Alex Krogh-Grabbe

Last night I resumed a practice that has gone dormant and forgotten for years of my life: reading for pleasure. It is such an amazing, mood-realigning activity. I get sucked in by the story, and resurface for air hours later, not knowing the time, mind abuzz with the peculiar characters and plot twists. I feel so much more complete when I read. Do you feel that way too?

The book to rekindle my passion is American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, the first item of a meticulously constructed reading list designed for my upcoming cross-country train trip. I may share that list with you at some point. In the meantime, what are you reading?

[In other news, David Byrne is not angry with you, nor are most people whom you encounter who are grumpy. They're just tired or stressed or distracted. They're actually really nice if you get them in the right context.]

This is the first installment in a series of posts about ideas I have. I would love to do them myself, and may, but you could take them and run with them as well. They will be ideas about all sorts of different things, mostly about how we can provide inexpensive health & happiness for the most people. Today there are three ideas.

• Last night I watched a documentary episode at the Amherst Cinema called Unnatural Causes: Place Matters, about the effects of our surroundings on our health. Specifically, the film addressed how poor neighborhoods create reinforcing conditions for bad health in their residents. It was fantastic, and just one part of a longer series. There are many awesome documentaries like this, on all sorts of topics. I would love to host regular screenings of films like these, either in my home or in a larger venue like a local cinema when they’re not showing their normal films. There are honestly enough good documentary films to show practically every night, because it’s fine to show films more than once. Screenings could be free, cheap, or donation-supported. Costs might include rent of the space, rights for the films, and any refreshments (I like the idea of water or tea as refreshments). I might try to start something like this in Boston. You should start something like this where you are!
• One of the best ways to solve community issues is to bring all the community stakeholders together to work through things. This is a method used for all sorts of problems, but I’m most familiar with it in comprehensive planning projects. One difficulty is that it’s hard bringing everyone together physically due to differences in schedules. Surely there are electronic tools available to mitigate this issue. I hope to learn more about what some of those tools are. It’s vital all stakeholders participate in solution-building for such initiatives to work. Another related thought I had during the film was to simply ask people a small number of questions in a survey, such as “What sucks in your community or workplace (or school)?” and “What used to suck, but is now better?” I believe asking people to list two or three issues for each of those questions can provide valuable insight into problems they’re facing, and you can’t fix problems if you aren’t aware of them. Also, including the second, more positive question helps get people thinking hopefully about the progress that’s possible on their community’s problems.
• It’s lots of fun having friends over for dinner and talking about interesting things. I think I would like to institute a regular practice of that once I have my own home, inviting over a different one or two people almost every night, and having interesting discussions over supper. Such practices would strengthen social bonds, stimulate thought, and be an excellent networking opportunity for those invited. One challenge to such persistent social interaction, though, is becoming exhausted by it. Perhaps we could resolve that by having a firm time limit after several hours, after which we would end the discussion and send everyone home to rest and have creative thoughts on their own. I’m interested to give this a try, and if you do something similar, I’m interested to hear how the logistics of it work in your case.

That’s it for today! These posts apparently will run longer than the average post. Hope you find them interesting enough that the length isn’t an issue.

When you pay attention to the news, a lot of it is really depressing. But there are a lot of hopeful stories as well, and I like to observe those days when I feel the day’s news is more good than bad. Those days make me happy. Today is one of those days. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approved the Cape Wind project, which is a major hurdle to its realization. Goldman Sachs continues to dig its hole deeper. Arizona’s awful new immigration law may be unconstitutional. Senate Democrats are forcing an all-night session on Wall Street reform, a publicity stunt designed to bring more attention to Republicans’ anti-populist stance on the issue. And there’s no major stories of bad news. Today is a good day.

One practice that unquestionably causes happiness is completing tasks that are hanging over your head. When I was at my last job, failing to do that was my biggest cause of anxiety. Leo Babauta has a post today on Zen Habits on the topic, where he advocates having a One Thing to-do list. Just having that one looming task to do forces you to do it first, instead of procrastinating with other less important items. In my training for PIRG, that exact advise was one of the biggest messages of their productivity workshop. Do the thing you’re most dreading first thing in the morning.

So today, my One Thing is calling Amtrak to figure out the cheapest way to get tickets for my cross-country trip. Then I can buy the tickets and not stress out anymore about the price going up. What’s your One Thing today?

I just got back from a fabulous weekend at the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA). One of the most memorable events for me was Julia Nickles’ discussion called “Calling All College Students“, the purpose of which was to connect with college-age festival-goers and find out some of the issues they face related to the festival. It was very successful for the limited audience available to it.

But it got me thinking. Why isn’t there information on the internet about which colleges have good contradance scenes? When I was applying to college, there really weren’t any resources for applicants interested in folkdance. I liked Bates because I saw that they had a contradance club, but that was about the extent of it. I think there should be more information available. So yesterday I decided to make a guide to contradancing at universities. I know a lot about young contradancers in the Northeast, but there are many areas of the country where there’s contradancing that I don’t have much knowledge of. So I’d like your help! If you know about the contradance scenes for college-age folks outside of the Northeast, I’d love to talk with you.

Some factors I’ll be thinking about:

• Whether a school has an active folkdance student organization.
• How long such an organization has been going on, and thus its likelihood of persisting.
• The approximate number of members of such an organization, total as well as percentage of student body.
• The proximity and frequency of off-campus contradances.
• The number of alumni active in the contradance scene.
• Faculty who help students find folk dancing.

