The “Regrets of the Dying” have quite a bit of overlap. Let us learn from them now, early, in this lovely piece by Bronnie Ware:
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
I wish I didn’t work so hard.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.
The hardest thing about reading these is not comprehending them — they’re common, to the point of platitude. However, it’s keeping them in mind such that they guide your life and your decisions that is the true challenge.
My wife, Mykala. She packed some AMAZING food for the trip, and we’ve been eating that for most of our meals, making this adventure just as affordable as it is fun.
Top Thill Dragster at Cedar Point. Imagine going from 0-120 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds, then immediately climbing to the top of a 42 story tower.
I rode the West River Parkway up from the St. Paul Lifetime via Ford Parkway and WOW what a path! Darn thing is practically level for a few miles and smoother than an ice rink that’s just been Zambonied. More grip than ice, though.
If you’re looking for a nice easy bike ride in Minneapolis, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better path than the West River Parkway. However, it isn’t all… flat. North of Franklin, it drops off toward the river in about the most giant hill you can find. So, there’s that.
Every one of those worlds is lovely and instructive. But,
so far as we know, every one of them: desolate and barren.
Out there, there are no better places—so far, at least.
One of Sagan’s best is The Pale Blue Dot. I wish they showed that to everybody in school.
Someday, it is my dream to live on a sunny hilltop where I can see the stars at night. I think I’ll feel content. Right now, I can’t see the stars at night, but I still feel content. I guess it’s not about where you are, but who is there with you.
The Atlantic has a nice article titled The Great Stock Myth, which explains the consequences of the (likely) crappy stock market returns over the next 10 years. When the effects of these poor returns are compounded, the demands put on people to save money for retirement increase dramatically. Incidentally, there’s a nice fact about the Bush administration in here:
In the three years after the end of the tech boom,
federal tax revenues plummeted from 20 percent of GDP to
16 percent. Many people blame the Bush tax cuts for the
entire ensuing budget deficit, but in fact they accounted
for less than half of the lost revenue. Most of the
change from surplus to deficit came from other factors,
most prominently from what the Congressional Budget
Office calls “technical” and “economic” change: the
government simply collected less revenue during the bust
than analysts had anticipated. Wealthy people pay most of
the income taxes in America. And their taxable incomes
are extremely sensitive to the performance of the stock
market—not surprising, considering how many wealthy
people either work in finance, or receive compensation in
the form of stock options.
Presidental terms are short compared to economic cycles, and I think people fail to realize this when they attribute economic status exclusively to actions taken by a single administration. Certainly, changes to economic policy can have immediate and seismic effects… but I don’t think this happens as often as people imagine.
Who knows, though — I’m just a student in not-economics or politics.
Holy crap-a-moly, this song is intense. Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine. I think its from that popular movie series about werewolves or vampires or something… can’t say the pop-culture ties dilute its awesomeness.
This is musical-shiver level stuff.
This is the kind of music that, after you’ve run 20 miles and you’ve 6 more to go, searching for something, anything, to move your tired body forward, you turn on for the feel of pure epinephrine pumping out of the adrenal glands and hitting your lungs, muscles, eyes simultaneously.
The Giving Pledge, where billionaires pledge to give over half of their worth to charity. Warren Buffet, who is giving over 99% of his worth to charity:
I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves
the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal,
rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from
parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing
of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In
short, fate’s distribution of long straws is wildly
capricious.
