Have a few brief links to check out. But then two longer posts. The first is a parable about the never-ending race for success and how to enjoy what you have now. The second has a similar theme, but asks for more imagination. It is a short passage by Alan Watts, someone who brought Eastern philosophical ideas to the West long before meditation apps and mindfulness modules.
Coffee around the world
• Check out this awesome video of the different ways people around the world prepare coffee. We loved the Vietnamese coffee, looks like thick velvety foam. We have tried to make it a couple of times, getting very close. Turkish coffee in the hot sand is also super cool.
HST
• Louisville’s own Hunter S Thompson in a very brief passage (from the amazing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) talking about “The Wave” of culture change that happened in the 1960s.
Power of Music
• This is an amazing Twitter thread of responses to a prompt asking for a song that gives you chills. Most people post video links. I couldn’t stop checking them out.
Immune System
• The Role of Minerals in the Optimal Functioning of the Immune System. Magnesium, Zinc, Copper, Iron, and Selenium. The article provides tables of foods (plant and animal sources) rich in each mineral.
Parable of the banker and fisherman
• Looks like this parable was originally written by Heinrich Böll, a German writer. I have been wanting to put in the newsletter for a long time. If you’re in a high pressure occupation, or paying attention to the stockmarket too much, you should read it every morning.
An American Investment Banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.” The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.” The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”
“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”
“Millions – then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
Dream up your life
“Let’s suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream that you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time. Or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would, naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive.
And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say “Well, that was pretty great.” But now let’s have a surprise. Let’s have a dream which isn’t under control. Where something is gonna happen to me that I don’t know what it’s going to be. And you would dig that and come out of that and say “Wow, that was a close shave, wasn’t it?” And then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream.
And finally, you would dream … where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today.”
– Alan Watts
–> This Alan Watts passage pairs well with a recent article in the New Yorker about “the uncanny allure of our unlived lives.” Though the article could have been a lot cooler, for instance if they talked about Moral Luck or the multiverse in which all of those other lives actually happen. But the author does link to a couple books: I just started Missing Out (good so far) because the reviews for On Not Being Someone Else weren’t as positive.
Quotes
But what our human emotions seem to require is the sight of struggle going on. The moment the fruits are being merely eaten, things become ignoble. Sweat and effort, human nature strained to its uttermost and on the rack, yet getting through it alive, and then turning its back on its success to pursue another [challenge] more rare and arduous still – this is the sort of thing the presence of which inspires us.
– William James
