Connecting the Dots (or the dot.coms)
I know y'all are watching the Super Bowl. That's a really good thing; relaxation is important (or, as they say in Charleston, "impoewtndt"). None of us needs to be en pointe, 24/7; all of us need all the harmless diversions we can get -- whatever is upbeat and energizing, whatever is an experience that is more visceral than mental.
I support that. But, just in case you don't give a rat's ass about football, and you want a different kind of feel good experience, you might enjoy reading/watching and/or listening to Alain de Botton, whose work may also make you feel upbeat and optimistic.
You may already know all about de Botton. But I had never heard of him until this morning, when I discovered him during my own version of Sunday School, or a weekly search for new information about -- whatever.
I particularly love it when a search about a particular topic ties unexpectedly into something else I care about. Connections, overlaps.
The tie-in today occurred when I read, and listened to de Botton's views on philosophers, and then I reread the kinder, gentler thoughts of Seneca, Montaigne and Epicurus, as compared to the more stringent standards of Nietzche et al. But there was a bonus round; I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing that de Botton then turned his attention to architecture, and then work, and then travel, and literature, etc..
(Please see functional links below in comments, provided by others, as I failed to make the proper dot.com connections [how's that for irony, eh?])
God knows I am aware that I sound pedantic, and pompous, and posturing. But, please believe me: actually, not. What I am, at the moment, is what British poet Stevie Smith described as: "Not Waving, But Drowning." So what I'm doing, every Sunday -- the only day I have to choose -- is searching. Striving to make sense of the current world as it evolves, taking recent lessons learned (for example, Letterman's surprising but wonderful mea culpa) and attempting to connect the dots in a way that represents hope.
Today, for me, the dots connected. I hope, in whatever form, they did for you, too.
I support that. But, just in case you don't give a rat's ass about football, and you want a different kind of feel good experience, you might enjoy reading/watching and/or listening to Alain de Botton, whose work may also make you feel upbeat and optimistic.
You may already know all about de Botton. But I had never heard of him until this morning, when I discovered him during my own version of Sunday School, or a weekly search for new information about -- whatever.
I particularly love it when a search about a particular topic ties unexpectedly into something else I care about. Connections, overlaps.
The tie-in today occurred when I read, and listened to de Botton's views on philosophers, and then I reread the kinder, gentler thoughts of Seneca, Montaigne and Epicurus, as compared to the more stringent standards of Nietzche et al. But there was a bonus round; I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing that de Botton then turned his attention to architecture, and then work, and then travel, and literature, etc..
(Please see functional links below in comments, provided by others, as I failed to make the proper dot.com connections [how's that for irony, eh?])
God knows I am aware that I sound pedantic, and pompous, and posturing. But, please believe me: actually, not. What I am, at the moment, is what British poet Stevie Smith described as: "Not Waving, But Drowning." So what I'm doing, every Sunday -- the only day I have to choose -- is searching. Striving to make sense of the current world as it evolves, taking recent lessons learned (for example, Letterman's surprising but wonderful mea culpa) and attempting to connect the dots in a way that represents hope.
Today, for me, the dots connected. I hope, in whatever form, they did for you, too.
