Tommy George's Email Experiment - Episode 05: The one where we skipped a week.
Helloooooo, friend! I hope you're doing great this weekend!
FIRST, I want to say a huge thanks for the replies to the last email. And for the other compliments and nice things you said in other places, and IRL. It's always great to hear nice things. =)
Dad stuff 👶🏽
So, we made it through the first couple weeks of daycare, and our first run in with diaper rash. Ugh! Poor thing. Also TMI, so sorry! Haha!
Here's a musical bonus, that's totally parenting-related: The music video for MxPx's "Let's Ride" gets me.
MxPx has a huge part of my musical heart. I've listened to them since the '90s. For context, I was about 15 years old in 1998/1999, playing their songs on guitar in our basement. I remember playing a lot of Third Day, Radio Head, and Foo Fighters, too. Not to mention the absolute smash hits of my own I was writing and rocking out to! 😬
I think "alternative music", and skate-punk, and "Christian alternative/rock" all hit their peaks during my musically-formative years.
When I first saw this video, it got me good. The lyrics are fine, but the video tells an amazing story. I grew up. My friends grew up. We were the kids rocking out at these shows, with this band. And we've grown. I still love this music, and here I am writing next to my little girl. It's amazing!
Speaking of kids -- and surveillance technology ;)
One of my favorite podcasts, Rework, recently put out an episode called "Are The Kids Alright?".
I recommend listening to this especially if you don't have kids. I've been involved in student ministry for a long time. I think about teenager+parent relationships, and their culture, and things that impact them on a pretty regular basis.
As the adults in their lives, we have a responsibility to think through the long term effects of these things for them. And showing them how to have healthy relationships. Do you know the level of surveillance your kids/teens/nieces/nephews/mentees are subject to on a daily basis?
This episode interviews many people, and covers a lot of related subjects, but had one huge take away for me, having seen teenagers use location tracking with/for each other, and having seen Gen Z be subject to some of this software in schools...
In the best case scenarios we sometimes use "location tracking" software to keep up with people we love. And therefore possibly send the message that "I love you, this is okay". And then this quote from the episode:
Oh, well this is normal. My mom did this with me and tracking someone because you care about them is okay, so I put this on my boyfriend’s phone or my girlfriend’s phone, because I care about them and I want to know where they are. So you can start to see how the, the lines start to get a little blurred between safety and something that maybe a little more unhealthy.
And another person summarizing:
These technologies and these techniques, regardless of how they’re packaged or how they’re advertised, they come down to spying. They come down to secretly spying on the people you love and that’s not love, that’s control.
🤯 Oof.
It's not all bad... we just need to really think about this stuff.
How's your January?
'Tis the season for feeling like a failure! Yay! 🤣
It's the 18th today, so that means the gyms are probably already starting to feel less crowded. Folks are likely already feeling bad about missing resolutions, or breaking their fasts.
I read something interesting on (a secret magic blog that shall remain nameless for now). The author talked about an interesting perspective on trying to get things done, and starting habits. You could call it "the impulse of will".
The author points out that once you start doing the task, you're usually in it for the long haul. You're not subject to needing a long-term, endurance session of sheer will-power to start/finish a given task. You just need enough to get over that initial hurdle. A spark. An impulse of will-power.
E.g., you aren’t exerting any will-power while you're sitting around procrastinating, and you aren't exerting any will-power while you're actually doing the task. The only time your "will" (or discipline) matters is in that brief moment when you decide to stop what you're doing and go mow the lawn.
Huh! I thought that was a really interesting perspective. I've thought about that quite a few times while trying to maintain my latest habit:
Wash the dishes every night.
For those of you that are already really good at that... I applaud you. Dishes are annoying. 🙄 😆
And now just a fun thing to look at...
"Danny MacAskill's Gymnasium" is the title of this video showing the aforementioned "trials cyclist" doing very cool things on his bike... in a gymnasium.
If you don't know what "trials" riding is -- watch that video!
Also, stay for the "bloopers" at the end!
'Til next week! 👋🏽
This week is pretty "light". But I've already got some cool things in store for next week's email, including (possibly) a slight change of format.
What do you think? Hit reply!