Grab a cup — plenty of good reads this week ☕️
The Weekly Review: Vol VIII Issue 9
Hello readers of emails!
I hope, wherever you are, you are doing and feeling great. I myself am scheduled for my first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow, and I'm excited to see a slow return to pre-COVID life. It likely won't be exactly the same, but feeling a little more safe when talking with other people is something I look forward to.
This issue of the newsletter is simply a collection of good reads. I've come across a good number of articles lately and wanted to share. Enjoy!
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Items of note
Thanks to the Matter weekly email, I came across this post from David Perell. It's a long-ish piece, but it's a very interesting read. David, a self-labeled agnostic, makes a very strong case for how Christianity shaped both Western thinking in general and and modern views of human rights specifically.
Our mainstream notion of human rights is also a byproduct of Christianity. Human rights exist in their modern form because the Bible says that every person is made in the image of God—imago dei. In turn, each person is granted unalienable rights, and those rights can’t be taken away. But the contract breaks down if human beings aren’t special. If humans are in the same category of every other animal, there is no intellectual scaffolding to uphold either human rights or the legal equality of man.
He also simple makes a strong presentation of the basis of the Bible's message.
The atheist scholar Christopher Hitchens was once interviewed by a unitarian minister who called herself a “Liberal Christian.” Though she identifies as a Christian, she doesn’t believe Jesus died for her sins. Instead, she reads the scripture metaphorically. Hitchens, who was one of Christianity’s fiercest critics, responded by saying: “I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.”
In this time of extreme separation between liberal and conservative views, I find it fascinating that an agnostic would review history and share such a comprehensive article on the subject.
Related, Paul Kingsnorth was far from agnostic when he found himself pursued by Christ and changed forever.
It kept happening, for months. Christ to the left of me, Christ to the right. It was unnerving. I turned away again and again, but every time I looked back, he was still there. I began to feel I was being . . . hunted? I wanted it to stop; at least, I thought I did. I had no interest in Christianity. I was a witch! A Zen witch, in fact, which I thought sounded pretty damned edgy. But I knew who was after me, and I knew it wasn’t over.
This is also a great read from a well educated, thoughtful individual who was seeking all their life, only to find Christ is the answer to the void we all have. For it is not in getting that we find life, but in giving. Or giving up.
I grew up believing what all modern people are taught: that freedom meant lack of constraint. Orthodoxy taught me that this freedom was no freedom at all, but enslavement to the passions: a neat description of the first thirty years of my life. True freedom, it turns out, is to give up your will and follow God’s. To deny yourself. To let it come. I am terrible at this, but at least now I understand the path.
The recent events at Basecamp had quite an impact on my workdays the last couple of weeks. Largely because they were included in the community of companies on People-First Jobs. We at Wildbit had to decide how we would approach their changes.
Our CEO Natalie Nagele shared some thoughts on the situation. In short, she ignored the policy changes Basecamp made and focused on the failure of Jason Fried and DHH to provide leadership.
Navigating the politicizing of human rights and challenging the loud rhetoric with the equally loud voices inside our heads is uncharted waters for some of us. And it's hard, emotional work. Inclusivity and equity are critical pieces to changing the dialogue around business as we acknowledge that each organization is a collection of human experiences. This work isn't as easy as Twitter may make things seem.
But that doesn't mean you abdicate your job as a leader and take the easy road out.
Digital gardening for non-technical folks
Maggie Appleton is one of the people to make digital gardening more well known. In this post, she recognizes that the idea requires quite a high level of technical proficiency and that it would be great for more accessible tools to make this possible.
She covers some of options available today that can work for people who aren't comfortable with using Git or web development (also applicabe to those not interested in taking the time). She includes Obsidian in the list, and if you're willing to pay the monthly cost to use its Publish feature, it is a great option.
Her only complaint:
My only bugbear with Obsidian is that it's obsessively text-focused, and doesn't give you much space to play with images, visual styles, or layouts. Some people will consider this a feature, not a bug. 🙃 I personally find the format restrictive, but it's part of my much larger gripe with the note-taking space and its obsession with linear text.
Personally, I'll continue to use my PKM for my thoughts and my website & newsletter as the public place to share the ones I'm willing to make public.
Last one for this issue, but I loved this review. It's not of Obsidian, but the community around it. The Roamhacker Twitter account shares a thread (linking to Twitter threads is something I don't do often) of their findings after spending some time engaging with the community.
18/ In summary, life is not about technology, but about our relationships with others. People are the most important. If you are looking for a community that helps you learn, grow & wants to learn from you, treat you with dignity & respect, then the Obsidian community is for you
He also raises the point of the qualities of the founders of Obsidian, something I appreciate a lot.
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Quote of the week
Growing through the creature here I'm trying to see when it's unclear
Hidden in the space between Hero and the enemy
Early days and sleepless nights Death and resurrection, life
My body is a sacred note Sung between the flesh and hope
My dirt transformed within a breath Before I took a single step
I'm looking forward to the day When life can grow without decay
Humanity is not alone When Jesus Christ sits on the throne
These hidden mirrors expose the mess The selfish turns to selflessness
Haunted by a darker side Transcends to walking in the light
And slowly I'm recovering The beauty of discovery
– Half Alive, Creature
I listen to most of my music by albums. But when you do so, there's a lot of times where you don't get to the end of each album and you find yourself much less familiar with the later tracks. This was true for Half Alive's Now, Not Yet.
I can remember looking at their Wikipedia page as some of their lyrics made me wonder if this was a Christian band (not all worship music is overt). It wasn't clear what their beliefs were, but the outro portion of the album's last track seem pretty clear to me.
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Currently
Watching: the Formula 1 season with our son Jack. We've both jumped into following this sport with fervor. We look forward to seeing how each practice session goes on each Friday & Saturday of a race weekend. As an early teen, Jack is starting to like sleeping in, but he's up at 6 am to watch the qualifying session and each race.
Reading: I just finished off The Eye of the World and I think I'm committed to going through the entire Wheel of Time. It's probably been 10–20 years since I've read a lot of the middle of the series, but even going through the first book again, there were a lot of little details that caught my eye. It's epic fantasy at its best.
Drinking: Tarry from Revolver Coffee was extremely kind and sent me one of their Coffee Chronicles last month. It's a very cool idea: 24 bags of beans from various roasters in box, along with a pen, a journal for jotting down your thoughts of the brew, and a nice holder for both. Thanks, Tarry!
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Thanks for reading, friends. Until next time!