[WITI No. 54] On Oath keeping and hard questions, a walk through the empire of death
Writing about a lifelong habit of reading from a father's perspective
Hi, I’m George. You’re here because you bumped into me on Twitter or we know each other IRL. I started writing this newsletter as a meditation on a quote from David Brooks’ book, The Social Animal.
The truth is, starting even before we are born, we inherit a great river of knowledge, a great flow of patterns coming from many ages and many sources. The information that comes from deep in the evolutionary past, we call genetics. The information revealed thousands of years ago, we call religion. The information passed along from hundreds of years ago, we call culture. The information passed along decades ago, we call family, and the information offered years, months, days or hours ago, we call education and advice.
The quote is so rich and touches on nearly every aspect of living, I’m trying to make sense of it by writing What is the Information? my weekly newsletter where I try and share information from what I’m reading, thinking or writing about. Thanks for reading and leave a comment, if you’d like. I would love to chat with you about what you read here.
Special edition…
This (late) edition was started in the the world-famous city of Paris. My wife and I spent a few days there to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary. I thought I could get my newsletter done while on vacation. Silly me. There’s always enough time to do what you must but some of that time was stolen by jetlag - so here I am trying to wrap this up 4 days late. Please accept my sincere apologies, dear readers.
Clay Christianson wrote a book called How Will You Measure Your Life? In the book, Christianson recounts an opportunity to shirk a personal commitment. It seemed minor at the time, should he play a basketball game on a Sunday bypassing his religious promise he had made.
As Christianson writes it, God probably wouldn’t mind, but Christianson would forever know he was unable to maintain his commitment. In his mind, he would be an oath breaker - even if the oath was personal (between him and God.)
This personal commitment is one of the reasons I try not to miss publishing this newsletter. I promised myself and If you can’t keep promises to yourself, then how valuable is your word? It can still be valuable, of course, but you’re treating your own pledge differently and why should that be? It is hypocritical and that’s never a good look.
There’s a song from Jon Larson’s Tick Tick Boom called Why where the story’s protagonist writes and sings…
I make a vow, right here and now, I’m gonna spend my time this way.
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I’m continuing my reading of Wanting by Luke Burgis. I’m reading about French chef, Sebastian Bras. ( I find it ironic to read about Frenchman while in France.) He opted out of the Michelin guide after helping his father achieve the highest 3 star rating for his restaurant. He decided he no longer wanted the pressure of always trying to please the Michelin critics and informed the guide to remove the restaurant.
This book is taking me longer to go through than my usual read. It presents a framework of questions to ask yourself and to figure out what you desire. These aren’t simple yes or no, multiple choice type of questions - so they force this reader, me, to stop reading and think about what is being asked. I want the mental scaffolding to use the advice the book can offer. Sometimes I’ll rush through a book the first time and then go back and read it again more deeply to complete the exercises. Completing the exercises can be difficult but can cement the book’s learnings to your brain.
Here’s the question that I’m battling with in my journal:
What are your most meaningful achievements and why?
Excavating 30 years of adult life to think about this isn’t easy and I’m surprised to see what I wrote. More on this next week.
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Word of the Week: SMITE
Find of the week
The video below reminds of a Dude Perfect video. I wonder how many takes it took to get the final product below.
What promises have you made to yourself and failed to keep? To others? Do you spend time asking hard questions? Comment above.
If you want to share What is the Information? Click below.
That’s all I got!
-George
I love the concept of doing what you do for the right reasons rather than the wrong reasons. That chef removing himself from consideration for Michelin stars when he realized he was catering his cooking to the Michelin critics rather than to his own standards. Very applicable in the acting profession. Thanks.