5 Quick Things #289 ☀️
real fiction, zero FOMO, phone detox, & free speech
Hey there,
As you’re reading this I’m smack in the middle of a two-day marathon of teacher meetings, so I’ll keep this intro short and get to the bulk of why you’re reading this anyway.
I hope you’ve had a good week! All is well on my homefront, except that summer DEFINITELY whooshed in this past week here in central Texas. Holy outdoor-sauna humidity with highs of 106, Batman. ☠️
5 Quick Things ☕️
1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! Stories (the good ones, anyway) tell us more than an entertaining tale—they tell us why the world is the way it is, as well as the way it should be. In this way, fiction is often more real than non-fiction. Everyone should read fiction, especially folks who want to know how the world works and how we're called to make it better. Seth & I unpack why good stories do just that.
2. Zero FOMO, better time management, deeper clarity about my work, increased mental and physical health… I can probably think of about ten other benefits I’ve experienced. Earlier this week I shared with paying subscribers my answers to your FAQs about my being off Instagram for almost a year now. I’ve now made it available for all to read, so enjoy + share! (Spoiler: I don’t miss IG at all.)
3. If you still need more convincing (and I’m not here to tell you what to do! Pinky-swear!), Commonplace reader Annelise Roberts shared an essay of hers in the comments, and it is so spot-on it deserves more eyeballs on her words. “Why on earth am I relying on this system to validate my existence?” PREACH. IT.
4. I’m actually doing a digital detox from mid-June (whenever my cheap flip phone arrives in the mail) to mid-July (when we leave for Ireland). Ruth Gaskovski has been leading people through a 30-day detox in her own newsletter, and reading Digital Minimalism years ago + my episode with Autumn Kern + Ruth’s leading has inspired me to finally do a test-run on a dumb phone. I’ll report here about the experience soon!
5. And finally, Rowan Atkinson, of all people, says the quiet part out loud about the importance of free speech.
Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻
My new Summer Chill 2023 playlist
Quotable 💬
“The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.”
— G.K. Chesterton #
What's your favorite summertime sound? 🐦
I love this question because it's one of my favorite things to think of, but I also hate it because I’m forced to choose. I think I'll go with crickets at night, because it's just so iconically summer.
Find this week’s poll here.
Quick Links 🔗
📔 Releasing August 29, 2023: First Light & Eventide
Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔
What’s one form of noise you could eliminate from your life?
Have a good one,
- Tsh
p.s. C’mon, Benedick.
I thought the poll was a great question, but I also realized I wasn't really able to select any of the options. Social media used to be one main way I heard about current events, but I've been off it for at least a year or two. Do you have recommended ways to stay informed? Much of the news doesn't seem worth the time, but then I miss out on some important headlines. Any particular news sources you recommend would be great.
I listened to the fiction episode as I walked yesterday. I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, and began to think of all the events I remember from those years. The assassination of a president, the assassination of a presidential candidate, the assassination of MLK, and the attempted assassination of George Wallace, racially motivated bombings and lynchings, riots in the streets of Detroit and other cities, release of the secret Pentagon Papers, anti-war protests, the ongoing VietNam war, the killing of college students by government soldiers at Kent State, the Watergate break-in and cover up, resignations of both the vice president and president.
I’m not sure the events of this time are all that different. In the 60’s and 70’s, we had three national networks all telling basically the same stories for a half hour each evening. Now we have many sources of “news,” each telling the stories from their own slant. Essentially, instead of hearing the same story and subsequently forming our own opinions, we hear the story from echo chambers. We hear many more talking heads, each trying to outshout the other. I think that contributes to the feeling that we live in crazy town.