Week 37 of 2023 has arrived. A bit of sand has fallen from the bottom of my clenched hand... back to the Universe where is belongs. I miss it. I have a bit of fernweh for it.

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

I believe that any of us can do anything if we will only do the work. Often the difference between wild success and continued mediocrity is just a tiny pebble of resistance that's keeping a wheel from rolling.

Thanks for being here and reading. It is vital to "sharpen the saw" as a regular practice. I think of these blogs as a way for me to sharpen my saw and help you sharpen yours.

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The 4K Weeks Long View-A Different Horizon

Remarkable Weeks

Week #37 in the year 2019, Malcolm Gladwell published his sixth book, Talking to Strangers, which studies miscommunication, interactions, and assumptions people make when dealing with those they do not know. He was 2923.00 weeks old.  (56.05  yrs) (Malcolm is my favorite elitist!)

Week #37 in the year 2017, artist, Marta Minujin, created a Parthenon of Banned Books, by arranging 100,000 banned books into a replica of the Parthenon in Athens. She used books that were censored, banned and burned by the Nazi's in the 1930's and 1940's. She was 3893.14 weeks old.  (74.66 yrs) 

Week 37 in the year 1993, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space as a Mission Specialist on the Endeavor (STS-47).  Jemison was also the first astronaut to appear in an episode of Star Trek. She was 1873.43 weeks old.  (35.92 yrs)

This Week's Quote

It takes courage to grow up and be who you really are.  -E.E. Cummings

We all know adults who are still children.  Bumping along through life, not taking their finitude, their responsibilities, or their potential seriously.

But we are all also children compared to the great humans of our age.  No one reading this email has yet reached their full potential... so the measure is: Are you growing? How hard are you trying?  How hard are you pushing?

It takes courage. But doing it also makes courage.

What I am Consuming This Week

Cautionary Tales: S4 E25, "The City That Sold Itself To Wall Street."  This is fascinating... and also sad... I don't prefer the tendency of late stage capitalist financiers to squeeze asymetrical profits out of stuff when the public good is on the short end of the asymetry.

People I Mostly Admire: "Do We Have Evidence of Alien Life. With Avi Loeb". Fascinating again.  I have listened to two conversations lately with intellectuals who seem to have a chip on their shoulder about how they were treated by their "peers" when the facts as they perceived them led them to non-status quo directions.  I noticed in both conversations that after a few mentions of this kind of "maltreatment" any further mentions start to make me more suspicious of the accuser... which isn't right or wrong, just an interesting note...

Revisionist History, "Guns Pt. 1 The Sudden Celebrity of Sir John Knight."  So strange... the American infatuation with guns.  When we were in the UK, my friend noted that all the musems, public places, etc that we went seemed to have light security at the doors... He said... "and that's because they stopped them all at the border."

Revisionist History, "Guns Pt. 2  Getting Out of Dodge."

The Daily: "Passenger Planes Collide Far More Than You Know".  I often tell people that flying is much safer than driving... It still is.  About 2200 times safer.

3 Books With Neil Pasricha: "How to Tell Yourself a Different Story." (Seth Godin) Do yourself a favor. Stop what you are doing, and listen to these 3 minutes of emotional oxygen.

The Tim Ferriss Show "#691, Nassim N. Taleb & Scott Patterson." This is the 2nd instance of "slighted intellectual syndrome" (again, no judgement... they likely ARE being mistreated, and they likely are correct.  Still...)

These Insta Motivations

• What is a Healthy Self?
• The Law of Accumulation.
• If you don't quit, you might make it.

What I am Thinking About This Week

The Pain of Dichotomies.

Every Labor Day, we spend the long weekend at a house on a river in the Ozarks, with our best friends and their families.  Six adults and six kids aged 8-14.

My son says it it his favorite four days of the year. (It's probably mine, too.)  After we returned he was lamenting it being over... wishing we could stay there all year long.

I explained to him how, if we were there all year long, it wouldn't be special... after a few weeks of doing the same thing, it would probably get boring, and we would start to take the river for granted.

He listened and agreed and said, "Yeah,  if we lived down here, we might not even go down to the river after a while."

I succeeded in explaining it to him, and when he finally understood, it just made me sad.

When I was young, I couldn't understand when people would say "You can't have light if you don't have dark, no life without death." As I have gotten older, I have slowly been able to wrap my head around how a thing defines itself by an opposing force...   But I still don't like it.

I want to stand in the same river twice.  I want the endless relaxing vacation, I want to have life and no death, I want to eat all the ice cream and cheetos and still be healthy... I want, I want, I want...

Thanks for being a part of the journey with us!

Spencer, Owner of 4KWeeks.com

Dad Joke O' The Week

What happened when the two antennas got married?

Well, the ceremony was kind of boring, but the reception was great!