Alexander, apple vision pro, life spheres, goufrais, and more
Seven thin(g/k)s I explored this week
Hello dear reader,
Greetings to February, the time of year poet William Norris described as follows:
“Late February days; and now, at last,
Might you have thought that Winter’s woe was past;
So fair the sky was and so soft the air.”
Softness is indeed something that’s been calling out to me, especially after the days of January weighed heavy on me. At the risk of channeling Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, I’ve been inviting softness into the home this week by adding tender-toned flowers to my grocery list. Here’s an example from my local Trader Joe’s, where the nightmare of finding parking gets quickly soothed over by the promise of Spring in these floral arrangements happily brought home.
Here are seven links to bits of the world I explored this week, shared with the hope that you will find them to be an inspiring springboard for deeper thinking.
The six spheres of life, and the idea that “the big problems begin when you give yourself a pass.”
36 years (!) of keeping an agenda, and Oliver Burkeman’s 3-3-3 method that can be incorporated into an agenda book.
Currently watching Alexander: The Making of a God on Netflix and the portrayal is underwhelming in the sense that he is made out to be a rash and reckless child-king, which I didn’t appreciate, more so than a brilliant military and political strategist. To eradicate this sense of disappointment, I’m currently in search of books on Alexander the Great, so if you have any recs, send them my way. In the meantime, I’ve been reading up on the mythos of leadership.
The geometry of friendship and other people — thoroughly enjoyed this dive into the way we use spatial metaphors to describe our social lives. It also came at a pertinent time for me in the personal department, as I had recently wrapped up meeting a longtime friend for the first time in years, only to be left with a heartbreaking feeling that what I had pictured when I first met her at age 20 (“this is going to be a rare and beautiful lifetime friendship; how could it not since we spend our nights giggling together in our Stanford dormitory?”) severely clashed with the reality that we have grown too distant and un-nurturing toward one another over the years. I wish I could blame it solely on the impediments that come with physical distance since we live so far away from each other, but this fact held, hid, and now revealed more salient layers worthy of reflection and, ultimately, an acknowledgment of personal responsibility (or lack thereof).
I love browsing gourmet food and home stores that are beautifully curated to touch on all my aesthetic heartstrings, but I hate actually purchasing things from said stores because, well, more often than not, I end up leaving totally swindled if I pursue the latter. This week, I dropped by a local shop, which I shall keep anonymous, but aside from being annoyed by the lack of knowledge the shop’s curators displayed over their own products (and the pushy salesmanship that went on after I inquired about a small box of chocolates), I ended up doubly annoyed that I ended up purchasing chocolate having spent more than four times what the same exact product is worth elsewhere. And okay, I get it, maintaining a storefront requires allocation of costs to the consumer, but still, 4x the price!? Being swindled doesn’t feel fun. I don’t know how to properly balance being less of a scrooge and more open to spending for the sake of such stores’ presence in the community. All to say, if you are ever in need of delicious chocolate, check out Goufrais :)
I’ve resisted getting an Apple watch because I can’t stand the idea of having my wrist literally tethered to technology. That said, I find Apple Vision Pro intriguing at best I guess as a novelty concept, but utterly frightening as a part of one’s daily life. It looks like the fatal nightmare our already dwindled-down attention spans never wished for. But what do I know? I’m happy being cast out as an old soul averse to things like multi-tasking. Here’s a more modern take courtesy of Casey Neistat. (Also, laughing out loud at the more elderly man in the subway scene commenting, “I get off here. Enjoy your adventure” — what a great visual of the departure of one generation and the arrival of another toward a future no one really asks us to embark on.
Warmly,
Ani
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