I had seen a list of how to have a better life and one of the suggestions was to “stay away from toxic people”. I generally agree with this advice, but I think the term “toxic” has lost its punch. It seems like the modern interpretation is “stay away from people that give you negative feelings” and that can just be shortened to “just stay away from people”.

In the United States, it is tax day. I had a history teacher in high school who was very anti-government. He introduced me to the ideal of Ludwig Von Mises and to this day, I am a reformed Libertarian (I don’t trust healthcare to the free market). He encouraged us, when it was time, to make our checks to the IRS out to Internal Revenue Bureau. I think of this every tax day.

This was not the book for me. The thesis is we should be living more in harmony with the world around us than we are. Yes, I think everyone agrees with this, but ideals without resources quickly break down into inaction.

As I have gotten older and have understood the value of leadership, I have come to appreciate what that means in all facets of my life. I get paid at work to lead a group of people toward a common goal, but even in the individuals I lead, I see many qualities of leadership that they bring to their roles. Leadership is also a quality at home with your spouse, your kids, and even with your friends. Leadership isn’t about taking charge of people but striving to bring out the best in people.

Yesterday was the eclipse and it was lucky enough to be in the path of totality with clear skies. I blocked on my calendar the hour surrounding the moment of full eclipse. We used our special glasses to check up on the sun as it was slowly covered by the moon. As more and more of the sun was covered, it was quite interesting to see how the light changed around us. It wasn’t so much a dull light you would see with cloud cover, but more the diffusion we sometimes see with smoke from big fires out west.

I have come across many obstacles or events in life where things can feel dire. Maybe you have a relationship problem, a new job that isn’t what you thought, or an unexpected financial hit. It is always in these dark moments when I am accepting my new fate that I have to remind myself this is not a life sentence. What I mean by that is just because something is now this way does not mean it will always be this way. I am very optimistic in my life that I have the agency to change the world around me. You can’t change all of the world, but you can change many things and certainly how you respond to what you cannot change.

As a kid and specifically in high school, where it counted, I was a terrible reader. I avoided reading as much as possible. Needless to say, my grades were not great. There was one notable exception to this was reading books about the Manhattan Project. It was the greatest acceleration of science that happened in the first half of the twentieth century leading to the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project had collected some of the greatest minds from every field. I wanted to learn more about what happened and the individuals who participated. I wished I could be at their caliber and my awe over John Von Neumann is what lead me towards majoring in mathematics.

I find it endlessly fascinating that you can still see the ruts of the Oregon trail. I have half joked with my family about taking a trip to see them myself, but nobody seems to share my enthusiasm. I was excited to see this book at a small bookstore in Michigan. This book hit two points of interest for me, one being the historical education around the great migration of people on the Oregon trail and the other the simple adventure of going across the country and all that can represent.

It is spring break here. Many of the neighbors are gone. I went for my morning run and the streets were quiet. One very nice house up the street looked to be vacant. The normal activity wasn’t there. The driveway was clear. The windows all closed. However, there was a plumbing crew there with drilling equipment, a call-before-you-dig truck actively marking the lot, and a few water restoration vehicles there. They all seemed to be waiting for somebody to let them in. I presume somebody has a flooded basement. Bad news for a spring break.

Not sure the source, but as a man who is pushing fifty, this is extremely true…