Threshold Crossing (vol. 1, no. 6)

Here are five things I’m sharing this month:


1.  Julio Vincent Gambuto on emerging from the pandemic:

  • “Well, the treadmill you’ve been on for decades just stopped. Bam! And that feeling you have right now is the same as if you’d been thrown off your Peloton bike and onto the ground: What in the holy fuck just happened? I hope you might consider this: What happened is inexplicably incredible. It’s the greatest gift ever unwrapped. Not the deaths, not the virus, but The Great Pause. It is, in a word, profound. Please don’t recoil from the bright light beaming through the window. I know it hurts your eyes. It hurts mine, too. But the curtain is wide open. What the crisis has given us is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see ourselves and our country in the plainest of views. At no other time, ever in our lives, have we gotten the opportunity to see what would happen if the world simply stopped. Here it is… [So] think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud. We get to Marie Kondo the shit out of it all.” (Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting )

2. Tyler Cowen on what’s scarce in the world:

  • “The more information that’s out there, the greater the returns to just being willing to sit down and apply yourself. Information isn’t what’s scarce; it’s the willingness to do something with it.”

3. Naomi Shihab Nye on a simple question that asks a lot:

  • “Are you a grown up?”

4. Anne Lamott on the value of rituals:

  • “Daily rituals, especially walks, even forced marches around the neighborhood, and schedules, whether work or meals with non-awful people, can be the knots you hold on to when you’ve run out of rope.” (ht Brainpickings)

5. Tim Ferris on setting priorities:

  • “If you woke up tomorrow morning and you discovered you had only 10 years to live, what would you stop doing?”

It’s a great day to be alive! – dr H

PS If you’re reading this newsletter for the first time, you can read previous issues hereview lists of questions, quotes and resources I’ve shared before here, and subscribe here.

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