My Choice

The more I reflect on my recent experiences travelling through Spain, the more convinced I am that humankind will avoid what Elizabeth Kolbert and others have termed the sixth extinction.

I'm not naive. And I'm also not immune to being regularly discouraged by the disinformation campaign of climate change deniers and their mindless minions. But when I consider how endlessly inventive and ingenious people can be, I sincerely believe there's room for hope even if - as most scientists routinely tell us - we've passed the point of no return. 

If the Romans conceived and then built aqueducts that stand two thousand years later, if Antoni Gaudi envisioned Sagrada Familia - and disciples completed it over the next one hundred and fifty years - and if Guernica is still moving people to fight the good fight almost ninety years after Pablo Picasso created it, I submit that minds much greater than mine will find a way to help us mitigate our environmental misdeeds. 

In many ways, our natural world has already been irreversibly damaged. Succumbing to hopelessness is understandable. I choose to instead have faith in the limitless intelligence of humankind.

Reversing My 2026 Book Slump

Though I'm not obsessive enough to have kept track, over the fifteen+ years since the inception of my blog, I'd estimate about 20% of my 2600 + published posts have featured books that have moved me enough that I decided to promote them here. Those of you who have been regular readers for a while: Would you say that's about right? Assuming my estimate is close, it appears 2026 has begun with a bit of a book slump. Of thirty-four posts published thus far this year, less than a handful have featured worthwhile books I've finished since January. 

Soon after noting this downward trend on my blog, a quick review of my current book journal as well as some stats from Goodreads confirmed my suspicion. Not only have I finished fewer books over the first three months of this year vs. previous years - easy to spot via looking at earlier journals - but several of the finished ones have been serious duds. And I also gave up on others, another metric easy to track because of the comprehensive analytics Goodreads provides. It's a slump all right but it's one I plan to reverse effective immediately. A few strategies:

* Start being even more ruthless about what ends up on my list, especially with non-fiction titles.

* Rely more on authors who have rarely let me down, an easy fix via using those book journals. 

* Return to reading more when I'm fresh in the a.m. and keeping a closer eye on my monthly goal.

How about you? What have been your strategies when you've been in a book slump?

Timing Can Be Everything

It's taken me a lifetime to fully internalize the simple yet essential truth that timing can be everything.

Near the end of Sentimental Value, there's a conversation between the two sisters who are the centerpiece of this Oscar nominee for best film of 2025. A lifetime of witnessing the bond between my own sisters no doubt contributed to the impact that scene had on me. However, if I hadn't returned last night to watch this particular movie end-to-end several weeks after initially dismissing the first half as "sleepy", it's likely I'd have held onto my first misguided impression about it. End result: I would have bypassed an exceptional film and never experienced the emotional catharsis of that perfectly realized scene.     

How often have you been mystified when someone doesn't share your enthusiasm for a movie, a book, or piece of music that floored you? I cannot begin to count how many times this has happened to me. At this juncture in my long life, I sincerely believe that level of mismatched enthusiasm is connected to timing. Embracing the simple truth that timing can be everything has rewarded me in a few ways, including an improved ability to accept inevitable mismatches and move on without mischaracterizing someone else's views or elevating my own. I've shifted from thinking of mismatches as differences of opinion. As often as not, I'm now convinced it's a matter of timing.  

These days, when someone whose opinion I value raves about something - as was the case with Sentimental Value - I'm willing to give that something a second chance. I count my newfound willingness to do that as another reward connected to this simple yet essential truth. 

"When a student is ready, a teacher appears."  - Buddha

A Cocktail and a Conundrum

Having a good memory has come in handy a lot for me. This has been true across several domains of my life, e.g., with music, in relationships, for learning, I'm grateful for this particular trait. 

Here's the rub. Sometimes, I can be a little thin skinned. So when someone says something that hurts my feelings, which is not that hard to do, I tend to remember it for a long time. A friend of mine used to refer to this propensity as being part of my "Irish discourse". But because I'm the 7th generation on my Father's side - the Irish part of my heritage - to be born in the U.S., I'm not inclined to accept ethnic explanations. To me it just seems like I remember too much. Which two traits of yours when combined add up to an unpleasant cocktail like these two of mine do? What are your strategies for working around your cocktail? What suggestions do you have for me?

