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When you realize that two of the children you love are finally the age where they’ll start enjoying some of your favorite books. There has to be a German word for it.

“Since large-scale human cooperation is based on myths , the way people cooperate can be altered by changing the myths—by telling different stories.” 

Yuval Noah Harari  

Who knew a fountain pen could be so sensitive ?  (Unfortunately it has a pretentious and awful name that I will not be shouting from the rooftops, but I’ll whisper it to you: Executive Vibe.)

Feeling a nip in the air. Thank you wonderful Otto hats. A warm head is a warm body. (The button is my addition.) 

Lately I’ve been drawing with colored pencils— but not really, because I do it on a tablet with procreate. The color selection is way better and I always have them with me. 

But alas yesterday my dog Monkey chewed up the pricey digital pencil. 

This strange ambiguous fall I’ve been starting every day with a swim. It is a little pool, only four feet deep and this being New York City it’s on a rooftop. I’m the only one at that early hour. I like to swim about a foot below and look up at the shimmering surface. I swim a few breast strokes, feel the concrete otherside side turn and push off again. It’s heated so a little steam rises. This morning I was playing with the sound of bubbles. The big ones and how they sound different to the little ones when they pop. I like the sense of being immersed in liquid and less weighty yet firmly contained in definite concrete shape.

What is metaphor but a piece of fact, like a small suitcase, designed to transport an idea?

I am often struck by my mind’s ability to hold pictures. As I read I can feel my brain locking shut on the images. Movie titles that make a picture in my head are easier to recall than the others. Our current president has a gift for this. He told us the hacking of our election just might have been done by a four hundred pound person sitting on a bed . That picture and the very specificity of it it make it stick in our minds more compellingly than a bunch of faceless Russian digital hackers. Score one for the bad guys.

As I  read Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari  I find I want to underline every word. It makes what I am engaged in, re-jiggering an old myth, seem so worth doing.

“Since large-scale human cooperation is based on myths , the way people cooperate can be altered by changing the myths—by telling different stories.”

You know you have tapped into a vein of truth when it  all feels so obvious!

Not normally prone to  OCD I have lately become a person who does everything in threes. It began with a desire to cut down on choice. Trader Joe’s is my supermarket of choice. I am energized by its lack of choice.

My Advise To You : When unsure of how many things to do, or to buy or whatever let fairy tales be your choice and pick three (unless seven, another mystical number, seems better).

I find it a remarkably practical and mind-freeing approach to navigating through life.