Inspiration! Roundup: Pet dragons, Native Americans on race, Lina Iris Viktor's gold, the changemaker's triangle, and more!

This Week's "I want to go to there": If winter won't leave me alone, well then let's lean into it and party with a Snow Duchess and her huskies.
Photo by Isi Akahome.

Fashion Goes Full Creep

This is not a drill, Gucci sent a model down the runway carrying a baby dragon! And now there are a ton of art variants on Instagram. Like this super dreamy rendition:

A post shared by London Mum (@eve.ryder_art) on Feb 23, 2018 at 1:31pm PST

(Also, apparently there were a bunch of models carrying their own severed heads, so expect fashion to really lean wayyyyy into the creepy this year.)

Wear it All

This photo series of people trying to wear all their clothes is both beautiful and hilarious!

Native Americans on Race

Listen to these strong Native Americans discuss their relationship with race.


Before You Look at Your Phone

Here's an idea from Lifehacker: before you go to look at your phone, announce the reason you're doing it. Might that motivate you to stop before you start?

Lina Iris Viktor

I am so in love with artist Lina Iris Viktor's work! The gold is so rich and vibrant, I want to get to know it better. (Also, she claims Kendrick Lamar stole her work after she denied it being used in the Black Panther movie, so I applaud this bold woman for saying no to what must have been a crazy money making opportunity that - presumably - went against her values, and for standing up to another powerhouse in the form of a rapper using her work.)

A post shared by ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀LINA IRIS VIKTOR (@linairisviktor) on Jan 1, 2018 at 6:50pm PST

The Changemaker's Triangle

"The instigator is the author, the dreamer, the writer. She creates a screenplay, founds a non-profit, says what needs to be said.
The editor curates. Picks and chooses. Amplifies the essential and deletes the rest.
And the publisher scales it. Turns it into a business or a success on some other metric.
-Seth Godin"

I need to sit with this concept a while longer, I think it will provide me with some clarity.

Teens Saving Us All

This feature on the teenagers who are fighting back after the Florida school shooting is giving me hope - for them, for the future, and that I can do something too.

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Would you rather...

Image Source: Giphy

...be right or liked?

I'm going to go with liked on this one. Not because I desperately need to be liked all the time (don't get me wrong, I pretty desperately seek approval), but because I don't want to be a person who needs to be right so badly that they drive everyone away.

...be rich or famous?

Rich. Wealth is freedom, my friends! Plus, then I can donate large sums of money to causes I believe in while still being free to go to the grocery store in peace. (Although I will probably pay someone to grocery shop for me.)

...your shirts always be two sizes too big or one size too small?

Too big! You can make fashion choices with a shirt that's too big (tie the ends together, cinch the back, wear it like a big slouchy thing) and are just stuck feeling uncomfortable in a shirt that's too small.

...never use social media again or never watch a TV show or movie again?

Oh man! I think at the end of the day I have to shun social media, but that is a bit of a rough decision because a lot of my current work relies heavily on social media. I would be making a pretty big shift, not only in my casual lifestyle but in how I do work and projects. That said, I probably get a lot more out of TV shows and movies. Or do I? UGH! This is hard. Yeah, okay. Goodbye, Facebook. I won't miss you that much.

...have an easy job working for someone else or work for yourself and work incredibly hard?

For myself! I have had easy jobs. They were so boring.

...be very poor but help people or become rich by hurting people?

I want to say that this answer is obvious for everyone, but I think for a lot of people the obvious choice is being rich, considering how much wealthy companies hurt people. Alas, I pick being poor.

...be able to teleport anywhere or read minds?

Teleport! Reading peoples' minds could easily ruin life for me. I think it's a bad idea to know what people are really thinking. Teleporting on the other hand? Awesome! Travel is a dream, commuting is a snap.

Okay, so far I am a well-liked rich person who wears oversized shirts, doesn't have social media, works for themselves, is also poor, and teleports.

What are you???

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Cute! Roundup: A turtle vs. hare rematch, robe-helpers, a very lazy cat, and more!

I think the caption here is something like, "will you PLEASE stop taking pictures of me, I am TRYING to SLEEP!" (To which I say, "okay okay, I'll put my phone on silent so you can't hear it but you can still sense me hovering over you constantly.")

OTHER CUTENESS:

The turtle and the hare are at it again!

I can't decide if this is adorable or really creepy.

How to deal with stress at work.

You know when your guest just hangs out in the kitchen all day?

Meatloaf doesn't move much.

From terrifying to... kinda cute?

Sibling bonding time.

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Singalong! There's More to Life Than This by Björk

I bought this Björk CD when I was in grade twelve, and then quickly wondered if it was a bit much for me. Ohhhh how I was wrong. Or right - to buy the CD in the first place. Björk is a mystical Iceland faery queen from the future, and I am lucky to have been permitted to listen to her music.

THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS

by Björk

Come on girl!

Let's sneak out of this party

It's getting boring

There's more to life than this

It's still early morning

We could go down to the harbour

And jump between the boats

And see the sun come up

You know there's more to life than this

You know there's more to life

There's more

To life than this

There's more

To life than this

We could nick a boat

And sneak off to this island

I could bring my little ghetto-blaster

There's more to life than this

But then we'd have to rush back

To the town's best baker

To get the first bread of the morning

There's more to life than this

You know there's more to life than this

You know there's more to life

There's more

To life than this

There's more

To life than this

Image Source: Giphy

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Learning! Roundup: 3D Bug Vision, Hand Dryer Scandals, Teen Gender Fluidity, and More!

Photo by David Clode.

3D Bug Vision

Sometimes it seems like scientists are just little kids playing silly games, like the ones who stuck 3D glasses to praying mantises using beeswax and then showed them 3D movies. Okay, okay, they learned things, like that praying mantises have a sort of stereo vision, or stereopsis. Humans have it too, but praying mantises have way smaller brains than ours, and they also base their ability to read distances on motion, as opposed to our brains that use brightness. Neat!

Hand Dryer Scandal

You know those fancy (and super loud) Dyson air blade dryers that you stick your hands in from the top? Well GUESS WHAT? They are just chock-full of gross bacteria and diseases, and the student who discovered this in an experiment got DEATH THREATS over her discover.

Teen Gender Fluidity

More and more teenagers these days are rejecting a simple gender binary for their own labels. The kids are alright, y'all!

Racist Phrases

Turns out there are a LOT of sayings and colloquialisms that have racist origins. Here's a list. Sorry if it bums you out. (I don't necessarily think that the roots of a phrase mean it's automatically a terrible thing to say, I mean, I still say "rule of thumb" sometimes despite its foundation in wife abuse, but it's still good to know what you're saying.)

Bad Air and Bad Behaviour

Sorry, city-dwellers: air pollution is now linked to unethical behaviour.

What Screen Time Experts Do 

We keep hearing about how screen time is going to give us insomnia, stress us out, and make our kids into heartless robots. So what do the experts do in their homes? Turns out, they do follow their own rules in a relatively measured way. From no media on weekdays, to turning everything off an hour before bed, to monitoring how they are being manipulated by video games into spending more money. They are walking the walk.

The Genes of Mental Disorders

Researchers have gotten further in unlocking the genetic causes of mental disorders like autism, bipolar, schizophrenia, depression, and alcoholism. They found signifiant overlap in the activity of astrocytes (they help neurons grow) for people with autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

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VERSUS: Should We Carpe-That-Diem or Go to Bed On Time?

I recently had a tea with a friend who is going through something of a life transformation. You know, where you're stepping out of your comfort zone, trying new things, and feeling like the world is full of exciting opportunities and experiences.

When we came around to my update, I commented that I'm kind of the opposite right now. The only things I consistently want to do are spend time with friends, go to bed on time, and sing my heart out to The Greatest Showman soundtrack. When I make plans to do some "cool" thing, I always wind up wishing I wasn't committed to it when the time rolls around.

He said that we do these things (go out and have enriching experiences) for our future selves.

He is right that sometimes, when we make ourselves do a thing, our future selves are unendingly grateful. Other times, however, we just wish we had listened to our instincts and stayed away.

I, like Carrie Bradshaw in every single episode of Sex and the City, couldn't help but wonder: these future selves we speak of. What do they really want?

Do they want wild stories of wild (drunken?) adventures and (sexual?) escapades? Quiet games nights with a few buds?

Do they want to look back on regular, consistent sleep because that allowed us to better engage during the day, or one where we said yes to 11:30pm invitations to concerts and parties and cake-eating, because who knows where they will lead?

Do they want to reap the rewards of steady, sensible income and savings, or have the memories of spontaneous adventures without worry for how we were going to pay for things in the future?

Do they want to be enriched by going out and seeing all the artsy things, or by staying in and reading all the insightful books?

I've been where my friend is now. It's an awakening. It's invigorating and exciting. It feels like the epitome of living life to the fullest, sucking the marrow out of every moment, #YOLO, and no half-measures.

It's also a lot. The way I did it, it left me so busy that I didn't feel like I was forming memories anymore. There was no buffer to appreciate the past or anticipate the future. More than once, I wondered if my life was actually passing me by--not because I was letting it waste away, but because it was moving at such an incredible blur that I had no idea what was even happening.

Of course, now I sometimes wonder if my life is passing me by because I keep bailing on it in favour of sleep, cat cuddles, and books.

