thinking thursday.
[image by artist Alex Baker, muralist]
- I identified greatly with this story. In large part, this is why we are now unschooling Tess.
- I’m so excited about this gathering for adults with autism being hosted by two of the people who diagnosed Tess with Asperger’s. It is going to be amazing. If you know adults on the Autism spectrum, please pass this on to them.
- Who has written the best book you’ll read this year? I haven’t read the book in question, but the first paragraph of this review made me the happiest I’ve been in a while–so beautifully done: “He has a bushy blond mustache and goatee going gray, and sometimes, when he’s listening intently, he can look a little stern, as if he just stepped out of a tent at Antietam. But then he starts talking and the eyebrows go up and it’s all Chicago vowels and twinkly Doug Henning eyes, and if you didn’t know that he was more or less universally regarded as a genius, you might peg him as the superfriendly host of a woodworking show on daytime public access.”
- This is just sobering. Horrifying and sobering.
body
- Oh my god, her murals are amazing. Mr Brilliant and Emma would especially appreciate Luca’s room. And Tess would love this one. I want this one in my bedroom to soothe me. In fact, I want Alex Baker to paint one in every room in my house. And my new little office. And on my car, and every other surface imaginable. You know you want a mural. (Based in Asheville, she also travels to make her magic!)
- On my to-try list this week: Lemon-Tahini dressing and Mexican Pumpkin Soup and Garlicky Greens.
- This red Swedish mailbox makes me happy. But then again, so do most Swedish things.
- I hope you’re not hit by a bus anytime soon, but if you are, it would be great if you had already done this.
- I also want to try this tea.
soul
- There is more to life than happiness. It’s called meaning. “As he (Victor Frankl) saw in the (Concentration) camps, those who found meaning even in the most horrendous circumstances were far more resilient to suffering than those who did not. ‘Everything can be taken from a man but one thing,’ Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning, ‘the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.’ Frankl goes further: “A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the ‘why’ for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any ‘how.'”
- I love this essay on writing in the morning: “Entering into the daily world, where everything is complicated and requires decisions and conversation, means the end of everything. It means not getting to write. The reason the morning is so important is that I’ve spent the night somewhere else.”
word
“People get into a feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That’s not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. You’re given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further.” -Pema Chödrön
