Do you fit into a box?
Hey
Hope you are having a good week. I’ve been thinking a lot about the labels / boxes that we try to force each other into, although many of us exist outside of the labels or, rather, how inadequate the labels tend to be. I fell outside of the ‘nerd’ box, when that became the rage, because of my sporting background and being part of the ‘cool kids’ in my high school. At the same time, I was - and still am - very much a bookworm, content to spend hours submerged in a world outside of my own. In recent years, I have been reading a lot more non-fiction, but there is still a beauty in getting lost in fictional worlds. I have also been exploring the different reasons for reading and the different ways of reading.
1
I love this quote in Reading a Book is a Conversation Between You and the Author: “Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it— which comes to the same thing— is by writing in it.”
2
I came to Teju Cole’s work through his writing, Open City, to be specific. And then discovered his passion for photography in his collection of essays, Known and Strange Things. I, initially, bought the Kindle version but had to get a physical copy. The way he writes about photography, you can ‘see’ the photograph, without seeing it.
Sadly, he seems to have a strange relationship with Instagram and is erratic with posting images. He has also deleted a lot of his previous posts. In an article for The Guardian, Smell the ink and drift away: why I find solace in photobooks, he writes, “Instagram is like frozen pizza, exhibitions are noisy – but a photobook is an act of analogue rebellion in an obnoxiously digital world." His books Blind Spot and Fernweh are high on my wish list.
3
Finding the right app is its own journey. It doesn’t matter what it is for, there are usually tens, if not hundreds, of apps to choose from. In wanting to get a meditation practice going, I have tried a couple and have now settled on Headspace, primarily because of the features outside of actually meditating, like their Sleepcasts - storytelling to help you fall asleep. John Legend is now their Chief Music Officer and has curated a couple of playlists for focusing, which are dope: Focus like a legend.
4
Sometimes, how the writing is what draws me in. How a print picks a launch point and weaves so much more into it. This is what pulled me into A Minute With Zack De La Rocha; that, and being a fan of Rage Against The Machine.
As a sidebar, there is an irony to some fans criticising Tom Morello for being political in his support of Black Lives Matter when, at their core, Rage Against The Machine has always been exactly that.
5
We have come so far that hankering for the simplicity of an iPod is becoming a thing. Now Is a Great Time to Go Back to an Old iPod
6
Season 5 of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History recently came out and it is as good as the first four seasons. I especially loved the story of the Autobiography of Howard Hughes by Clifford Irving.
7
I recently featured on The noted.man Podcast talking mindfulness, biking, raising a girl, his father’s influence, compromise and much more.
That’s it for this week. Please share, if it resonated, and subscribe if it was shared with you. Have a great week.
Easy
Kojo