Before I had an outline and composition that worked for this book, I wrote a lot, but kept having to restart. I was spinning my wheels. Then I started working with a coach. She didn’t know anything about sustainability or stewardship, but she knew about writing. I could separate my two broad challenges—structure and content. By structure I mean the craft of writing, which included composition, time writing, focusing on[…] Keep reading →

The New York Times posted an article, How Exercise May Help Protect Against Severe Covid-19, by Gretchen Reynolds. I enjoy her pieces, partly because she wrote the story I learned about burpees from that prompted my sidcha. First I was going to comment only on my different way of looking at this characterization, “regular exercise—whether it’s going for a swim, walk, run or bike ride—can substantially lower our chances of[…] Keep reading →

I woke up, ate a light breakfast, oiled the chain, set the machine for intervals of just over 1/8th a marathon, and rowed. About three and a half hours later I finished my second rowing marathon. My results: I rowed my first rowing marathon two years ago. Someone pointed out my rest periods then of 2 minutes were too long (I forget the reason, something about the body switching modes).[…] Keep reading →

After writing a dozen or so blog posts starting from 2008, on January 23, 2011 I wrote a post, Why I avoid proprietary software. I hadn’t posted the day before, but the next day I wrote Crowding out beats letting go. And I kept posting without missing a day until today, ten years later. As my friend who set up my WordPress blog said, “If you miss one day you[…] Keep reading →

It occurred to me why I do so much calisthenics based on burpees, bodyweight exercises, and exercises that need nearly no equipment. It’s not to get in great shape. I’m not in great shape. I’m maybe average healthiness compared to all humans ever. I may be healthier than the average American, but Americans deviate from hundreds of thousands of years of ancestors that hunted and gathered food, not had doof[…] Keep reading →

The physical and mental experience Physically, I loved the experience of yesterday’s ride, grueling as I found it, because I wanted to give up so many times. I lifted weights two days before and did some Turkish Get-ups (an all-over lifting exercise that includes lunges) the day before, which resulted in being unable to get out of the bike’s lowest gear for many hills toward the end. I probably spent[…] Keep reading →

Joe DeSena founded the Spartan Race and hosts the Spartan Up podcast. For those who know about me and my burpees, cold showers, rowing a marathon, picking up garbage daily, and so on, you can imagine I love what he does. Joe has made it his mission to bring the emotional rewards of joy, service, happiness, resilience, grit, toughness, and all those things to the world by creating a culture[…] Keep reading →