Good news and think pieces only today.
- How mindfulness (aka meditation) might improve brain power. (H/T. JB)
- Young goldendoodle saves pregnant woman and her unborn baby. (H/T ML) Also, while this “news” isn’t new, it’s a nice v*te of confidence for bully breed dogs. (One of my neighbors has the most gorgeous, most sweet pit bull/American bulldog mix — aka aka Bullypit or Colorado bulldog. I could fall in love.)
- “Why I’m getting rid of most of my stuff.” By the inimitable (and slightly crazy) James Altucher. (I can identify. I’ve been in an accumulating mode since buying this house; after a couple of years of that, I find myself wanting to “travel light” again.)
- Since we’ve given dogs their due, here’s one for you cat people. And Ayn Rand fans. (Tip o’ hat to CB.)
- PBS deigns to interview a maverick free-market economics guys. You know him from the Keynes/Hayek rap videos.
- What you and I have known for years: Cannabis has won the war on drugs. So send the damn troops home, already!
One bit of bad (but not unexpected) news: the great film critic Roger Ebert has died. His love and knowledge of movies enriched the lives of millions of movie fans — and millions of non-fans, for that matter.
I’m kind of in mourning over Ebert. He was an old lefty, but he slung a mean movie review for many years – and he was often right.
My feelings exactly, Joel. If I had any doubts about whether or not I wanted to see a movie, an Ebert review could be the deciding factor. He really had the eye — and the love — for movies.
I thought he was very brave, too, to go on being a filmed and photographed and appearing on TV even after the cancer and cancer surgeries ruined his face.
I mostly enjoyed looking up his reviews after I’d seen the film. It was like having an intelligent conversation on an interesting topic. He often riffed on things I’d barely noticed and I didn’t always agree with his overall opinion, but at least on the subject of movies his opinion was always worth hearing.
“Why I’m getting rid of most of my stuff.” – I can understand the reasoning behind that, but on the other hand, my grandmother who lived through The Great Depression would often say, “Don’t ever throw anything away.”
Useful stuff, mind you.
And, no, I would not categorize her as a hoarder or anything close to that exactly. Things are different in the rural areas, perhaps.
Did I mention she lived through The Great Depression?
YMMV, I suppose.
Disclaimer: don’t say we didn’t warn you.
And with that, my conscious is clear.
“’Don’t ever throw anything away.’ Useful stuff, mind you.”
Only problem with that is that smart and/or creative people know everything is useful.
Bummer about Ebert. Didn’t even know he was sick. Joel’s idea of looking up valued reviews AFTER seeing a movie is a good one.
Perhaps picking up Ebert’s books may be in order (assuming he has some).
The “stuff” problem is an on-going battle in our house. We’ve also heard the first-hand depression stories… had our own experiences with having “just the right thing” to get us through a tough situation… and I have this mental allergy to clutter – it makes me crazy. Love me some good hand tools, though… and it makes us both anxious when we discover we only have 1 pkg or jar or container something “back on the shelf”.
Organization and “stuff management” seems to be the way through this confounded pickle. Of course, we just finishing moving the last of our “stuff” from the old property, last summer… so to be able to walk through and use garages, closets, sheds etc… we’ve spent the winter organizing, donating, throwing out/purging – and even filling in the gaps of our “stuff” collections. SIGH. So there’s more stuff – and it always seems to be on one of those flat places that are necessary to “do” things.
And inevitably: to organize one area… one must start by cleaning out or off, some other place first… so there’s room to sort, repack, etc.
Some days it feels like insanity. Other days, I wish I had access to a flamethrower. And sometimes, I just ignore it.
I have lots of stuff, way too much stuff, but I’ve always been willing to abandon my luggage when I’ve had to. It is a freeing thing to do.
Funny thing to me is that “stuff” can control you both ways- by accumulating or by obsessing over not accumulating.
Well when you’ve made a fortune, as Altucher presumably has, then you can “afford” not to own stuff and just buy or rent whatever you need. A great way to live as long as the money holds out or until some societal or economic apocalypse happens. Fun while it lasts.
I’m probably as bad as anyone about accumulating “stuff”. We don’t get rid of things; we buy bigger houses instead.
However, as a result of Hurricane Sandy we’ve had to go through our beach house (which survived, albeit with some damage) and throw away a huge amount of detritus which had accumulated over the years. Things which weren’t directly soaked are mold-infested and had to go. Throwing away books is the worst; I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. But in the end it was probably a blessing in disguise. A lot of stuff which should have been discarded years ago is now gone, and we’ll have room for new (and better) “stuff”. It was unpleasant while we were doing it but feels better now.
More Claire Online: https://www.swatmag.com/articles/view/governments-botched-disaster-relief
😉