It’s the old “drunk on the horse” scenario once again. We humans can’t seem to stay in the middle of the road, no matter how hard we try. The fad of the moment takes over and people start going to extremes. The bandwagon starts filling up. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in the area of food. Because we’re so rich and so well-fed, indeed overly well-fed, we have the luxury of developing food fads. Believe me, people who are living on the verge of starvation don’t have any time for worrying about their cholesterol. They just need something to eat.
Power of Choice
Be Full of Desire but Easily Pleased–and Non-Judgmental
If you’ve taken my advice and subscribed to the “Happier” podcast with Gretchen Rubin and her sister Liz Craft, advice which I have given any number of times, then you have already heard this. But if you haven’t, or even if you have, then I’m passing some thoughts from this week’s episode along now with my own take added. (See note below on subscribing.)
Because, if you think about it, the description given in the title is the recipe for being a super-nice person who’s fun to have around. The point
A Blind Woman Sees Choice Clearly
It’s a little unfair to characterize Sheena Iyengar as a “blind woman”–she would never refer to herself in that way. Her blindness (caused by retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative eye disease) is a tiny part of who she is. I couldn’t resist the title for this post, though. She is indeed someone who thinks, writes—and sees—clearly.
Sheena’s mark was made by her famous “jam study,” which I mentioned in yesterday’s post and have probably noted before. The research project, which she conducted as part of her doctoral studies, aimed to figure out where the sweet spot of choice fell: at what point does “enough” become “too much”? The magic number turned out to be around seven. More than that and people started getting confused.
That First Step Down the Road of Choices
What did we do in the kitchen? The floor was the first step, locking us in to certain future choices.
This is not a home decorating blog. Having such a blog is like having a food/recipe blog, for which the hapless blogger has to come up with new projects all the time. Hey, once I’m done, especially on the decorating front, I’m done. And while I’m a fan of new recipes, I’ll let others do the day-to-day work of developing them.
Small Choices with Big Consequences
I wrote last weekend about my “small, cushy adventure” at the Bible Study Fellowship area-wide conference at the Denver Convention Center. A great time of learning and blessing, And my position of being a group leader has also been a source of those same things. How did this all come about? From two very small choices. First of all, I wanted to join a daytime Bible study that fit in with my son’s then-schedule of taking the light rail to the Auraria campus for his classes. I did some online searches and found that there was a location just three miles from home with times that made it very doable for me to give him a ride.
A Nifty–And Free–Tool
My first attempt to do a screenshot! It’s a bit blurry, but I think you get the picture. (In a manner of speaking.) This view is of the homepage of the website called “TomatoTimer.com,” which is an online timer that incorporates the principle of something called “the Pomodoro Technique.” Again, as with so many great ideas and websites, I have no idea how I got onto this. I have a vague memory of its being mentioned in a YouTube video. Anyway, there’s a whole cottage industry (books, an actual little tomato-shaped timer, etc.) around the very simple idea of working for 25 minutes, taking a 5-minute break, then working another 25 minutes, and so on.
Do You Believe in Truth . . . or Truisms?
You know the type of thing I’m talking about:
Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like dogs or children.
The wife is always the last to know.
The passive voice should not be used in effective writing.
A home-cooked meal is always better than one eaten in a restaurant.
You can always save money by doing it yourself.
If you could go back in time,
. . . what would you change?
Had an interesting conversation yesterday after the church service with a woman who was visiting from out of town. Isn’t it great when you meet someone for the first time and make a real connection? That’s what happened here.
True Desire Leads to Action
You know what got me started on this whole blogging thing? My son’s cancer experience. I knew there were lots of people who wanted to keep up with developments, and I found it very therapeutic to write it all down. So I went ahead and did it. This website had been up for months, but I hadn’t felt compelled to do much with it because I had no true focus, no true desire, just a vague idea that I needed to publicize my book. Suddenly, though, I had a real story to tell. Once I got started I realized how desirable it was to write these entries. And I kept going. To this very day.
Fear More, Worry Less
The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker, Dell Trade Paperback, 1999, also available in other formats. I’m not sure why I was reminded of this book and put it on hold at the library. I had read it before and remembered portions of it quite well, but it was well worth re-reading. De Becker runs a security firm, providing services and counseling to people who feel and/or indeed are under threat. He himself grew up in an extremely violent home, but instead of becoming violent himself he decided to help reduce violence by giving people the tools they need to protect themselves.