I woke up thinking about acronyms today (?😂). Is it just me or should we be using the right word for the concept instead of the right word for the acronym? I get that it's a mnemonic device ... but I'd rather have quality information that is harder to memorize than a snappy sounding acronym.
There isn't much I trust 100%. Death, maybe.
“I have learned that happiness is subjective; it does not depend upon any other person or any particular environment. It depends solely upon our relation to the great currents of life. If we resist there is friction and distress; if we fling ourselves boldly into the eternal tides we are swept into every form of beauty and of truth.”
Elisabeth Brooks, As the World Goes By
Last weekend my parents and I had a conversation about the idea of me moving away from Minnesota. They brought it up. It seems like suddenly everyone is talking to me about me leaving. Is my restlessness palpable?
And then we watched Brooklyn (startlingly apropos) and I ... I cried a lot ... and then I cried some more at the restaurant afterwards. Public tears! Tears tears tears for something I - at best - don't know if I want and - at worst - terrifies me.
This stupid stay-or-go problem has been on my mind for years, though. I try to push it away but it keeps coming back. I don't know why or where it comes from. What am I looking for that I don't already have? Where would I go? What would I do?
It seems deciding is the hardest part. But how does a person decide? Where does a person find their 'eternal tide'?
(Also, speaking of Brooklyn, think that Domhnall Gleeson is single? Because ... you know ... )
from the (always always inspiring) ask polly column
It is mystery. Stop trying to figure it out. Stop it.
Among the other upward swoops are these. People are living longer and healthier lives, not just in the developed world but globally. A dozen infectious and parasitic diseases are extinct or moribund. Vastly more children are going to school and learning to read. Extreme poverty has fallen worldwide from 85 to 10 percent. Despite local setbacks, the world is more democratic than ever. Women are better educated, marrying later, earning more, and in more positions of power and influence. Racial prejudice and hate crimes have decreased since data were first recorded. The world is even getting smarter: In every country, IQ has been increasing by three points a decade.
Steven Pinker, Human Progress Quantified