It's almost as if I am bumping back and forth between extremes, and perhaps there is some kind of middle ground in there where life can be embraced without becoming a martyr to the Carpe Diem gods.

Here's one thing I can say with some certainty: I don't think my future self will be all that grateful that I spent so much time analyzing what it may or may not want from me. So maybe I could stop now.

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Inspiration! Roundup: Accepting Love, Cat Balloons All the Way Down, What Would a Rich Person Do?, and More!

This Week's "I want to go to there": Fly me to the moon!
Photo by Alexandre Godreau.

Accepting Love

I love this quote on the broken relationship we have with being open and receptive to love.

"It’s odd, but wouldn’t you say that in our universe of worked-out bodies and worked-out minds, that to be receptive is looked upon as “weak,” a passive vessel for someone else’s love and dreams? So, instead of embracing the generosity inherent in being able to accept love, the receptors among us punish themselves by adopting stereotypical “needy” behavior, warping their instincts to look “active,” the better to satisfy an audience’s view of what it means to be open."
-Hilton Als (via Brain Pickings)

Cats Balloons All the Way Down

A post shared by Hannah Hillam (@hannahhillam) on Jan 20, 2018 at 12:33am PST

What Would a Rich Person Do?

I am NOT a fan of our capitalist hierarchy in society, however, it is an interesting idea, once faced with a barrier in life, to ask yourself, "what would a rich person do?" It is always beneficial to think about a problem from a new perspective, and hey, sometimes it might be worth throwing a little extra money at a problem, when you can manage.

Improving Shakespeare

Someone set about replacing every "alas" in Shakespeare's plays with "aw shit!" It's pretty spectacular.

For example: "Aw shit! Fifteen wives is nothing." (Merchant of Venice Act II, Scene 2)

It Reflects Poorly

Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi was asked by a French journalist if there are bookshops in Nigeria. She responds so beautifully.

This journalist asked an internationally acclaimed Nigerian writer if there are bookstores in her country. 😒 pic.twitter.com/WS5w7v495N

— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 28, 2018

Ski Ballet

DID YOU KNOW SKI BALLET USED TO BE A THING? Try to get past the super 80's hair and watch this spectacular artistry.

Learn from Others

The most recent Hurry Slowly podcast episode was about not rushing our "ah-ha" moments, but the most powerful bit for me was towards the end when Bill Duggen discusses the importance of including other people in our work.

"You can improve your memory, not in speed, but you can improve what's in it by adding things to it. Especially learning the experiences of others."

I also LOVE this concept! We always want to make our memories better by making them more accurate or faster, but what about filling them with more variety of information?

Tonari No Totoro

A post shared by Ohh Deer (@ohhdeer) on Jan 15, 2018 at 8:01am PST

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Meeting the Comparison Monster Face-to-Face

Lobby Card from 1945 Film Jealousy. Public Domain.

Not to brag, but I have some pretty cool friends. They sing like there is a dream coming out of their lungs. They create really incredible art that hangs in galleries. Publishers want to publish their books. People follow what they do. It's neat.

When I watch them do their thing, in whatever form, I feel a lot of things:

Proud.
Excited.
Happy.
Awesome.
Lucky to know them.

I also feel jealous. Sometimes very jealous.

So jealous, sometimes, that the feeling almost completely covers up all those nice feelings like a big, ugly, dusty rug. I have to muster up a lot of will to lift up the (surprisingly heavy) corner and see that those good feelings do exist under there, now covered in a layer of gross under-rug dirt.

I believe that jealousy can be a useful emotion. It's a big arrow that points to an underlying dissatisfaction in your own life, and if you take it seriously instead of just indulging in or trying to ignore the bad feeling, you could actually do something about it. Make your life better in a way that clearly matters to you.

So why am I jealous?

Sometimes I am jealous of the talent or skill they are demonstrating, but that's pretty minor. Becoming good at most things takes practice, and if it's not important enough for me to practice it, than a little twinge of "I wish I were also good at that thing" is okay with me.

My main jealousy is this: they had an amazing thing bursting in their heart, and then they made it happen. After they made it happen, people liked it and wanted to watch it/read it/publish it/look at it/follow them.

This is a jealousy in two parts: one is about doing the things that are bursting in your heart, and the other is about other people.

The first is actionable, the second is deadly. It is a comparison of other people's reactions and that can never be satisfied and will never be within my control.

This is actually quite embarrassing.

I am realizing, as I write, that it all boils down to a need for attention and approval from others.

This need is the worst, for many reasons. Here are three of them:

1) It is super cliché.

2) It steals focus and undermines my ability to get work done.

