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5 Quick Things

5 Quick Things #295 🍎

wonder, walkability, real communities, & lasting for a thousand years

Tsh Oxenreider

Aug 25, 2023

Hi there,

I’m writing you from a dark hotel room, sleeping family around me—later this morning we’ll make our final few miles up the road to our oldest’s new home for this next school year. I tell you, I’m feeling ALL THE FEELINGS right now about all this, including sleep deprivation (hence why I’m writing this)… I haven’t slept well this entire week. Really, month.

I’m so thrilled for Tate and what’s all in store for her! Truly. And I love where she’s going; it’s a great fit for her. And yet… Yeah.

Thankfully, we’ve got a lot of practical things to do this weekend — moving into a dorm leads to lots of errands, set-up, fixing of things, carrying heavy stuff, campus tours and meetings, and navigating a new town. It’s a fun weekend!

St. Monica, pray for us.

*Apples in a Basket* (1910), by Helen Augusta Hamburger

5 Quick Things ☕️

(I’m doing something a little different this week… Because this week is SO crammed full, I’m pulling from the back catalog of 5QT and re-sharing some links I’ve liked in the past. With almost 1,500 good things shared, you’ve probably missed a thing or two, or if you’re like me, you’ve forgotten you read it and could use the reminder anyway. 😉)

1. 📻 From the archives of A Drink With a Friend: The Genesis of Gender 📻 What does it mean to be a man or a woman? And just as important in today's culture, how do we have civil, truthful, loving conversations about that topic? Seth and I chat with author and professor Abigail Favale to talk about all this and more. She's written a book that's taking off like wildfire about one of the most pressing questions of the day: Who are we as men and women?
2. Does our technology-everywhere world limit our human capacity and drive for wonder? I think so. No longer do we need to sit with our thoughts while we wait in line, and we don’t need to let a curiosity go unanswered. “Wonder is what happens when we unexpectedly apprehend the marvellous quality of the ordinary.” I've been slowly mulling on these thoughts, which I think is the right thing to do regarding the topic of wonder.
3. I am fascinated with small towns, urban planning, and human-scale living (i.e., walkability), and I enjoy a good nerding out on learning why certain places hold more livable appeal than others. There’s something near-universal about our natural desire to live in thoughtfully and in community — this is an interesting exploration about why a little Florida town works as well as it does.
4. Myles Werntz (who’s written a guest piece here on The Commonplace) said on his own Substack what I’ve wanted to put into words but couldn’t. “Are online communities communities? Until further notice, I’m staying with no, for a few reasons.” What makes IRL an actual community, something the internet can’t replace?
5. And finally, beautiful cinematography, beautiful project, beautiful lives, beautiful message about authenticity — “if it looks like a stone wall it needs to be a stone wall. …I want the janitor’s closet to be beautiful.”