2.01 A new volume

I only planned to take a few weeks off when the baby was born, and it ended up being three months instead. But here we are again, so let’s start Volume 2 of An Eclectic Human!

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To get started, here are some interesting things I’ve been reading over the past few months. Some of these you may already have seen from the Twitter account and others are new.

“Be Kind”, by Aaron Bosworth, talks about why being smart and working hard should not come at the expense of kindness:

Being kind is fundamentally about taking responsibility for your impact on the people around you. It requires you be mindful of their feelings and considerate of the way your presence affects them.

“Default to Polite”, by Nick Disabato, who writes a great newsletter about running a design business:

I’ve never regretted being polite, but I’ve always regretted any lapses in judgment where I act impolitely. So I default to polite.

Here are a couple short poems about love, friendship, and being enough:

• “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

• “Choices” and four others by Nikki Giovanni

And finally, because I enjoy wordplay and the occasional terrible pun, here’s a huge collection of Tom Swifties that alternately elicit knee slaps, groans, and unimpressed golf claps. Some examples:

“We’re currently thinking about a figure somewhere between 7 and 9”, said Tom considerately.

“I refuse to obey that French ‘No Smoking’ sign”, fumed Tom defensively.

“I used to command a battalion of German ants”, said Tom exuberantly.

“Nay!” said Tom hoarsely.

Have a great week!

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As before, we’ll end each letter with a prompt. Write back whenever you have something to say, and I will often (with your permission) include your responses in the following week’s letter.

What’s something great you’ve read in the last few months (book, article, poem, monument inscription, bottled note, ancient scroll, cryptic treatise)?

—Steve