3) It devalues the people who are already here with me, because in the eyes of this particular insecurity, they are never enough.

Well, footy. (Isn't it fun when you suddenly realize that an insecurity you thought you had largely dealt with is actually still hanging out in your heart at full strength?)

I can think of a few options to deal with this particular issue:

Pretend no one else is around and you are the only one even making things. Other creators don't even exist. (Danger! Other art is fuel and inspiration and comfort and fun.)

Pretend/convince yourself that you don't care about the audience at all and nobody else's reactions even matter because your work is about what you want to do. (A lot of artists say they do this, but I see a danger! Art that doesn't consider its audience at all is often very self-indulgent. The boringest of all arts.)

Lean way into the comparison and spend all your energy making complicated charts and graphs of who is getting what response and how, in an attempt to game the system and copy their moves to get the same response. (Danger! When are you even going to make things and will everything be a stressed out copy of something else and would it even work? This sounds so anti-fun.)

Focus mainly on the work, continually trying to do a better job at making clear versions of the things bursting in your heart, whatever they may be. Develop a saintlike ability to watch and be inspired by others without ever comparing and listening to your audience without trying to please them. (Danger! This is obviously the right answer. Is it actually possible?)

Keep so busy making your work happen that there isn't time to compare. (Danger! I used to be that busy, it was bad for other parts of life.)

Hmmmm... How do you keep the Comparison Monster and its sidekick Jealousy at bay?

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Cute! Roundup: Mini-Godzillas, Baby Giraffes, Alpacas on Ice, and More!

Here's my girl, always keeping it classy.

OTHER CUTENESS:

Mini-Godzilla brilliance!

Ummmm.... BABY GIRAFFE!!!

Alpacas on ice.

This dog likes to sneak into its neighbours yard and RIDE THEIR PONY.

This looks like the best cuddle session I have ever seen.

It's a baby bunny!

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Singalong! Tightrope from The Greatest Showman (sung by Michelle Williams)

This song is officially one of my most favourite love songs! I would like someone to make it a duet, please!

TIGHTROPE

from The Greatest Showman (sung by Michelle Williams)

Some people long for a life that is simple and planned

Tied with a ribbon

Some people won't sail the sea 'cause they're safer on land

To follow what's written

But I'd follow you to the great unknown

Off to a world we call our own

Hand in my hand and we promised to never let go

We're walking the tightrope

High in the sky

We can see the whole world down below

We're walking the tightrope

Never sure, never know how far we could fall

But it's all an adventure

That comes with a breathtaking view

Walking the tightrope

With you, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

With you, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

With you

Mountains and valleys, and all that will come in between

Desert and ocean

You pulled me in and together we're lost in a dream

Always in motion

So I risk it all just to be with you

And I risk it all for this life we choose

Hand in my hand and you promised to never let go

We're walking the tightrope

High in the sky

We can see the whole world down below

We're walking the tightrope

Never sure, will you catch me if I should fall?

Well, it's all an adventure

That comes with a breathtaking view

Walking the tightrope

With you, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

With you, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

With you

Image Source: Giphy

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Learning! Roundup: Testosterone and music, don't answer your kids, prison and personality, and more!

Photo on Foter.com

Testosterone and Music

Looks like there is a relationship between levels of testosterone and enjoyment of opera and classical music - in men. It appears this is a purely biological response and not due to personality differences that result from testosterone levels.

Stop Answering Your Kids

You know how kids ask a billion annoying questions that make you want to claw your brain out through the tiny hole their incessant words drilled in your skull? Well, some people say that the best way to deal with that is to not actually answer their question! Instead, ask them what they think. That encourages them to be curious, investigate solutions, and teaches them not to just seek authority on a question. Plus, it might give your brain a little rest.

Prison and Personality

Just three months in prison can change your personality, making you more likely to take risks and less able to pay attention. This may contribute to the difficulty former prisoners have conforming to lawful society.

Thawing Mercury

Want ANOTHER reason to be afraid of global warming? There is a whole whack of mercury sitting in the earth's permafrost, just waiting to thaw out  and seep into the ocean. YIKES!

The Houdini of Beetles

You know how in fairy tales or myths sometimes a person will escape out of the stomach of an animal? And you think, "yeah, that's fun for the story but obviously they would be pulp in real life." NOT TRUE! Beetles can live for two hours in the stomach of a toad and then escape.

Neural Empathy and Clothing

Here's another piece of the victim-blaming puzzle for us to mull over: people have reduced neural empathy for women who are dressed in revealing clothing than for those who are not. Ugh. Stupid brains.

Original Brits Were Black

Analysis of "Cheddar Man", the oldest complete skeleton in Britain, has now shown that he would have had dark brown skin. I'm going to say that I wish we lived in a world where this wasn't big news, but I get that it is and so I'm happy to hear it. Let's shake up our understanding of what "real Brits" look like!

