White Noise, Yutori, Creating Without Permission, and More

Friday, November 10, 2023

Nov 10, 2023

Happy Friday everyone!

Here are 10 things I found interesting from the last week or so.

White Noise

To start this week's newsletter, I'd first like to give a shout out to the White Noise exhibition presented by the Nguyen Art Foundation and curated by Van Do. It is one of the more unique art exhibitions I've experienced in Vietnam and is definitely worth checking out. It is open until January 2024! For more information, visit the website here.

Yutori

This week, I came across an interesting Japanese concept: yutori. Yutori means "living with spaciousness." American poet Naomi Shihab Nye shared a beautiful story on Krista Tippet's OnBeing podcast about teaching in Japan:

I just came back from Japan a month ago, and in every classroom, I would just write on the board, “You are living in a poem.” And then I would write other things just relating to whatever we were doing in that class. But I found the students very intrigued by discussing that. “What do you mean, we’re living in a poem?” Or, “When? All the time, or just when someone talks about poetry?” And I’d say, “No, when you think, when you’re in a very quiet place, when you’re remembering, when you’re savoring an image, when you’re allowing your mind calmly to leap from one thought to another, that’s a poem. That’s what a poem does.” And they liked that.
And a girl, in fact, wrote me a note in Yokohama on the day that I was leaving her school that has come to be the most significant note any student has written me in years. She said, “Well, here in Japan, we have a concept called ‘Yutori.’ And it is spaciousness. It’s a kind of living with spaciousness. For example, it’s leaving early enough to get somewhere so that you know you’re going to arrive early, so when you get there, you have time to look around." And then she gave all these different definitions of what Yutori was to her.
But one of them was — "and after you read a poem just knowing you can hold it, you can be in that space of the poem. And it can hold you in its space. And you don’t have to explain it. You don’t have to paraphrase it. You just hold it, and it allows you to see differently." And I just love that. I mean, I think that’s what I’ve been trying to say all these years.

To choose to live in spaciousness is to live in a beautiful choice.

The More, The More

Eric Jorgenson, author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and his recently released book, The Anthology of Balaji, shared some wisdom on Danny Miranda's podcast. He said,

"The more people you love, the more the world you understand."

Perhaps the more space you allow yourself and others to live in, the more of the world you understand too. The more you understand just how much and how often we really do need space.

Preaching versus Building

Speaking of Jorgenson’s new book, investor and entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan has a great quote I found just browsing the free PDF version online. He wrote:

“To influence the direction of tech, pick up a keyboard or put capital at risk. You can build something. Those who won’t build will just preach. That keyboard is increasingly available to billions of people around the world. They have no illusions about the relative utility of preaching versus building.”

Writing and Running

I've been trying to write and run more consistently these last few months. I notice so many similarities between the two — the highs, the lows, the joys, and the frustration. Thus, it's almost like writer Zack Progrob was reading my mind when he posted this week. He beautifully wrote:

This is one of the reasons I like writing and running is that things are clear in a way: you either got the words down or you didn't, you either got the miles in or you didn't, you either created space for yourself or you didn’t.

Creating Without Permission

Whether it's writing, photography, or any other creative pursuit, we often trick ourselves into thinking we need permission. So we wait for others to give it to us. Others don't wait like one of my new favorite Instagram pages I found this week featuring artist Max Kolo. What has he been doing that's interesting? He's been redesigning signs in New York City without anyone asking him to.

That's someone that's not preaching but building. That's someone living in spaciousness. That's someone making the stuff they want to make without asking for permission. That's someone that's pretty cool.

Practice Squad Players

Normally, practice squad players on NFL teams don't make it onto the field for game days. But Las Vegas Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce changed that in his first game. I love this. I hope more NFL teams and other professional sports teams provide this opportunity. Even if those players don't get to play between the lines, just being there, hearing the crowd, and watching the game you love at its highest level up close can have a huge impact on the success of the team overall.

Colorado Beats No.1 LSU

So, the Colorado Football hype train has slowed down. After starting the season 3-0, the Buffaloes are now 4-5. But, the University of Colorado Women's Basketball team upset #1 ranked LSU in the Buff's season opener (92-72). And then followed that up with a 97-38 victory over Le Moyne. Hot start for the Buffs again!

The Shakespeare of Our Time

It's only fitting to end this week's newsletter with a random toast from Pitbull that I heard a few days ago. I feel the exact same way as this guy calling Pitbull “The Shakespeare of our time” in the caption after he said:

“Life is not a waste of time and time is not a waste of life. So let’s stop wasting time, get wasted, and have the time of our lives.”

Enjoy the weekend and see you next Friday.

-Garrett

The Ca Phe Chronicle

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