My Morning Ritual
Before I do anything in the morning, I read in a book.
Before I grab my phone, before I go to the bathroom, before I brush my teeth, before I take out the dog, I read at least a page.
I don’t have any empirical evidence, but it makes me feel better when I start the day. It’s calming.
I don’t know what time it is when I wake up and start reading. Maybe the first few days this made me nervous and anxious that I could be very late, but I’m not longer nervous.
I have a “failsafe” alarm that goes off at 8:42am in case I’m running late. That usually doesn’t happen.
It’s not easy finding time to read -this helps.
The promise to myself is that I will read at least one page, but this typically snowballs into 5-10 pages each morning.
Te-Nehisi Coates on the Ezra Klein Podcast
I listened to an episode of the Ezra Klein show last night and Te-Nehisi Coates was the guest. I’m not very familiar with Coates. I learned a lot from this interview. After the podcast was over, I ordered three new books on Amazon: Between the world and me by Coates, The Great Gatsby, and Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945 by Tony Judt.
I learned about a piece Coates recently wrote about Obama. He had some really interesting things to say about Obama and it sounded like Te-Nehisi was very fair in his criticisms and praises of Obama. He looked at Barack from many viewpoints and judged him by his specific thoughts and ideas.
The entire interview was fascinating and thought provoking.
One of the most interesting things about the interview was When Te-Nehisi learned that his father was targeted by the FBI. I’ve always known that government organizations did things that were hush-hush, wink-wink borderline illegal. There are always rumors that the FBI had orders to assassinate world leaders. But this was a document showing proof that the FBI considered taking “action” against Te-Nehisi’s father – a person who is still alive today. A person who Te-Nehisi talked to on the phone after the interview was over.
More than anything, I would think the entire interview was very “honest”. It just had a sense of realness to it. Not all interviews do.
It was really interesting to hear Te-Nehisi’s ideas on life from an atheist perspective. I never heard anything before say that “to an atheist, life is precious. That’s all you got.” It made a lot of sense, I just never considered it.
Coates also had a really honest view of the world. “Sometimes, there isn’t a happy ending.”
He seems like someone who isn’t afraid to see things for how they are. Especially if that is scary. Especially if it’s unpopular.
I highly recommend listening to this podcast episode and I’m really excited to start reading Between the World and Me when it get it later this week.