For example, I know Oberlin, Swarthmore, Bates, Marlboro, Hampshire, and Brown all have good folkdance communities, but I’d like to quantify that, Nate Silver style. So let me know if you know things that I don’t! This will be a collaborative process.

(Scene: Harvard Square, in front of Au Bon Pain. A white-haired man playing hurdy-gurdy stands facing the street. Another man, younger but scruffier, is sitting with his back to the street ten feet further up the sidewalk, with a guitar plugged into amps and CDs on racks around him. The hurdy-gurdy man is playing vigorously, while the guitar player plays softly, with a distant expression on his face.)

Guitar player: Hey, spread the love a little!

Hurdy-gurdy man: (stops playing, perturbed) What?

Guitar player: You heard me! Let a guy play a little!

Hurdy-gurdy man: Look, we talked about this, and I told you that you could set up there. Doesn’t mean I have to stop playing for you!

Guitar player: (now on his feet, walking toward the other man aggressively, talking over him) I sit down in a place to play, people need to be able to hear me!

Hurdy-gurdy man: What, you own the sidewalk? Peter here owns the sidewalk!

Guitar player: I don’t–

Hurdy-gurdy man: Y’know what Peter means? It means “lion” in Russian. Are you a lion?

Guitar player: (returns to seat, still perturbed. Starts playing Katyusha, a Russian folk song.)

Hurdy-gurdy man: …It means “lion” in Russian. (recognizes tune and starts playing as well.)

(The two men are now both angrily playing the same song. It sounds quite nice.)

In brief: go read society, reimagined by Leo Babauta on mnmlist.com. It’s a great vision for how we might redesign our society to be more focused on people and community and less on money and consuming.

Everett Bogue has an article following up on Babauta’s post, which is great, but as usual for Bogue, it’s very long and self-congratulatory. I skimmed it. If this idea excites you too, you might read it.

There’s a lot that’s wrong with our current society, and it’s a worthwhile pursuit thinking about what sort of societal structure we would prefer. Go read them.

I woke up this morning to one of my hosts expressing anger that I have been eating their food. It’s really a matter of miscommunication, and I hope to resolve it soon. Then I checked my emails, and there was one from a friend on an emotional topic that required a thoughtful response. What these two events illustrated for me is that it’s really not fun waking up to emotional turbulence. Doesn’t take Socrates to tell you that, but it’s important to acknowledge obvious observations when they come your way, otherwise you might forget! And there’s little more embarrassing than overlooking something obvious.

But then, I embarked on the short walk to Tufts in the lovely weather. I ran into a friend, and ended up walking the rest of the way to campus with a friend of his, having a very nice conversation (she got into vet school on her first try! wow!) I sat down on the grass under a tree. I read and answered the emotional email. I talked with several friends about the turbulence of the morning. All very helpful.

Then I got up to go somewhere with less computer-screen glare, and noticed that the doors of the beautiful Goddard Chapel were wide open. I walked inside, and it was empty. The openable windows were also open. The cool breeze in such a totally serene place was absolutely perfect. I sat down inside on the red-carpeted steps to the second floor, and failed to connect to the wireless. I turned off my computer and went to the computer lab next door. But oh my goodness was the experience helpful for restoring my emotional even keel.

Things I have learned this morning:

• It sucks waking up to unpleasantness.
• Talking to friends about unpleasant feelings really helps a lot.
• Sitting quietly in serene places is one of the best ways to restore calm.

Related to that last revelation, there was a link on Lifehacker this morning pointing to 6 podcasts of hour-long meditation classes. I downloaded them, and look forward to listening. Hope they’re helpful for you too!

Some people are just lucky; they always get the big breaks, and they don’t have to work very hard for opportunities to just fall into their lap.

At least, that’s how it seems sometimes, especially when you’re feeling depressed and down on yourself. In reality, everyone who gets offered a cool job or a prestigious opportunity projects a certain persona which is attractive to the people providing those opportunities. This persona is of a productive and creative person who does amazing things, seemingly without effort. Sometimes that image is authentic, sometimes it’s partially fabricated, but either way, it’s largely about self-marketing, and it’s always a lot of effort.

There are several characteristics that lend to a more attractive persona:

1. A social presentation well-suited to connecting with people. Show an interest in the people you meet, and offer them occasional thoughts connected to their interests.
2. A compulsion to productivity. Your productivity could manifest in all sorts of way: writing profusely, organizing great events, becoming a great musician, or a great juggler. There are many kinds of productivity, but productivity itself is what you need.
3. A positive outlook. It’s okay to be cynical; that comes with any awareness of the world’s problems. But balance that cynicism with some optimism. It’ll make people like you a lot more.

It’s not easy. Changing your mental habits is just about the hardest thing there is. But you can do it. Act the way you want to feel. It works. And making yourself into a more successful person might be as simple as those three steps. Why not give it a try?

Wouldn’t it be great to have a place on the internet where there was an easy visualization of when Easter and Passover fell each year? Many people plan events for the springtime, and such conflicts are a always a concern. Well, now there is! You can find it here, or by clicking “Projects” from the menu at top. I’d love to hear what you think! And if you have friends responsible for organizing springtime events, send the link to them! Maybe it will be helpful.