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Here are a couple of excerpts from a book I recently read, "The Conscience of a Conservative," by Barry Goldwater:

 

The framers of the Constitution had learned the lesson. They were not only students of history, but victims of it: they knew from vivid, personal experience that freedom depends on effective restraints against the accumulation of power in a single authority. And that is what the Constitution is: a system of restraints against the natural tendency of government to expand in the direction of absolutism.

Have you no sense of social obligation? the Liberals ask. Have you no concern for people who are out of work? for sick people who lack medical care? for children in overcrowded schools? Are you unmoved by the problems of the aged and disabled? Are you against human welfare?

The answer to all of these questions is, of course, no. But a simple "no" is not enough. I feel certain that Conservatism is through unless Conservatives can demonstrate and communicate the difference between being concerned with these problems and believing that the federal government is the proper agent for their solution.

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Here are a few excerpts from a book I recently read, "Assume Nothing: A Story of Intimate Violence," by Tanya Selvaratnam.

A friend told me about her experience dating a future senator and presidential candidate while they were in college. When he had broken up with her, he had said, “You’re not first lady material.” For men with political ambitions, the way their partner looks impacts their prospects. In my situation, Eric’s controlling of my appearance was a thread in a larger web of manipulation.

Recommended Reads, 40th in a Quarterly Series

 

Stuff I'd recommend from the past three months:

Take It Back (Abdullah).  A gripping crime novel from start to finish.

Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (Meacham).  What a juxtaposition to read about this utterly decent man during the last days of the Trump presidency.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (Wilkerson).  An amazing exploration of how deeply embedded racial prejudices are baked into our society.

This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are (Warnick).  Fun, insightful, and nicely researched account of how to connect with the new community you are moving to.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (Caro).  The almost month-long commitment I made to get through this tome was so worth it.

The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work (Nixon).  I'm biased because I adore Natalie, but even so her book has been incredible work book club fodder.

 

Serendipity in the City

 

For the past year and change, it's been all Zoom meetings, all the time.  And there is something seemingly efficient about being able to patch in with people from around the world all from the comfort of your desk.  Even when I meet with someone who is a few blocks away, my schedule is so cramped that it's not hard for me to breathe a sigh of relief that I have avoided the aggregate 10 to 12 minutes of leaving my office, taking the elevator down, walking down the street, signing in, and heading up to my meeting location, and then reversing course back to my desk.

 

Looking at Life Through a Different Lens

As a left-brained person, I appreciate the need to work the right side of my brain.  Alas, I can never seem to summon the time and space for truly creative pursuits.  My blog is a form of creation but largely clinical and analytical.  When I play Scrabble or Sudoku online, it's a leisure pursuit but feels more like a workout for my head than an outlet for my creative side.  And exercise connects me to my body but is literally a form of physical maintenance.  

It's a question I ask my co-workers and colleagues all the time: what do you do for fun that is totally frivolous?  And I get a wide range of answers: reality TV, crochet, aromatherapy, guitar.  And I revel in these responses, and what they tell me about the other person.  But then I think in horror: what would my answer be?

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Here are a couple of excerpts from a book I recently read, "The City: A Global History," by Joel Kotkin.

Three critical factors have determined the overall health of cities—the sacredness of place, the ability to provide security and project power, and last, the animating role of commerce. Where these factors are present, urban culture flourishes. When these elements weaken, cities dissipate and eventually recede out of history.



Cities can thrive only by occupying a sacred place that both orders and inspires the complex natures of gathered masses of people. For five thousand years or more, the human attachment to cities has served as the primary forum for political and material progress. It is in the city, this ancient confluence of the sacred, safe, and busy, where humanity’s future will be shaped for centuries to come.

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Here's an excerpt from a book I recently read, "The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results," by Bob Knight.

Negative thinking—realizing that an average game from your team and average preparation from you isn’t likely to beat an average game by the very good team you’re about to play—can give you by far your best chance to win that game.

Positive thinking that amounts to sheer hope isn't going to do it.  There is the cliche "Hope springs eternal," but not within me.  My feeling is that today, way too often, hope has replaced sweat.  To win that game, you'd better make sure that your team, and you, are doing some sweating.

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Here is an excerpt from a book I recently read, "The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success," by Megan McArdle.

We tend to assume that failure happens because someone, somewhere, did something wrong. In fact, often failure is the result of doing something very right: trying something that you've never done before, maybe something that no one's ever done before...The metaphor for our age is the disappearance of high monkey bars from playgrounds around the country. We have made it impossible for children to fall very far – and in so doing, we have robbed them of the joys of climbing high.

Getting Around on My Own Two Wheels

A year ago when the pandemic hit, we pivoted Asher to a daycare a few miles away from us, which I got him to via subway.  When the month flipped into April, I decided not to renew my subway pass, and instead drove Asher to daycare with my bike in the back, so I could bike home and then return by bike in the afternoon.  

I still haven't bought a monthly pass.  Rather, since then, I've ridden that bike 2,209 miles, which is precisely 2,209 more miles than I'd ridden it in the past several years combined (although I'd ridden exercise bikes at the Y and rented bikes when on vacation during that time).  That mileage figure may seem impressive, but consider that it's my primary mode of commuting to work now, and for a while was regularly in my morning exercise routine, and you can see how it's easy to rack up the miles over time.  

Who knew everything would last this long, that biking would prove to be useful for so many types of trips, and that I would enjoy it so much?  It may still be awhile before it's worth it for me to get a subway pass again.  But I suspect that even when I do, I'll be using that bike more than zero times a year.  

Pranks for the Memories

 

 

In honor of April Fool's, I want to share about a memorable prank my high school friends and I once pulled off.  It involved...ha ha, just kidding, me and my guys are taking this story to our graves; we have respectable lives that don't need to be sullied by our youthful indiscretions.  (Don't worry: no one was hurt or mistreated.)  What about you: any memorable pranks that you would actually be willing to share?