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This Week in Ridiculous Enthusiasm

IN CASE YOU MISSED THE FUN!

I started a new thing called Ridiculous Enthusiasm on Instagram! Here's what you missed this week:

1) They are big. 2) They last such a long time. 3) They are very hard to move. 4) You can hide in them and hide forever. 5) If you are lost, just walk down. 6) They protect you from the evil winds of life. 7) Seriously, just LOOK AT THEM!

A post shared by Ridiculous Enthusiasm (@ridiculousenthusiasm) on Feb 6, 2018 at 8:47am PST

You are SO BIG! That is so COOL! You can DO THINGS! You can LIFT THINGS UP! You can STEP OVER THINGS! Listen, being big means you have some power, but with great power comes great responsibility and so don't be mean about it. Be a gentle giant to all the piles of ants and pocket computers.

A post shared by Ridiculous Enthusiasm (@ridiculousenthusiasm) on Feb 9, 2018 at 7:30am PST

HOPE will keep you alive! HOPE is the magical ingredient to find meaning and joy and peace and to keep going no matter what and it's okay because of HOPE!!!!!!!

A post shared by Ridiculous Enthusiasm (@ridiculousenthusiasm) on Feb 13, 2018 at 7:35am PST

A post shared by Ridiculous Enthusiasm (@ridiculousenthusiasm) on Feb 14, 2018 at 4:55am PST

COME HANG OUT!!!

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To Our Health: You Are Getting Sleeeeeeeeepy

Image by Ben Blennerhasset

This week was my LAST health class! After spending a week each on stress management, nutrition, and physical activity, we spent this week talking about sleep.

Here are my notes:

Before class we watched this TED Talk by Russel Foster about the importance of sleep, wherein we learned that sleep provides restoration, healing, and physical regeneration.

Sleep is also when our growth hormones pump up in our bodies! For kids this helps them achieve their full height potential and in adults it helps us put on lean muscle mass.

The ideal is to wake up just before your alarm goes off. If that's not happening, then try going to bed 15 minutes earlier. Then try that again and again until you wake up at the right time.

Power naps. I am NOT a napper, but if you are, then the best time for you to nap would be halfway through your awake time in the day for 30 mins or less.

Apparently magnesium helps with anxiety and stress, and also helps with the release of our sleep hormones. It's pretty common for women to not have enough magnesium in their diets. Here is a site with a chart of how much you need and some good food sources.

Questions to get at the heart of things:

How do I feel when I'm tired? What are some symptoms that I experience regularly that may indicate I'm not getting enough sleep?

How much sleep am I actually getting on a regular basis? (Not the time I get into and out of bed, but actual sleep!)

What is my current bedtime routine? What do I want it to be so that it is more relaxing?

What am I currently doing during my day that will help me sleep well? Is there something else I would like to do?

What time do I need to be out of bed in order to have time for all my morning activities and start my day without feeling rushed?

Takeaways and homework:

I already was on board with sleep being important, and this really drove home for me to not be embarrassed or hold back on doing whatever I need to do to make sleep go well for me.

I want to change the ringtone for my alarm. It is not a pleasant one to wake up to (and so far I don't wake up before my alarm).

The top thing for me, right now, is to try to establish a more consistent bedtime, as I am pretty all over the place with mine.

At the beginning of class we did a little reflection on how we were doing from the changes we'd made already. I realized, as we were discussing our nutrition changes, that for most of us, treats are always food-based. Whenever we feel like we want to treat ourselves, we turn to food or drink. It might be a good idea to find some things that feel like treats for us that aren't food.

At the end of class, we did a little reflection on our main takeaways from the entire course. Here are mine: 

Do the things that you enjoy/gravitate towards first, because wellness doesn't always have to make you miserable.

Plan ahead for a small change you can make every single day, and actually plan when and how you're going to do it.

Anything is better than nothing.

Be honest with yourself about what you are actually doing and where change is needed.

It is likely that everyone has one key areas of health that is key for them, and unlocks their ability/desire to do the other ones. I thought mine was physical activity, because I have always been a pretty active person and so it's easy for me to do, but now I think it's actually stress management! That is the only thing that makes me feel like I have the energy and space for all that other junk! (I mean good stuff. Not junk at all. Super important healthy stuff.)

Now I am done, right? I am a Certified Healthy Person now and don't have to try anymore?

Also, look at these cute pictures of sleeping animals I found while looking for a photo for this post:

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Inspiration! Roundup: The opposite of spare time, 50 million people, future comfort, beginnings, and more!

