Never forget that magic is real for a very large percentage of the population.
I’m no master magician but I do know how wonder feels. There are many good things about magic and I feel that it’s my job, as a parent, to make those things so ridiculously awesome that my kid never loses the feeling of awe that the world can provide.
Magic is a predecessor to science. It provides hope where there is the mundane.
Humans of New York feels too good to be true. God, I hope it’s real and not some thesis project using stock photos. I’m too cynical but I also just spent one of my only free hours of the day on it.
By way of that damn Scott Simpson.
Note: I’ve received plenty of feedback that this appears to be genuine and not some viral marketing shenanigan.
I like writing. I like podcasting. I like screwing around with apps, scripts and code. But being an adult sometimes means sacrificing what I like for the things I love. In the past 9 months I’ve completed a complex project for work and started another personal project that has forced me out of my cruising altitude. With large projects, it’s not usually the hours of focused work that interfere with less important projects.
I seriously love Eddie Smith’s writing:
I’m convinced the worst part of drowning is right now—the fear of it… the conscious mind’s simulation of the process of drowning. This uninformed, and hence fearful mind, imagines a frantic fight to stay above an infinitesimal line at which the bottom-most layer of our atmosphere sits on the top-most layer of water—that dividing line between the future, rising up infinitely high overhead and the deepest, darkest depths below.
From Matt Gemmell:
I’m also letting go of second chances. One strike and you’re out. We all make conscious choices, all the time, regarding what to expose ourselves to – and I think we should be doing it for people too. In fact, we already do: we pick our friends, and our partners. We choose who to talk to, or not. I think it’s alright to also approach the problem from the other end, and exclude those who make life a bit less enjoyable.
Greg Rucka on the phenomenon of boys attempting to own nerd culture and punishing girls for partaking:
And that sets me on a burn, anyway, but I’m running hot because, you see, I am the father of a daughter, and she is my light, and she shines, and I want for her every-fucking-thing she desires, and I want those things for her earned, not given; I want for her the reward of effort.
I thought this Esquire story was compelling, not because of the extraordinary situations, but because of the painfully common and ordinary story of a father with a terrible job:
Anthony Edward Dokoupil was known for his on-the-job sanity. If he was working, he was happy and healthy, drug-free, focused, flowing, time bouncing off him. He had enough hair on his chest to float a gold chain, his belly was trim, and when he walked he swung his legs in loose semicircles, exuding a practiced magnetism, a put-on air of immortality.
I enjoyed this article from Ron Suskind about his family’s struggle connecting with an Autistic child:
Then, a thought: Be Iago. What would Iago say? I push the puppet up from the covers. “So, Owen, how ya doin’?” I say, doing my best Gilbert Gottfried. “I mean, how does it feel to be you?!” I can see him turn toward Iago. It’s as if he is bumping into an old friend.
I don’t think the take home from this list at Mental Floss is that even the greats were rejected at some point. The real lesson is that rejections should always be based on humanity and empathy.
I’m guessing Eliot R. Brown thought too much of himself and too little of everyone else.
I really identify with this passage by Shara Yurkiewicz:
A good friend of mine espouses the philosophy, “Life is an ocean.” When we’re sailing across its surface, we tend to overlook its depth. Instead, we focus on eddies that propel us in a particular direction. The small surface changes are often what we feel most.