Forgive & forget? I've gotten a bit better at the forgive part of that equation as I've gotten older. The forget part? Got myself a little conundrum there, don't I?

Re-entrada de Hoy

After unpacking, checking your mail, and throwing away the science projects in your refrigerator, what are a few of the things you routinely do following an extended period away from a casa? 

Although my re-entry varies slightly depending on how long I've been away, for a while now there have been several consistent elements. Attending to the below between jet-lag required naps hoy was satisfying.  

* Re-calibrated my goals to accommodate the time just spent away. Berating myself for not getting to goals while away is a surefire way to diminish experiences I just had. Better to re-calibrate and continue to enjoy the brillo of those new experiences for as long as possible. 

* Tried to capture the spirit of my travel via retrospective journalling. Writing a few postscript palabras about most of the days is usually adequate. I avoid simply listing what I did and aim instead for what I felt or who I was with when a specific travel experience moved me. 

* Added a pushpin to the world mapa we have hanging in our hallway of places we've visited.

* Moved into my blog notebook the random jottings I made while away. This re-entry rutina - new since the 2011 inception of my blog - has become essential to me. The act of transcribing any jottings - tiny kernels of inspiration that pummel me whenever I travel - can later morph into something useful, e.g., un lirico, the beginnings of a story, an idea for a new course, a blog post. This magpie travel-related habit has become a crucial component in my creative matrix.

Y tu? 

Gracias a mi esposa por traducir.  

    

And ... Living History

Reflections from the Bell Curve: Humbled by History

Two thousand years from now, it's easy to envision anyone standing in front of Sagrada Familia here in Barcelona having a reaction similar to mine when I approached the Roman Aqueduct in Segovia a few days back. 

This marvel - the vision of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi - began construction in 1882 and is now nearing completion. When it's finished, it will be the tallest church in the world. As is almost always the case, the picture below is inadequate. Visit Wikipedia - link is underneath the picture - to get a more complete sense of this indescribable modern wonder. Then follow the links from Wikipedia to learn the full story. I promise you will be amazed.  

What a treat it has been to go from being humbled by history via the Roman Aqueduct to feeling as though I'm living history via standing in front of Sagrada Familia. And both over the course of a few days. 

Sagrada Família - Wikipedia

Eat the World in Adolescence

Although the project we dubbed Eat the World has gone in fits and starts over its fifteen-year history, today's birthday feels special for two reasons.

1.) Unlike every March 23 since the inception of this project in 2011, today we are actually in a country outside the U.S. as we sample its cuisine. Put aside the fact that we'd already eaten dishes from Spain before we got here on Thursday because...

2.) The food here is so outstanding it does not matter that Spain was already included on our list of 102 previously sampled cuisines. I'm prepared to say the meals we've had thus far in Spain have been the equal of those we had when visiting Greece in 2019 and nearly the equal of those we had on our 2012 visit to Italy. Those of you who have visited Spain: Did you have an equally first-rate experience with Spanish cuisine when you were here?

Any complaints, you ask? Well, unlike Greece or Italy, vegetarian fare is not as routinely offered here. I'm coping just fine, thank you. 

Reflections from the Bell Curve: World Traveling Via Food (To Be Continued)

Humbled by History

What were the circumstances connected to the most recent instance when you felt humbled by history? Did something you read in a book perhaps connect you in some powerful way to the distant past? Maybe something depicted in a film about ancient times elicited a deep awe in you? I've certainly had experiences like that.

The vicarious thrill that books, film, or stories about history have delivered to me cannot compare to the buzz I felt today. As he began speaking of the Roman aqueduct we were approaching, I listened intently to our guide. But my attention wandered as my mind's eye tried to imagine this structure when it was first erected here in Segovia Spain over two thousand years ago. The last time I can recall feeling this humbled by history was when our guide interpreted the Native American petroglyphs in some of the remote caves of Death Valley on a visit we made there a few years back. I'm comfortable using the word transcendent to describe moments like the one I had earlier today while standing beneath the aqueduct pictured above.

I welcome hearing a similar story from your life.