This week's "I want to go to there": Just being fully present in the moment. That sounds nice.
Photo by Marion Michele.

Time

"The opposite of spare time is, I guess, occupied time. In my case I still don’t know what spare time is because all my time is occupied. It always has been and it is now. It’s occupied by living."
-Ursula K. Le Guin

50 Million People

OOOF! This is powerful singing.

Suspended Art

How is THIS for interactive art? A suspended tape structure that visitors can crawl through. It looks like a weird spiderweb and puts a lot of faith in the artist's engineering knowledge. Still cool.

Future Comfort

A post shared by Josie Doodles (@josie.doodles) on Jan 23, 2018 at 3:29pm PST

The Last Pencil Factor

A photo essay inside one of America's last pencil factories. There is something captivating about seeing the inner workings on everyday objects, don't you think?

Beginning is Underrated

"Merely beginning.
With inadequate preparation, because you will never be fully prepared.
With imperfect odds of success, because the odds are never perfect.
Begin. With the humility of someone who's not sure, and the excitement of someone who knows that it's possible."
-Seth Godin

Awards

A post shared by Mari Andrew (@bymariandrew) on Jan 13, 2018 at 4:54am PST

This week's summary: Just try the thing! Begin! See how it goes! That is living!

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This Week in Church: How to be holy

Welcome to the series wherein I share my take-aways from church. The things that, I think, are beneficial to all of us to know or think about, whether or not we believe in any church-related things.

This week in church, we talked about holiness.

We talked about how holiness isn't about maintaining silly, repressive, or restrictive purity rules, but about being truthful, vulnerable, and open. Living transparently without compensating for who we are.

Sounds a bit scarier than picking a list of rules to try to follow, doesn't it?

This week in church, we talked about next steps.

I like this approach in general. Whenever you are confronted with a new way of being or looking at the world, a great question to ask yourself is, "what's my next step?" This, as opposed to imagining yourself at the end of the road, perfectly accomplishing whatever you seek, seems useful and manageable.

Suggested next steps for living a more holy life include moving from concealing our sin (or shame/darkness) to confessing it and moving from defending the old to embracing the new.

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Book Club: American War by Omar El Akkad

Surprisingly, American War is not a current events/political science Hot Take on what's happening in America right now. It was published in April of 2017, and so thanks to publishing timelines, it's been written for a lot longer than Trump's presidency. It's a good ol' dystopian future fantasy novel set around 2070 wherein climate change brought on a second civil war in America (once again between the North and the South).

First of all, it's a great book. It's really really worth a read. Pick it up. Hot Tip: unless you need the large print edition, try to get the regular version because I accidentally got the large print edition and it's much bigger and heavier than it has to be. (Although I did get to feel like I was reading really fast!)

Okay, now will come the spoilers. I won't spoil the whole thing, but don't read it if you don't want any spoilers at all!

It opens and closes with the words, "I was happy then." They grabbed my heart both times. There is a huge weight to a life where happiness is confined to one particular time.

The story spans the life of Sarat Chestnut, a Southerner who becomes a key player in the war, told largely from the perspective of her nephew. It is the perfect demonstration about how someone's surroundings and circumstances shape them as a person as she moves from being a happy child to a refugee to a warrior (or terrorist, depending on your side) to a prisoner to a woman who has lived under too much darkness and cannot even fathom re-integrating into the world.

Throughout the story you are invited to wonder what kind of person she might have been if not for those life-bending circumstances.

I thought it was fascinating how El Akkad orchestrated the civil war itself. It is so clearly rooted in the first (or in the real world, the only) civil war: the South versus the North, fighting over an outmoded/cruel/impossible economic practice. The first/real civil war was over slavery, the second/imagined one is over fossil fuels.

(I realize that calling slavery an "outmoded economic practice" is beyond understatement and deeply undermines the reality of the situation. I do it here because I think that's how it was viewed by many at the time. From what I understand, Southerners claim they fought over their economic independence, not owning slaves. The Southerners in this book make the same argument, this time not over their right to own humans but to kill the planet and, maybe, all of humanity as a result.)

The relationship between Sarat and her nephew is also wonderfully complex. When they meet, she has endured seven years of torture and doesn't know how to be a person anymore. He is a child. To him she is a bit of an enchanting, dark mystery. He loves her, and she learns to let herself love him. Then, later, his love becomes tangled up in anger, bitterness, and maybe even some hatred as she exacts her final revenge on the North. You don't see much of their actual relationship, but his is the narrative voice and so his view of her is embedded throughout the story.

The world building is pretty incredible. I love the little drops he puts in that help paint a picture of the world in this advanced stage of climate change. The narrator goes to Alaska and feels cold for the very first time. Everyone has to wait a few minutes for their solar panels to gear up before using cars, planes, or other technology. The world is an odd mix of future and old technology as much of what we rely on has been wiped out.

