Joker
There’s two sides to every story. Most of us only see the one that fits our narrative. It should be our job to seek the truth.
Accountable and Nonnegotiable
My teammates and I ran 5 800s today around 2:40 pace, except for the last one which was at 2:30. This was after a really long week without the best sleep. I didn’t feel like running hard at practice today, but I didn’t make it an option. When it’s not an option, the job will get done regardless of how I feel. It’s a nonnegotiable.
I have my teammates to thank for getting me through these 800s. I’m the captain of our Long Sprint group, but the guys I’m leading are tough. We run every workout together as a tight-knit group, stride for stride. Having them by my side makes workouts like this go by faster and with greater intensity. They hold me accountable.
When accomplishing daily goals is nonnegotiable and there’s people in place to hold you accountable, success becomes a lot more likely and a lot more possible.
How to Honor a Glacier
In environmental chemistry today, my professor brought up how the people of Iceland had a funeral for a glacier which melted due to climate change. In class, I voiced my opinion for why having a funeral for dying parts of the earth was a good thing, why personifying nature isn’t woo-woo but might just be necessary to actually make change. Sometime after class, my professor emailed me, saying my perspectives may have swayed her opinions. I replied with a further defense of my stance. Here is that response.
“Here’s a more elaborate perspective on the matter:
As a global society, we wouldn’t be where we are today without science. That’s quite an understatement. Speaking rather generally, though science has brought us very far, it’s also managed to almost wholly neglect any spiritual component or connection to the natural world. We have become separate from nature. We have been more or less conditioned to see this planet as something we can extract resources from, not someone that’s alive, that has a place at the table. I believe the scientific community has a lot to learn with respect to the indigenous religions and belief systems of the Americas and other places across the globe. Maybe it’s time we, as a society, stopped judging native people’s sun dances and conversations with trees and started listening. I think they were on to something.
If we started treating earth as Mother Earth, maybe people would start worrying about her. When we worry, we care–then we are moved to action. I sincerely think we need more than just good science to convert the masses. We need some reason for everybody to care, something that goes across partisan lines. I think a funeral for a glacier is a step in the right direction.”
Strength in Surrender
It’s common to view the act of surrender as a sign of weakness, as quitting. From Tom & Jerry episodes to Braveheart, we’ve come to believe the white flag means failure. Nobody trying to be strong can accept surrender as an option, or so we’ve been told.
Imagine you’re driving on the highway and somebody cuts you off. The natural response is rage–what they did was dangerous and could’ve gotten people hurt. There’s two responses in this scenario: chase him down and try to cut him off, or choose to continue driving safely, letting the unsafe driver pass. Which is stronger here? Is it the response that will make you seem more alpha? Or is it the one that goes against our instincts, the one that’s harder and less glamorous?
Surrender requires strength. Saying it’s difficult to allow the world to unfold before you is an understatement. But this isn’t a passive pursuit; it requires changing your inner state, something each one of us struggles with daily.
The choice is yours. I will choose the more difficult path, because struggling through challenges is the only way to grow.
God’s Goodness
Excerpt from an analysis essay of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles Chapter 38…
In section 4 of Chapter 38, Aquinas begins by discussing how any good thing, call it A, that exists must be good by participation in some other thing, call it B. In this scenario B must be of a higher order than A because B is the source of A’s goodness; said in another way, any cause must be greater than its effect. Though possible to trace a thing’s goodness back to its participation in another good thing, Aquinas argues that this pattern cannot extend to infinity because infinity is opposed to the end, and good has the nature of an end. Stating “good has the nature of an end” indicates that each good can be traced back to the participation in another, higher good. For this to comply, there must be a first good that doesn’t participate in any other good because there is nothing greater than it. Its source of goodness is its own essence, not participation in any higher good. As it previously argued, God is the only possible entity whose being is the same as its essence. Thus we have come to Aquinas’ conclusion: because good things have the nature of an end, God must be goodness because God’s being is God’s essence.
Make Sure You’re Happy
When making important decisions in life, remember to ask yourself, “Will this make me happy?” It’s amazing how often this is overlooked. Many make decisions based solely on theoretical deliberation and reason, not their instincts, desires, and preferences. But happiness is more important than making sense. It’s more than making decisions based on the allure of having more money, possessions, or fame. As a collective we have to start holding happiness to a higher standard when making important decisions, for instance, choosing a career path.
If thinking about it doesn’t make you happy, don’t start. If you already started, you should quit. Today.
This life is too rich to not be lived, enjoyed, cherished, and beholden. It’s too long to fake happiness for your family and friends. You’re going to want to actually be happy, so make sure you ask yourself if you are.
