Barry Lopez Reveals Cure for Loneliness and Life's Three Tenets
Barry Lopez on the cure for our existential loneliness and the 3 tenets of a full life https://t.co/xiziNeKuc5
All Things Are Interconnected, Muir Predicted Early Ecology
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." John Muir, born on this day in 1838, on the transcendent interconnectedness of nature (writing long before the notion of ecology...
Science and Poetry Unite to Harmonize Objective and Subjective Reality
We need science to help us meet reality on its own terms, and we need poetry to help us broaden and deepen the terms on which we meet ourselves and each other. At the crossing point of the two we...
Explore the Universe: Hubble’s Quest to Understand Our World
“We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of world it is.” The life and legacy of Edwin Hubble, illustrated: https://t.co/1n3nU4DkQc
Elizabeth Bishop Urges a Life‑changing Stretch of Solitude
Elizabeth Bishop on why everyone should experience at least one long period of solitude in life https://t.co/MINKH4UB03
Achebe: Art Serves as Active Citizenship
This is wonderful and surprising in the best ways: Chinua Achebe on art as a form of citizenship https://t.co/yUChiZq5uo
Authenticity Is the Toughest Battle in a Conformist World
"To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight." A classic: https://t.co/6ukylEt2ZV
Solitude Unchosen, Drawn by Our Inner Destiny Stone
"Solitude is not chosen, any more than destiny is chosen. Solitude comes to us if we have within us the magic stone that attracts destiny." A gem of a read: https://t.co/MWDfIb9fI7
Life’s Ultimate Truth: Stars, Seagulls, and Love
Of stars, seagulls, and love – Loren Eiseley (one of my all-time favorite writers) on the first and final truth of life https://t.co/K8YgF4Ttxe
Storytelling Gives Words to Understand and Redeem Ourselves
"One of the functions of art is to give people the words to know their own experience... Storytelling is a tool for knowing who we are and what we want." Ursula K. Le Guin on storytelling and the power of language...
Einstein's Secret: Combinatory Play Fuels Breakthrough Ideas
Einstein died on this day in 1955, having radicalized our basic intuitions about reality. In the final years of his life, he reflected on the secret to his ideation process and described it as "combinatory play": https://t.co/B4FiS5zHOX
Hemingway's Letter: Love Endures Beyond Death
"Very few people ever really are alive and those that are never die; no matter if they are gone. No one you love is ever dead." Hemingway's extraordinary letter to a couple who lost their son, crowned with his only overt...
Whitman's Leaves of Grass Guides Authentic Self‑Discovery
Walt Whitman's field guide to being yourself – the trial and triumph of "Leaves of Grass" https://t.co/onkPp36yE5 #longreads #traversal
Marilyn Monroe's Unpublished Poems Reveal Her Private Complexity
"Only parts of us will ever touch parts of others." Marilyn Monroe's unpublished poems – a glimpse of the complex private person behind the public persona https://t.co/25Zu28knpd
Márquez on Writing: Only Greatness Prevents Starvation
“If you’re going to be a writer you have to be one of the great ones… After all, there are better ways to starve to death.” Gabriel García Márquez, who returned his borrowed stardust 12 years ago today, on his improbable...
C.S. Lewis Reveals Our Deepest Existential Desire
The Thing Itself – C.S. Lewis on what we long for in our existential longing https://t.co/JjBeAFJJek
Orcas Reveal Love, Loss, and Consciousness Lessons
Orcas and the price of consciousness – lessons in love and loss from Earth's most successful and creative predator https://t.co/XAAZ3Fe3iK
Discipline Unlocks Creative Freedom: 10 Essential Writing Tips
“Turn up for work. Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom.” 10 tips on writing (which apply to most of life) from one of our civilization's greatest living writers https://t.co/3jrGv2wAs4
Gabriel García Márquez's 24 Books That Shaped His Vision
“Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.” Remembering Gabriel García Márquez, who left us 12 years ago today, with the formative reading list of 24 books that shaped...
Reviving Imagination: Reading in an Age of Distraction
Rehabilitating the active imagination – Samantha Harvey on how to be a reader in the age of fractured attention https://t.co/Vg5Dviv3rI
Warblers Inspire Scientist’s Meditative Wonder of Existence
The warblers and the wonder of being – a scientist's absolutely gorgeous meditation on contacting the miraculous https://t.co/vaf6g6v4Aj
Finding What to Want Is Life’s Greatest Challenge
The hardest thing in life isn't getting what you want but knowing what to want. Fantastic read on the challenge of it and the courage to change your mind: https://t.co/rS0x9ZvPSA
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Guide to Embracing Change
How to live fully – Ursula K. Le Guin's remedy for our resistance to change https://t.co/YSyGurmRde
Seeing Seeds as Time's Weapon Against War
"Can you plant a garden to stop a war? It depends how you think about time. It depends what you think a seed does, if it’s tossed into fertile soil." This is wonderful: https://t.co/skrIjmxpZh
Embrace Mistakes: Generative Errors Fuel Creative Growth
In praise of being wrong – fantastic read on the value of generative mistakes from one of my all-time favorite writers https://t.co/LULYWlJLjb
Mina Hubbard: Pioneering Explorer Mapping Labrador’s Untamed Frontier
“So wild and grand and mysterious,” Mina Hubbard, born on this day in 1870, wrote in her journal, looking out at Labrador from beneath her narrow-brimmed felt hat, feeling the weight of her belted revolver, hunting knife, and compass...
