “Risk increased from east to west within a time zone for total and for many specific cancers, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (both genders) and cancers of the stomach, liver, prostate, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in men and cancers of the esophagus, colorectum, lung, breast, and corpus uteri in women.” Apparently we in Louisville should move down to Bowling Green.
• Unfortunately, the US plans to institute permanent daylight savings, which in some places will have huge effects on when the sun rises and sets. The Sunshine Protection Act could jeopardize our health.
• Not much we can do about it at this point. But we should all try to live in sync with the sun. Wake up, be active, eat, and have caffeine only when the sun is out; cut out artificial light, food, exercise, etc when it’s dark.
Music and Melancholy
• A recent episode of Tim Ferriss’s podcast has Susan Cain, author of the book Quiet about introverts. Her new book is called Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole. The episode is so darn good. So many beautiful quotes, embracing paradox, mysticism, Rumi, CS Lewis, longing for a perfect place, the joy of sadness, the spectrum of human emotion. She begins the book with the story of the Cellist of Sarajevo, a story you must learn about if you haven’t heard of it.
• Cain created a Spotify playlist of songs in “minor key,” usually considered sad yet very popular. Its a cool playlist with unique song choices.
• I am only 40 pages in but the book is full of wisdom. The video above from Cleveland Clinic came from the book. Cain presents a Bittersweet Quiz so you can see how in tune you are with the poignant side of life. I’ll post about this book in the future, along with a similar book The Sweet Spot about the interconnectedness of pain and pleasure.
Two Quotes
(by CS Lewis)
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
“Our commonest expedient is to call (the longing) beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. But the books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things–the beauty, the memory of our own past–are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
