Editor’s Note: Thanks to Pete Accorti for sending this haunting song from my favorite musicians. Seth and Scott and their bandmates always stretch melodies and lyrics, here even harmonies to make statements about the beauty and the pain of life. This one covers the age-old choice between regret and acceptance of the mistakes we’ve all made in our lives.
Editor’s note: I don’t know how I stumbled on this decade-old book but beyond Gaudiani’s ill-advised “independence declaration”, she riveted my interest. Claire Gaudiani is a well-known student of philanthropy in the USA. The history of American philanthropy (See Zinsmeister from earlier blogs) fascinates me. The second value of this book is her argument in favor of a middle ground between too much government regulation of giving and leaving philanthropy entirely unbound. It’s an endless but worthy concern since neither our government nor our wealthy can be entirely trusted.
Faced with a choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy with the proof.
Editor’s Comment: Bryson is well known for his variety of interests, from his ambitious “A Short History of Nearly Everything” to a delightful childhood memoir I read called “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid”. “The Body” fascinated me with startling details of how our body works. Chapters are broken into parts: brain, heart, lungs as well as systems: immune, chemistry and skeleton. Bryson adds a point of view, such as his concerns over the overuse of antibiotics. (see excerpt) I’m recommending this book with only two promises, it’s far more readable than your biology textbook and you will understand a lot more about the only body you’ll ever own when you’re done.