Nothing Matters, Everything Counts
One of the Jesuits on campus, Father Dennis McNally, says this all the time. Nothing Matters. Everything Counts. He’s been saying it for years. I think I’ve just recently begun to know what it means.
Nothing Matters, because God will still love you. No matter what you do or don’t do, you will still come from love and return back to love. God will love you regardless of your shortcomings, failures, or egocentric pursuits.
Everything Counts, because every choice we make either moves us towards God or away from God. When we pass over to the other side, we will get to look back at every moment of our lives. We will recognized how our choices helped us know God better or worse. Everything we do and encounter will count for how much we loved God back.
Nothing Matters. Everything Counts.
Maybe one day this will make sense.
Gratitude Over Regret
Camille and I have been trying our hand at Flip Life, that is, going to yard sales, buying someone’s junk for cheap, and selling it on eBay for profit. We’ve made a good chunk of change so far—plenty to pay for our textbooks, a few meals out, some tanks of gas, and our podcast startup costs (more on that soon). We’re still sitting on a good bit we’ve yet to list.
Today we were out flipping, looking through old kitchen appliances. Then a car pulled right in front of the driveway rather abruptly. A gentleman hurried out of the car and grabbed two long boards for sale. They were nice but large and used, so we didn’t think much of them at first glance. After scooping those, the man continued to rush around the sale, almost bumping into me at one point. We left soon after. We don’t have much tolerance for people like this.
While walking to the car, Camille mentioned how we should’ve picked up the long boards when we saw them. She was right. Though difficult to ship, each board was worth around 50-60 dollars. We would’ve made a killing. We were bummed—at this point we’d been to 5 yard sales and had struck out all 5 times. That could’ve made it all better.
But maybe that man bought the boards for his son who’s been wanting one, or maybe he flips junk for a living and hasn’t had a Saturday off in a decade. We made peace with it and started driving to our last sale of the morning.
My Maps app had two ways of getting there: a straight shot or back roads. Camille get’s motion sickness, so I chose the straight shot. While approaching a red light, Camille yells, “Garage Sale!” We can’t park so I let her out while I go to find parking. Long story short, this woman was selling some of her son’s PC gaming tech. There was also a box of almost new Pokemon cards. All in all, we could get anywhere from $250-500 for everything we picked up at this stop.
We could’ve regretted not picking up the long boards. We could’ve called it there, too defeated after 5 strike outs to try one more time. Instead, we chose to be grateful for the opportunity to go out flipping together. We chose gratitude over regret, and it lead to a jackpot. It almost always leads to some kind of jackpot.
An Ode to Waffles
Never have I been more satisfied with a meal and more completed by a snack than you, waffles. Never have I witnessed something as beautiful as your dips and valleys, formed by the Oyster gods, still receptive enough to welcome pure maple syrup into your folds. You are for the summer and the winter, for early morning hikes and midnight snacks. You are an ice cream sandwich and a breakfast staple. The warmth you bring fills my belly and my spirit. We become one in the fluff of your immaculate glaze.
10 seconds
I was on a run today with 3 teammates. During the run we had to stop at a few traffic lights. We also took a couple breaks to stretch out some tight hips, shins, and backs. As we were passing by a nearby park, we decided to turn left onto the quieter, more scenic road instead of heading towards the busy room that always has traffic.
Theres a hill immediately after turning left. We ran up the hill and stopped at the top to stretch out again. This time, instead of staying in one spot and stretching, we stretched as we walked. We started running when we hit the stop sign. 10 seconds later, we heard the crash coming from behind us.
We turned around to see that a massive tree had fallen across the street, landing right where we had stopped. Relief mixed with worry as we wondered if anybody got hit. We ran back to check and, luckily, nobody had been walking, driving, or parked in the impact zone. The tree was in a fenced in yard and had broken the fence. The woman to whom the tree belonged came out and was thankful nobody got hurt (or worse). She said the tree was 85 years old and 19 feet in circumference.
If we had stopped and stretched for a little longer… If we had ran a little slower… If we had left the gym a little later…
The four of us ran home pretty shook. We looked up the whole way, making sure no other trees were close to falling. We were 10 seconds away from disaster. Wind, gravity, and old age were 10 seconds away from removing us from our bodies. 10 seconds.
I’ll be unpacking this experience a little more over the next few days and weeks. I believe this incident happened for a reason, that I was where I was for a purpose. What I know now is that “Hake Hey. Today is a Good Day to Die” certainly means a lot more to me now than it ever did before.