Hi Friends,
Greetings from Brooklyn!
I’ve been doing forty minutes of Yoga every morning in the past few weeks. I had all sorts of preconceived ideas about Yoga: too boring, too soft, too spiritual. But I must say, so far, I’m enjoying it tremendously. If you are tempted and like me, are as flexible as a stainless steel rod, you might enjoy this 28 days intro course on YouTube.
Namaste,
Florian
On Play
My son and I play this game where we pretend that the couch is a boat. “Careful daddy, the sharks!”, he warns, pointing at the carpet.
I get really into it myself. So much so that for a split second, it feels like my brain has been tricked into believing I am actually on a sailboat, trying to survive ten foot waves.
When we think of playing, our mind immediately goes to toys. On rainy Saturday afternoons, I rummage through wooden train tracks, Duplo sets and Jenga bricks trying to figure out what might keep my son entertained for a little while.
But not a single toy in his room animates him as much as a trip on our imaginary boat-couch.
I'm trying to pinpoint what it is that makes this form of play so exhilarating. I suppose it comes down to our desire to be completely free. Toys come with instructions, they have a function they are meant to perform. Legos are meant to be assembled, the train designed to slide on its tracks. But if you can turn a couch into a boat, the sky’s the limit. Rearranging reality to fit our playful whims is the ultimate liberation.
Toys are in limited supply. But a two bedroom apartment is an infinite playground of alternate universes.
And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go drop the anchor.
Weekly Wisdom
Long Distance Thinking: Simon Sarris is one of my favorite online writers. His latest piece takes on our obsession with dumbing things down for the sake of making them more accessible. He argues that knowledge takes time to take root and invites us to consider the lost art of contemplation.
C’Mon C’Mon: I don’t usually recommend movies but I had a crush on this one. The first minutes threw me off and I almost gave up. But then I got into the movie’s dreamlike rhythm and savored every scene. It’s an odd jewel of a movie, the kind you’re still thinking about over coffee the next morning.
Weasel Words: Discovering that something you’re familiar with has an actual name is deeply satisfying. Bonus points when the name is an alliteration involving a small furry predator. Coined in 1900 by Stewart Chaplin, he describes weasel words as “words that suck the life out of the words next to them, just as a weasel sucks the egg and leaves the shell”. Some examples you will immediately recognize: “A growing body of evidence….”, “Most people agree…”, “Arguably”, “Often”. I shudder at the thought of how many I have invited into my writing.
Lateral Thought
“A society that talks incessantly about ‘productivity’ but that hardly uses the word ‘resilience’ is going to become productive and not resilient.”
Donella Meadows
C’Mon C’Mon has been on my watchlist, glad to hear you enjoyed this much! Have you watched Belfast yet? Great coming-of-age with gorgeous cinematography, I just wish it was more dreamlike.