One of my favourite quotes:

"I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect that, in some circumstances, even someone hell-bent on revenge might find a temporary capacity for kindness."

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Cute! Roundup: Pups on legs, baby elephant cuddles, cat whiskers, and the greatest effort of all time

Sometimes when I cuddle Gertie, it's so nice I want to take a selfie of us. By the time I get my phone set to camera, she is so done and has reverted to staring into the middle distance with empty eyes.

OTHER CUTENESS:

Assigned seating for this little pup.

More pups on legs, this time with a protective dad watching out for them.

These baby elephant cuddles are a bit extreme, don't you think?

Did you know that cats push their whiskers forward when capturing prey to know how it's positioned for a bite? Magic!

Also, did you know that puppies can get the hiccups? POOR PUPPY!

The effort is real.

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Singalong! Heartbreaker by Mariah Carey

Years ago when I had my first significant heartbreak, a my friend played this song for me to help get over it. It worked! (For pretty much the length of the music video, but still, a few minutes of respite was much-needed.)

HEARTBREAKER
by Mariah Carey ft. Jay-Z

Give me your love

Give me your love

Give me your love

Give me your love

Give me your love

Give me your love

Give me your love

Give me your love

You gotta bounce to it like this

You almost gotta walk to this

Uh huh

Escape

Boy your love's so good

I don't want to let go

And although I should

I can't leave you alone

'Cause you're so disarming

I'm caught up in the midst of you

And I can not resist, and oh

Boy if I do

The things you want me to

The way I used to do

Would you love me, baby

Hold me, feeling now

Go and break my heart

Heartbreaker, you got the best of me

But I just keep on coming back incessantly

Oh why, did you have to run your game on me

I should have known right from the start

You'd go and break my heart

Give me your love, give me your love

Give me your love, give me your love

Give me your love, give me your love

Give me your love, give me your love

Give me your love, give me your love

Give me your love, give me your love

Give me your love, give me your love

Give me your love, give me your love

It's a shame to be so euphoric and weak

When you smile at me

And you tell me the things that you know

Persuade me to relinquish my love to you

But I can not resist at all

Boy if I do

The things you want me to

The way I used to do

Would you love me, baby

Hold me, feeling now

Go and break my heart

Heartbreaker, you got the best of me

But I just keep on coming back incessantly

Oh why, did you have to run your game on me

I should have known right from the start

You'd go and break my heart

She want to shop with Jay, play box with Jay

She want to pillow fight in the middle of the night

She want to drive my Benz with five of her friends

She want to creep past the block spyin' again

She want to roll with Jay, chase the skeeos away

She want to fight with lame chicks, blow my day

She want to inspect the rest, kick me to the curb

If she find a strand of hair longer than hers

She want love in the jacuzzi, rub up in the movies

Access to the old crib, keys to the new crib

She want to answer the phone, tattoo her arm

That's when I gotta send her back to her moms

She call me "Heartbreaker"

When we apart, it makes her

Want to get a piece of paper, scribble "I hate ya"

But she know she love Jay because

She love everything Jay say, Jay does and uh

Heartbreaker, you got the best of me

But I just keep on coming back incessantly

Oh why, did you have to run your game on me

I should have known right from the start

You'd go and break my heart

Heartbreaker, you got the best of me

But I just keep on coming back incessantly

Oh why, did you have to run your game on me

I should have known right from the start

You'd go and break my heart

Heartbreaker, you got the best of me

But I just keep on coming back incessantly

Oh why, did you have to run your game on me

I should have known right from the start

You'd go and break my heart

Heartbreaker, you got the best of me

But I just keep on coming back incessantly

Oh why, did you have to run your game on me

I should have known right from the start

You'd go and break my heart

Give me your love, give me your love

Give me your love, give me your love

Image Source: Giphy 

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Learning! Roundup: This is your brain on friendship, loner cells, manipulation, and more!

Photo by Ali Yahya.

This is Your Brain on Friendship

Friends share! We share our our fruit roll-ups, popcorn, and, it turns out, our neural responses to external stimuli. A new study has shown that people who are friends have similar brain-response patterns, and that this holds across factors like ethnicity, gender, or nationality. So much so that you can predict the closeness of a friendship by how similar their neural responses are.

So far this appears to just be correlational, so now I'm curious: do our responses meld as we get closer, or are we more drawn to friendship with people similar to us?

Loner Cells

Scientists have recently discovered a new single-celled organism, one with no known relatives. It seems that this throws the generally held view of mitochondria evolution into a bit of disarray.

