From Paul -- 7Inspirations: March 21 2021
From Paul -- 7Inspirations: March 21 2021
Greetings from The Backcountry
Hey, It’s Paul. Hope you’ve been having a stellar weekend. I’m sending this weekend’s edition of 7Inspirations from a tiny home community out in the California backcountry. It’s beautiful out here. So the theme of this newsletter: the great outdoors and the sheer miracle of life. (Pics below).
If you’re new here, in this newsletter I share 7 things I found interesting, thought-provoking, and cool from the past week. If you’re wondering what fuels my blog and podcast, this is your place to find out.
Music
Vashty Bunyan — Just Another Diamond Day
I’m spending this weekend and part of the week out in the woods. Can’t think of a better musician to revisit than the queen of folk herself, Vashty Bunyan. H/T to my girlfriend for reminding me that she exists.
Book
The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist
Same as last week. It’s a big book about the relationship between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It’s also a book about connection, relationships, empathy, control, logic, reasoning, and Western civilization as we know it.
And it’s turning out to be one of the most fascinating books I’ve read yet. A slow, careful read of this book will make reading philosophy - and it’s narrative cousin, mythology - easier. But that doesn’t mean the mystique of either studies disintegrates like snow under sunshine. It’s just that the intent of philosophy and mythology reveals itself, once you understand the relationship between the two hemispheres of the brain.
I highly recommend this book to anyone even slightly philosophically or psychologically minded. It’s serving as a foundational text that’s helping me understand human nature from a deep, neuropsychological level, thus informing our shared motivations on a higher level.
Here’s a visual I made out of a particularly striking quote from the book.
Movie
This is the most powerful, honest documentary about the people who lost loved ones during 9/11. If you can stomach it, watch it. If you can’t stomach it, build up the tolerance to do so because it’s an incredibly important documentary that you need to see if you haven’t.
Quote
I hope we're not trying to figure out who he is, but trying to figure out who we are.
From 9/11: The Falling Man
Podcast
Josh Barnett: Philosophy of Violence, Power, and the Martial Arts | Lex Fridman #165
An MMA fighter talking about Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and how being human means, like all animals, coming pre-built with the capability of violence.
This section is becoming the “episode of Lex Fridman’s podcast that I’m listening to this week” because I just love his show so much. It’s really the only podcast I listen to. I’m deeply inspired by Lex Fridman’s approach to conversations.
Good Fucking Food
This French Onion Soup, with a white wine base. Spectacular.
Moment
Greetings from the backcountry.
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