#11 / Be An Echo
Hi everyone,
Yesterday we went on a walk through Rosehill Cemetery.
It was a warm, sunny day, with a nice cool breeze off the lake.
Everything was in bloom, including all the trees. We saw chestnut trees, walnut trees, gigantic maples, and whatever these trees are.
This is the tallest obelisk on the entire 350 acres of this cemetery, and once the tallest tombstone in the West—it's John Wentworth, a former mayor and Congressperson.
There was incredible diversity of marker styles (and last names). This one was Art Deco.
This person saw a lot. Born before the Great Chicago Fire and died after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
A little stone promenade leads out to the pond.
And the chapel is half underground.
There were snapping turtles in the pond.
A beautiful and simple design also affords a view to the water behind.
From the right spot you could see the skyline.
Definitely feels like you're still in the city, but it's so peaceful and charming.
Reading
Two Errors Our Minds Make When Trying to Grasp the Pandemic
This article is great because it describes tricky emotions and concepts in a really clear way, and because it describes things I've been doing for much longer than the last two months. The "two errors" are confusing disappointment with regret and confusing uncertainty with risk.
Uncertainty involves unknown possible outcomes and thus unknowable probabilities. Risk involves known possible outcomes and probabilities that we can estimate. Risk is not especially scary, because it can be managed—indeed, risk management is the core business of the insurance industry. Uncertainty, on the other hand, is scary, because it is not manageable: We can’t measure the likelihood and impacts of the unknowable.
25 Ways You're Borrowing Self From Others
I love this metaphor.
When people close to us are in distress, we lend our abilities, our calmness, and our confidence. And when we are anxious, we borrow them from others. This system of borrowing and lending can be very effective at stabilizing relationships. But the constant, automatic borrowing of self takes its toll.
Or if you are borrowing much more than the other person.
I think we lose self in relationships because our anxiety wants to fix our distress as quickly as possible. And it’s more efficient to borrow the thinking and abilities of others than to access your own.
Mood
His goal in life was to be an echo
The type of sound that floats around and then back down
Like a feather
But in the deep chrome canyons of the loudest Manhattans
No one could hear him
Or anything
https://open.spotify.com/track/0YRv8GX3ekiz2XkbnZTSrU?si=lc1YU7YMS4Skg-6-g5BuDg
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Thanks for reading. Please take care, and write back if you can!
Love,
Aaron