How to Manipulate

This is kind of fascinating! Want to create a system that is thoroughly dysfunctional and keeps people loyal, even when they want to leave? Whether it's a lover or employee, there is a formula to follow: keep them too busy to think, tired, and emotionally invested. Then reward them intermittently and keep crises coming. Manipulation, laid bare.

How Not to Apologize

Hilary Clinton posted an "apology" for her protection of a man accused of sexual assault (her 2008 faith adviser was accused of sexually harassing women in the office), and it's a great example of how not to apologize. Here's a breakdown of what you can learn from her un-apology.

Bowel Cancer Causing Bacteria

There are two types of bacteria that are being investigated as potential causes of bowel cancer. It seems possible that some bacteria helps get it started, and other bacteria helps make it worse.

Death and Illusions of Self

Here's a cool study: monastic Tibetan monks believe that the self is an illusion, and so a researcher was curious whether this belief makes them less afraid of death. After all, if you're just an ever-changing illusion, who cares if that illusion ends, right? Wrong! Compared to Indian Hindus, American Christians, and atheists, the monastic monks were the least willing to sacrifice their lives for a stranger.

Interestingly, despite the fact that Buddhist scholars said they ought to, the more devout Buddhists used no self-doctrine to cope with the notion of death.

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Book Club: Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

It's been a while since the last Receptionist Book Club!

The book I would currently like to discuss with you: Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins.

The story is about a princess whose country revolted and her family was transferred to America. She goes to a regular high school, joins the cheerleading team, has a bunch of bad sex, and then swears off men in favour of political activism. Then she meets a gross outlaw who somehow she can't help but be attracted to, and then love and heartbreak and pyramids happen.

Spoiler alert: I hated it. So much. I stopped reading about 75 pages before the end because I just couldn't anymore. Not necessarily because of what was happening in the story, but the way it was all written. No ending could have redeemed that annoying writing.

If you look up quotes from the book it seems like it's a stunning collection of prose. For example:

“We are our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.”

“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.”

Oooooh, right? It verges on poetry! The insight! The wordplay! Magic!

All those good feelings only come if you read it out of context. If you read the actual book it feels like it's written by someone trying to show off how well he can write. And how much he likes to objectify teenage girls.

Leigh-Cheri (the princess) is described in really uncomfortable terms. It's classic male-writer-genius, talking about the teen girl's perky, half-globe breasts, long legs, soft curves, blah blah blah under the guise of showing how her body suddenly matured without anyone realizing it was happening.

There's even a segment where her body is described from the perspective of her father who can't help but become a little aroused. SERIOUSLY. It's tiresome. No wonder generations of men think that women are nothing but temptation wrapped in skin, all the "great literature" describes us like sexy statues.

The Woodpecker (the outlaw) is an anti-feminist mansplaining man who convinces her, among other things, that she just needs to sync her body up to the moon to have perfect birth control.

His age isn't given, but he has to be at least in his forties, and he comes into this TEENAGER GIRL's life in full creep-mode. She is talking to a cute boy on an airplane, and he leans over and says, "yummmmm" in her ear. Then he proceeds to make the "deep" statement that there are two mantras in the world, yuck and yum. His is yum. OH BOY HOW DEEP AND SEXY. Gross.

Also, he "teaches her how to be free."

Also, the book might be a bit racist against Arabs? At one point she gets engaged to an Arab tycoon and the way he is described and used in the story feels pretty wrong.

From reading this book I can only assume that Tom Robbins is an insufferable know-it-all who loves the sound of his own voice and thinks he has brilliant insights about everything, but instead of sharing them with you to see what you think, he tells them to you. No thanks, bud.

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To Our Health: Physical Activity

Photo by Blubel

It's week three of my health class, guys! This week we talked about physical activity. (Check out what I learned about nutrition and stress management.)

Here are my notes:

Physical activity is referred to by many medical support professionals as "the most under-prescribed medication" because it helps with sleep, mood, and all sorts of other issues.

Anything is better than nothing. Ideally, we should aim for 150 mins of moderate activity per week (like walking, cycling) or 75 mins of vigorous intensity (running, sports).

75 mins a week is 10 mins a day. That is pretty doable.

A little bit every day can get lead to more consistency and better results than a big chunk a couple times a week.

Rethink rest - to be good to our bodies and actually feel refreshed, it's often better to do something light or moderate (like go for a walk) than nothing.

Takeaways and homework:

Fit in whatever - do ten squats every time you go to the bathroom.

Plan ahead. The things that matter to us get put in our schedules. This means that every week/day/whenever, you have to actually look at what you have planned and think about what kind of activity you can put in there.

Pick a few activities you like and do those. "You don't want to feel like you're punching yourself to be active."

You are less likely to reschedule if it's in the morning.

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