If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Many heated political and philosophical debates, often overheard amongst the noise, music and smoke of the local pub or coffee shop have at their core an unnamed or unrecognized root conflict between the ideals of “individualism” and “collectivism.”

Simply put, should man pursue his self-interests or those of the community?  Liberals tend to assume that “enlightened” individuals find no difference between the two.  Many would argue that it is in your best interest to pursue goals of a wider community.

Conservatives and libertarians tend to fall more on the side of pursuing individual ambition with the idea being that should everyone in society pursue their own self-interest it will magically combine to produce a collective harmony…a rising tide of wealth spring forth.

In, “The Irony of American History” Reinhold Niebuhr explores this question in some depth noting the tension and angst of attempting the dangerous, but delightful work of being an individual in a community.   He says,

The concept of “the value and dignity of the individual” of which our modern culture has made so much is finally meaningful only in a religious dimension.  It is constantly threatened by the same culture which wants to guarantee it.  It is threatened whenever it is assumed that individual desires, hopes and ideals can be fitted with frictionless harmony into the collective purposes of man.  The individual is not discrete.  He cannot find his fulfillment outside of the community; but he also cannot find fulfillment completely within society.  In so far as he finds fulfillment within society he must abate his individual ambitions.  He must “die to self” if he would truly live. In so far as he finds fulfillment beyond every historic community he lives his life in painful tension with even the best community, sometimes achieving standards of conduct with a resolute, “we must obey God rather than man.”  Sometimes he is involved vicariously in the guilt of the community he would fain live a life of innocency.  He will possibly man a bombing plane and suffer the conscience pricks of the damned that the community might survive.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Wondering what you should serve to guests this summer when you’re sitting on the patio discussing the latest episode of Mad Men?  Try Kalimotxo, a popular drink from Spain made with equal parts cheap red wine and coke served in a highball (bar-speak for large glass) with lots of ice.

I was introduced to this drink last week by my next door neighbor who spent a summer in Spain and assured me that despite the odd sounding pairing I would thoroughly enjoy it…game, set, match Thomas the neighbor.

Popularity: 2% [?]

“I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus forged their own golden or silver fetters.” – Henry David Thoreau

A few years ago Timothy Ferriss wrote a silly-sounding book called “The 4-Hour Workweek“ that was dismissed by many as some sort of Gen-Y gimmick.  Most boomers sneered from behind their Wall Street Journals at this naive young Princeton grad who they saw as encouraging the very sort of fairyland, entitlement behavior they believed to be so rampant among 20-somethings joining the workforce.  They didn’t read the book.

But other people, including yours truly, did and were challenged by the well-crafted manifesto Ferriss had laid out which took direct aim at the conventional work/life progression.

The essence of book revolves around questioning why we do what we do when it comes to our work/life mix or timeline, a.k.a. work for 40+ years then retire.  Ferriss explains the source of many ideas for the book came about after being asked to speak, alongside other millionaire entrepreneurs and CEO’s, to students at Princeton University about his business adventures.  He explains his dilemma,

“Over the ensuing days, however, I realized that everyone seemed to be discussing how to build large and successful companies, sell out, and live the good life.  Fair enough.  The questions no one really seemed to be asking or answering was, Why do it all in the first place?  What is the pot of gold that justifies spending the best years of your life hoping for happiness in the last?

The lectures I ultimately developed, titled “Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit,” (Tim had started a sports supplement company) began with a simple premise: Test the most basic assumptions of the work-life equation.

• How do your decisions change if retirement isn’t an option?
• What if you could use a mini-retirement to sample your deferred-life plan reward before working 40 years for it?
• Is it really necessary to work like a slave to live like a millionaire?” (pg. 8,9)

The Sabbatical Year

“For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused.  Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave.  Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.” – Exodus 23:10-11, NIV

According to Jewish tradition the Shmita, or Sabbatical year, “is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel.”  Why would God mandate this year of rest for the Israelites?   From our perspective it seems so wasteful, inefficient, even…lazy.  Was the Creator trying to send a subtle message to the created?

College and twenty-something pastor Aaron Stern wrote the following concerning this phenomena,

Rhythms in life are so important.  In the first chapter of the first book of the Bible God establishes rhythm.  He creates and works for six days and on the seventh he rests.  The amazing thing is that God didn’t have to rest…he can’t tire.  So He his communicating something much bigger than a six day work week.  He is setting a pattern we are to mimic. Leviticus 25 highlights the seventh year as a year for fields to rest and rejuvenate.  God is saying that rhythm and rest provided the needed time to produce again.

Few people follow this mandate today, but might it be a worthwhile exercise to ask why?  What would our lives look like if we decided to follow the Shmita, taking one year off every seven?

New York-based designer Stefan Sagmeister decided to do just that and the results have been quite surprising.  In the following TED talk he shows how his life has been molded by incorporating a sabbatical year every seven.  Watch and comment – is this feasible?  Why or why not?

(h/t Aaron Stern for the TED talk and his general awesomeness)

Popularity: 2% [?]

Seldom does one man produce so many memorable one-liners as G.K. Chesterton – here are a few of my favorites:

A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.

All architecture is great architecture after sunset; perhaps architecture is really a nocturnal art, like the art of fireworks.

A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over… is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen.

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the paradigm he used when making the decision to leave a stable, successful career to launch a start-up company:

Being an avid reader, a similar framework that I have begun to use when deciding whether to go here or there and do this or that is whether or not it has the potential to make a good story.

All else being equal, a man sitting at home watching three hours of television does not make a good story. Unless, of course, his television magically transforms into a portal into the past where he travels back in time…I digress.