Questioning Knowledge: Trust, Test, and Self‑Verification
How do you know what you know, and how do you trust and test that you know it? Here is a fascinating thought experiment: https://t.co/XoevKbDR2Y
Steinbeck’s Daily Diary Disciplined His Pulitzer Masterpiece
"Just set one day’s work in front of the last day’s work. That’s the way it comes out. And that’s the only way it does." The Grapes of Wrath was published on this day in 1939, earning Steinbeck a Pulitzer and...
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Sparked Modern Environmental Movement
Remembering Rachel Carson, who returned her borrowed stardust on this day in 1964, with the story behind her epochal book "Silent Spring," which catalyzed the modern environmental movement https://t.co/DRwh8xuzi8
How We Release Consciousness Shapes Reality and Morality
"The choice we make of how we dispose our consciousness is the ultimate creative act: it renders the world what it is. It is, therefore, a moral act: it has consequences." Superb read: https://t.co/4ta2eRQ0ez
Sol LeWitt’s Timeless Advice Conquers Creative Self-Doubt
From artist Sol Lewitt, born on this day in 1965, possibly the best advice on overcoming self-doubt and creative block ever committed to words https://t.co/IYvg18E71J
Write Sincerely, and Others Will Listen, Carson Reminds
"If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in... you will interest other people." Rachel Carson died on this day in 1964, far too young, having sparked the modern environmental movement with her book Silent Spring....
De Beauvoir’s Wisdom: Aging Gracefully, Avoiding Life’s Parody
How to keep life from becoming a parody of itself – Simone de Beauvoir, who left us 40 years ago today, on the art of growing older: https://t.co/ntJfvdiFci
Hiccups' Evolutionary Roots Offer Heartbreak Recovery Tips
How to get over someone – help for heartbreak from the evolutionary history of hiccups https://t.co/ycs0nxIc74
Hitchens Reveals Animal Farm's Overlooked Animal Rights Message
Christopher Hitchens, who would have been 77 today, on animal rights and the lesser appreciated message of Orwell's "Animal Farm" https://t.co/5YuexWpV2r
Stop Waiting, Start Living: Henry James' Timeless Advice
How to stop waiting and start living – a jolt from Henry James, born on this day in 1843 https://t.co/TRt5UQ8Sqr
Cosmic Indifference: “Why Me?” Becomes “Why Not?”
“To the dumb question ‘Why me?’ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?” The irreplaceable Christopher Hitchens, who would have been 77 today, on mortality https://t.co/1G9kWe3XUm
Clarity and Pure Love Require Knowing Ourselves, Murdoch Says
How to see more clearly and love more purely – Iris Murdoch on the angst of not knowing ourselves and each other https://t.co/bZ71kyyvOl
Social Connections Shape Immune Health Under Stress
Stress and the social self – the fascinating science of how relationships affect our immune system https://t.co/WD4JqfGF3U
Flowers Reveal Life’s Meaning Across Dickinson, Pollan, Little Prince
The flower and the meaning of life: Emily Dickinson, Michael Pollan, and The Little Prince (which was published 83 springs ago this week) https://t.co/ByxFHpHxeD
Art Transcends Words, Expressing Our Unnameable Feelings
We need flowers for the same reason we need poems, or paintings, or songs—because what we can feel will always be vaster and more complex than what we can name, because words will always break under the weight of the...
Szymborska: Fear Essential for Meaningful Fairy Tales
The importance of being scared – Polish Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska on fairy tales and the necessity of fear https://t.co/N7BfWwL8Bt
Space Isolation Overcome: Lessons From Polar Pioneers
An astronaut's antidote to despair (with help from early polar explorers, the astronauts of the prior century) https://t.co/ag0U9xOxOx
Hope Inspires, Trust Delivers: Campo’s Key Distinction
How to make the impossible possible – Cristina Campo on the crucial difference between hope and trust https://t.co/rg0MiupH7N
Steinbeck Reveals Hope’s True Purpose Amid Consciousness
The tragic miracle of consciousness – John Steinbeck on the true meaning and purpose of hope https://t.co/80fH6KlRuD
Resilience, Burnout Relief, and the Cost of Being Used
At the link, the best of The Marginalian this week in a single place – how to be a tree: notes on the resilience of letting go; Brian Eno's remedy for burnout and despair; and a meditation on being used:...
Margaret Wise Brown’s Hidden Love Poems Reveal Tragic Romance
The eternal lyric of love and loss – "Goodnight Moon" author Margaret Wise Brown's little-known poems for the tragic love of her life https://t.co/B6K0qHlWMa
Beethoven's Ode to Joy: Triumph Over Trials
Trial, triumph, and the art of the possible – the remarkable story behind Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" https://t.co/lCVNYjulkw
Kafka’s Letter Reveals Truths for Narcissistic‑Parent Survivors
For everyone who has survived a narcissistic parent, Kafka's extraordinary letter to his father https://t.co/HGSTQMTo46
Aging as Creative Balance: Hold, Release, Thrive
The continuous creative act of holding on and letting go – 10 beautiful minds on the arts of growing older https://t.co/a7j0jwk1r8