🌆 Life in the City
In the city, there is time for both everything and nothing. When the sun sets, harsh street lights and lamps of occupied condominiums take its place. The brown leather briefcases and high-heels of the day are replaced by bottles of merlot at night. I wonder if we are truly meant to live like this — like creatures born from the concrete. Are we not formed from the dust of the ground, born by the breath of life? The repetitive, mundane living characterizing the modern man’s existence is disheartening. At what point do we stop with the endless scheduling and planning and meetings and simply be? We are plagued by the need for productivity and the pursuit of more. I wish I could just retreat into the woods, to build a small cabin of cedarwood, with a rusted fireplace to keep warm in the winter months. It doesn’t take much to be satisfied with life: a little sleep, a little to eat, an old book to read. We don’t even realize how little time we have to enjoy.
There is time for everything but rest in the city. Some days I want to give it all up, but something holds me back.
📸 Photo of the Week
#42!
📖 Book of the Week — The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
Wow! I have read many great things about this short story by Leo Tolstoy, who is my favourite writer. It did not disappoint.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a dramatic and masterful portrayal of the inner thoughts of a man on his journey to the grave. Many of us have lost family and friends who are close to our hearts — but when it is you who death approaches, an entirely different set of emotions are evoked. Tolstoy, in his brilliant fashion, serves us the wide range of sensations —pain, conflict, and resolution — felt by a dying man as he contemplates the righteousness of the life he lived.
Tolstoy’s book is about many things: the tyranny of bourgeois niceties, the terrible weak spots of the human heart, the primacy and elision of death. But more than anything, I would offer, it is about the consequences of living without meaning, that is, without a true and abiding connection to one’s life….
Mark Freeman
It is a powerful read; I started it on the train to a friend’s birthday party and I didn’t want to put it down.
💭 Quote of the Week
Just like a low resting heart rate is the byproduct of intense exercise, low anxiety is the byproduct of intense self-examination.
Naval Ravikant
🔭 Sunday Best
Spenser Warren: Fiction Frameworks — an interview by Coffee & Pens. Spenser is a friend I met through Twitter during the #Ship30for30 writing challenge. He gave me some great tips on fiction writing as I attempt to write my first novel/novella! Thanks, Spenser!
An Old Man’s Advice — exactly as advertised: advice on life from an old man.
Controlling Your Dopamine for Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction — from the Andrew Huberman Podcast #39. He is a fantastic scientist and interviewer who takes an evidence-based approach to his podcast.
💡 Food for Thought
Remember the shortness of life — you will never be as young as you are today.
Every day is an opportunity to start afresh. To reset the board.
Until next time!
AT
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