Hello!

Today I'm in a long staff meeting for our school today, so this will be a quick one. It's overall been a good, ordinary week around here in all the right ways. I hope it's been in a similar spirit for you! Ordinary is what we most often need, isn't it?

*The Painter on His Way to Work (Self-Portrait)*, by Vincent Van Gogh (1888)

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! The new year kicks off with Seth in bed with the flu, so even though he musters up the strength to chat, in this episode it's mostly me. Last year we each gave ourselves a six-month challenge, so I share my plan for this year: ten challenges in ten months! Why? How? And what are they? I gets into all that.
2. This week I shared with Commonplace subscribers how I write my own Rule of Life and why it’s foundational to doing things like setting goals and challenges, as well as even smaller, ordinary decisions throughout your day. I’ve now made the essay public, so head over if you haven’t yet read it.
3. I’ve long preached the merits of healthy boredom to my children, but this essay sheds more light on why it’s so necessary — and what it says about our culture when we collectively no longer how to be bored. “While boredom is usually associated with a lack of stimuli, it can also be prompted by too much stimuli—what Robert Louis Stevenson describes as the ‘weariness of satiety.’”
4. I haven’t watched them all yet, but so far this lecture series on The Idolatry of Identity is so spot-on about our modern culture. I’m taking notes.
5. And finally, I absolutely love this poem. Beautifully said.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

Season 3 of All Creatures Great and Small (it’s finally here!)

Quotable 💬

“To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal.”

— Simone Weil #

Do You Make New Year's Resolutions? 💪

I’m not entirely surprised… I do a mix of small goals and an overall theme, too.

Find this week’s poll here.

Quick Links 🔗

Create your own Rule of Life
Subscribe to A Drink With a Friend
Become a paying subscriber of The Commonplace (and thank you!)
Come with me to Ireland: July 15-25, 2023! 🇮🇪

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What topic are you currently interested in that has no bearing on your daily life? How could you learn more about that topic, just because?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. My kids quote this at least weekly.

5 Quick Things #266 🤔