Week #28 of 2025 has arrived... The mortars are exploding in my neighborhood as I speak.  Happy 4th of July! Our dogs HATE them.  I am personally ambivalent... but since I care for people and beings who aren't... I'm not.

Time to walk over to your 4K Weeks poster and fill in another square.  Done?

I saw this poem. linked here.

No Explosions

To enjoy

fireworks

you would have

to have lived

a different kind

of life

-Naomi Shihab Nye

Much like freedom, kindness and empathy are ALWAYS available to us.  The American spirit in me says that you can't, under any circumstances, take away my freedom.  Sure, you can shackle me, strip me of my possessions, and contort my physical being in all manner of ways, but in every situation, no matter how terrible, I still have choice.

Similarly, under any circumstance, we can choose kindness and empathy over our immediate desires.  It's a noble form of courage.

ON WEEK #28 OF 2021...

Billionaire Richard Branson flew to the edge of space on his Virgin Galactic rocket to look into space tourism.

He was 3,703.71 weeks or 71.03 years old.

WHAT I CONSUMED THIS WEEK

	What if this is it? I hope you have smart friends who send you thoughtful articles.  My good friend John G. sent me this.  I printed it out so I could have my kids read it... which is about as high praise as I can offer. Open it in a new window and read it after this email.
	Ok, I had an itch, and I decided to scratch it.  Modernism, Postmodernism, and MetaModernism.   Here is a list of the pods I consumed to learn. Deep Talks, MetaModernism Pt.1 Deep Talks, MetaModernism Pt.2 Deep Talks, MetaModernism Pt.3 Deep Talks, What is MetaModernism Stuff You Should Know:Postmodernism Art is Dangerous: Nazi Degenerate Art Exhibition

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Don't declare yourself to be a wise person or discuss your spiritual aspirations with people who don't appreciate them. Show your character and your commitment to personal nobility through your actions." - Epictetus

This one is really hard for me. I can become a prophet about the things I believe, and it is VERY easy to flip from an earnest concern with helping other people learn to showing other people how awesome you yourself are.

We all admire people who make big bold, loud changes in the world. The person who lives a quiet life of integrity doesn't get too many awards.

And yet, I am sure we would all choose to live in a country where everyone was showing their commitment to personal nobility through their actions.

All of this personal development stuff is aspirational. We will never arrive at the promised land of perfect personal character. You will be working towards it your entire life, and almost no one will notice that you have made a commitment to your own personal nobility.

But you will, and doing so will make your life better (And it will make the lives of all the "people who won't appreciate it" better, too.).

WHAT I AM THINKING ABOUT THIS WEEK

The hell of distraction.

Epictetus said, "Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish and only caters to or exploits people's weaknesses. Avoid being one of the mob who indulges in such pastimes. Your life is too short and you have important things to do. Be discriminating about what images and ideas you permit into your mind. If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest. It is the easiest thing in the world to slide imperceptibly into vulgarity. But there's no need for that to happen if you determined not to waste your time and attention on mindless pap."

I am writing this from a hospital waiting room (everything's fine, just doing my job as a helpful son).

Hospital waiting rooms are dens of overwhelming, vulgar distraction. They always seem to be catering to the loudest common denominator... As if since one person out of 100 might enjoy a tv in every corner screaming the worst things that have happened in the world over and and over and over, then everyone must suffer it.

Blaring in my left ear is a tv spewing a string of awful news about murder, bad weather, and the occasional totally useless feel good local story. It is so loud it is hard for me to even focus on the next word. There was actually just a commercial for some "stabbing each other in the back makes good reality tv" show that was narrated in a loud "whisper" to play on the cheap drama of these "characters" betraying each others secrets.

"What secrets you share at work tomorrow"

It is all horrifyingly basic and a collective character cancer.

There are 13 people in this room and 18 seats. Of the 13 people, 10 are staring at their phones and have been since I walked in 20 minutes ago. There are three couples who haven't spoken to or looked at each other, just staring at their phones. The visual junk food they are consuming on their phones is likely a much more subtle form of mind numbing propaganda.

Why are we so afraid of being alone with our thoughts? Why is it so easy for phones and apps and social media to distract us? Why are we drawn to the porch light of contrived drama and cheap conflict? Why are we so ready to be distracted?

I think it is just one more example of the pain of the truth of our mortality.

We are going to die, and it is hard to make that make sense. And, even though we are going to die, most of us still can't seem to find a way to do much of meaning with our next minute, so we might as well get the dopamine hits where they're easy.

We are so evolutionarily optimized for short-term thinking. It is REALLY hard to overcome it.

And yet it is the most important work.  You can't save the world from it, unfortunately. But you can save yourself, and that is a start.

Until next week!

Spencer,

Owner of 4KWeeks

P.S. Click on this reward if you feel like letting me know you read the whole newsletter: I used to listen to this in the car with my dad on the way to church... so fun.