I’ve been looking forward to this issue of Ply magazine for a long time!

For the pictures, I guess. Not sure the content is going to teach me much… from one of the first articles, “Angora goats cannot be jacketed, so vegetable matter is a given.” Really? Meaning I’ve done the impossible for years by keeping jackets on my goats on a regular basis? Amazing! I honestly have no idea what she’s talking about.

Coming along. But not tonight. Underslept and overworked.

A double whammy is when one of my heroes interviews another; such as Malcolm Gladwell interviewing Oliver Burkeman. This is a lovely interview and unusual in the welcome respect that they don’t spend all that much time asking Burkeman questions that just cause him to repeat everything I’ve already read in the book. It goes more like a therapy session. We learn that Burkeman started getting obsessed with maximizing him productivity at a very precocious age; he faults his over-anxious, get-to-the-airport-14-hours-early father. But I was like that myself, and I think some of us are just hardwired as such. When Burkeman tries to turn the tables, and prods Gladwell to talk more about how he grew up in such an opposite environment, I’m as fascinated as he is. While Burkeman’s parents said, “Just do your best,” which sent him into a tailspin thinking that he couldn’t slack off for a moment or it wasn’t his “best”… Gladwell’s easy-going parents said, “You’re bored? Good! It’s good to just drift along once and a while…” and Gladwell grew up embracing the easy-going life. But he keeps dodging the question of how he’s become so successful without that drive towards productivity – why isn’t he working at a surf shop in Bali? I’d love to know.

Large chunk of the relevant transcript follows, emphasis added by me; in these spots I particularly wonder if these people are genetically related to Xopher:

Oliver: What would be the motivation to have written all the books that you’ve written and to have created all the other content—podcasts, audiobooks, everything else—what would be the motivation to have got on to that escalator in the first place if you were just completely relaxed about your relationship to the world? 

Malcolm: I may have inherited it from my parents. I don’t think of either of my parents as being future oriented. They were people we never discussed tomorrow. We only ever discussed today. And I never think about tomorrow. Really. Not much. My most powerful memories of my parents—my father is no longer with us; my mother is very much—are of them being in the moment. 

My father would only ever talk about what he was doing, and he would almost never talk about what he intended to do. And my mother was always celebrating the thing that was happening. She’d make a fresh scone, and eat it, and then she would say something to the effect of: “At this very moment, eating this particular scone, I am insanely happy.” 

…

I’m not thinking about tomorrow. 

It’s slow going, but it’s so pretty to look at every time I pass by.

Even if it’s not supporting anyone in Kenya.

I had the idea yesterday that I should take any money I made from yarn & mohair consignment and give it to Give Directly. This will inspire me to be productive during craft time and make it all feel less pointless. But Tytania, you say, why not just give Give Directly twenty bucks a month and be done with it? It’s like walk-a-thons: why we don’t all just donate to the March of Dimes rather than making kids walk around 20 blocks for it? Because we need not just to be purposeful, to fill our moments with the illusion of purpose; because it’s a horrible, horrible thing looking into the void of meaninglessness!

So on that note, hey! Buy my yarn!

I’m sorry, the title is a deep cut Bowie lyric I get in my head whenever I think of “carpet.”

Anyway, new living room carpet! Before, followed by after:

OK, barely any difference; except the smell – and new carpet smell is NOT as nice as new car smell. But the true difference comes from having emptied the living room of everything; and only putting things back piece by piece after deliberation. If it doesn’t spark joy, it is probably going to find a new home.

Provider Bush Bean SKU: 2210-A Backordered – ships by 03/23/2022 Size 1 OZ

Napoli F1 Carrot SKU: 2322-A Size 250 SEEDS

Negovia F1 Carrot SKU: 2324-A Backordered – ships by 03/23/2022 Size 250 SEEDS

Sandy Lettuce SKU: 2540-A Size 1/32 OZ

Outredgeous Lettuce SKU: 2592-A Size 1/32 OZ

Cider Jack F1 Pumpkin SKU: 2826-A Size 10 SEEDS

Green Machine F1 Summer Squash SKU: 2890-A Size 10 SEEDS

Orangeti F1 Winter Squash SKU: 2944-A Size 10 SEEDS

Table Sugar F1 Acorn Squash SKU: 2922-A Size 10 SEEDS

Valentine F1 Tomato SKU: 2993-A Size 10 SEEDS

The annual February ritual.

The “Shelves of Shame” exhibit at the New England Maple Museum, Pittsford, VT (VT251 rides again).

Today a great thing that happened; someone said, in front of the whole team, “Chris, I can always count on you to make me laugh, even when I’m having a really shitty day.”

I like when I’m encouraged to believe I contribute more to my workplace than just mad java chops*.

*I don’t actually have mad java chops.