Morning Ritual — 4.1.22

And you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?
I’m still not sure.
We have a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice.
The good bookstore’s product is not, in fact, the book itself, but the browsing experience that a great collection of books creates — the thoughts, conversations, and discoveries that time spent browsing evokes.
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
We’re stressed out, isolated, and drinking way too much.
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up.
Just because it’s fast doesn’t mean it’s worth doing.
If you’re having trouble thinking of a simple prank today, just go with the classic: Fake your own death and move to New Zealand.
A new CDC survey found that 44.2% of high school students described “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” in the first six months of 2021, up from 26% in 2009 and 37% in 2019. Nine percent reported a suicide attempt in the CDC’s survey. And 55.1% responded that they suffered emotional abuse in their house during the preceding year.
If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.
I tell you: one must have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star.