Yet, something as simple as a man taking his family out for a random drive around an unknown part of town has the potential for a great story. Who will they meet on this journey? What new places will they come across? The greater the unknown the more possibility.

Ben Casnocha calls this exposing oneself to bulk, positive randomness.

Popularity: 2% [?]

As I’m reading my second Boyd biography, “The Mind or War: John Boyd and American Security” by Grant T. Hammond (my first was this),  I’m trying to absorb more of the things that made him an innovator and a leader.  It’s obvious that he was incredibly intelligent, motivated and creative, but there seemed to be an underlying outlook on life and his career that carried him through the times when things got rough, but one that also put him at odds with the status quo.

This section of the book singles out a large portion of his unique perspective on life, one that made him quite a controversial figure in the halls of the Pentagon:

Along the way, he set out to implement his personal credo — philosophic and strategic — in everything he did, every job he held, and every decision he could influence.  Simply stated, it was more important to do what was right than to be promoted…On active duty, Boyd delighted in finding the very best officers the Air Force had (Air Force Academy graduates, promoted below the zone two or three times and thus several years ahead of their contemporaries) and challenging them.  They were the epitome of company men, team players who wouldn’t rock the boat and who wanted desperately to become Chief of Staff of the Air Force.

One such example was Jim Burton, then a lieutenant colonel recommended to Boyd by a colleague because he was bright…Burton would go on to occupy a critical post in Test and Evaluation and to blow the whistle on rigged tests in the Army’s procurement of the new Bradley Fighting Vehicle.  He recalls the Boyd “To Be or To Do” speech as follows:

“Jim, you are at a point in your life where you have to make a choice about what kind of person you are going to be.  There are two career paths in front of you, and you have to choose which path you will follow.  One path leads to promotions, titles, and positions of distinction.  To achieve success down that path, you have to conduct yourself a certain way.  You must go along with the system and show that you are a better team player than your competitors.  The other path leads to doing things that are truly significant for the Air Force, but the rewards will quite often be a kick in the stomach because you may have to cross swords with the party line on occasion.  You can’t go down both paths, you have to choose.  So, do you want to be a man of distinction or do you want to do things that really influence the shape of the Air Force?  To be or to do, that is the question.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

A great observation on humanity and food at The Mission & Vision blog,

“The shortcut to humanizing any person—renowned or unknown—is to eat a meal together. You realize we’re all dependant on God to provide food for our sustenance, and the barriers of formality begin to crumble when you take turns in the buffet line, reach for a chocolate chip cookie, or wipe your face with a napkin.” – Pastor Jamie Munson, Mars Hill Church

Popularity: 2% [?]

“I would rather be ashes than dust!  I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.  I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.  The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.  I shall use my time.”

- Jack London

Popularity: 2% [?]

Margaret Feinberg posted the following on Tuesday and, though I read “The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer several years ago, this quote made me want to go through it again.  As Feinberg pointed out, Tozer wrote this over 30 years ago.  Stunning how true it rings today.

Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.
If we would find God amid all the religious externals, we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity.

–A.W. Tozer (The Pursuit of God, p. 17-18)

Popularity: 2% [?]

I realized today as I went through some of my past posts that my blog has gotten a bit too serious for my liking…and I imagine some of yours. Philosophical, economic and political debates are great, but if they aren’t peppered with some lighthearted fun they can make the heart hard. Even Tolkien and Lewis had a pint and cigar in hand as they approached the meaning of life.

While I enjoy sharing the things I’m thinking about, I don’t always get a chance to share more simple things, like what I like and dislike, the music I find myself coming back to again and again, cool art, great food and wine and the random products, trinkets, and designs that catch my eye and make me smile.

So, let’s put on hold the thoughts concerning AfPak strategy, peak oil, the philosophy of government and other black holes of thought and I’ll share with you the things I’ve been liking lately AND maybe even convince you that, yes, I do have a life.

Cooking through Ad Hoc at Home

Marelize bought me this cookbook for Christmas and I’ve been cooking up a storm ever since. While I don’t have much previous experience, Thomas Keller, decorated American chef and restaurateur, has laid out his cookbook in such a way that a novice can put together some surprisingly tasty home cooked dishes.

I made it a goal for 2010 to cook 10 dinners for the family.  It’s only February and I’ve already knocked out 5:

-Marinated Skirt Steak

-Pan Roasted Chicken with Sweet Sausage and Peppers

-Catalan Beef Stew

-Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

-Blowtorch Prime Rib*** yes, I bought a real blowtorch to do this one

AND I had to try one of the desserts as well, so…

-Banana Bread Pudding

Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Canceling Headphones

Before purchasing these with some gift cards and birthday money I shook my head at the price and figured there was no way it could be worth it…I was wrong. In the words of Ferris Buller, these headphones are “…so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”

2006 Chateau Pesquie Cotes du Ventoux Terrasses

Chateau Pesquie is a family estate located in the Southern Rhone Valley. I came across one of their delicious wines, the Cotes du Ventoux Terrasses, at my local Tacoma Boys and have become quite smitten with it.

This wine is a $13 bottle of wine drinks much more like a $30-$50 bottle. A dark purple wine with a jammy fruit nose. It tastes like a nice mix of dark fruits with some spices and a little bit of earthiness that makes it much more complex and interesting than 99% of wines in its price range.

The gentleman at Tacoma Boys who recommended this wine to me said I should buy a case. Of course I displayed my saavy consumerist skills by making some subtle comment about how I’d have to check it out for myself before buying an entire case….well, I’m writing this wishing I had listened to that vino sage.

So, there you have it, a few things that I’ve been liking lately. I hope you found this post fun and interesting. Let me know what you think. A refreshing change of pace OR an annoying distraction?

Popularity: 2% [?]