Quote for the week:

Life has a practice of living you, if you don’t live it.

Philip Larkin

Excerpt I came across this week I enjoyed:

“Following your bliss is a recipe for paralysis if you don’t know what you are passionate about. A better motto for most youth is “master something, anything”. Through mastery of one thing, you can drift towards extensions of that mastery that bring you more joy, and eventually discover where your bliss is.” (KEVIN KELLY, 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice)

The greatest set of tennis ever:

A great piece of writing on this year’s French open win by Djokovic over Nadal, but also about the sport in general and the dominance of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic.

Because those three players so thoroughly dominated tennis — with one of them winning every single grand slam tournament between 2017 and last year’s weird U.S. Open — everything about them seems outsized. Ever. All-time. Tennis history. Each tournament brings another startling new achievement. Federer was the first man to 20 grand slam singles titles. Nadal became the second. Djokovic, always playing catch-up, got to 18, but did break the record for most weeks at No. 1.

And the best matches between them might be the best matches period — Nadal-Federer, 2008 Wimbledon … Federer-Djokovic, 2011 French Open … Djokovic-Nadal, 2012 Australian Open … Nadal-Djokovic, 2013 French Open … Djokovic-Nadal, 2018 Wimbledon … Djokovic-Federer, 2019 Wimbledon. You could write entire books about each and every one of them.

Friday, Nadal and Djokovic went at it again, 58th time, this one in Paris. No setup is required. Nadal has won 13 French Open titles. No one is close. On the Roland Garros clay, he had played Djokovic and Federer a total of 14 times, and he lost just once, to Djoker in 2015. And, it should be said, that one was somewhat tainted — Nadal was coming off an injury that had wrecked his body and he was not in form.

The Greatest Set of Tennis Ever: https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/the-greatest-set-of-tennis-ever

Why do I go to bed so late?

This struck a chord.

Bedtime procrastination becomes revenge bedtime procrastination when the decision to delay sleep is in response to a lack of free time earlier in the day. Staying up late and carving out some leisure time even if we feel tired and need sleep becomes a way of getting revenge on daytime hours with little free time.

The psychology of revenge bedtime procrastination: https://nesslabs.com/revenge-bedtime-procrastination

If you are determined to keep going, you don’t need to give up:

A little inspiration. I like how he uses blu tack to mark his place and provide anchors for his work.

Sargy Mann has been painting all of his professional life, first as a teacher and later as a professional artist. In his mid-30s he developed cataracts on both eyes, eventually leading to total blindness. He continued to paint. Twenty-five years later, Sargy’s work is highly sought-after by collectors, with paintings regularly selling for upward of £50,000 (US$80,000). He spoke to BBC News about his life and gave an insight into how he continues to work.

Artist Sargy Mann has been blind for the last 25 years: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-29741908

Be willing to play the fool:

The Allan Ginsberg story at the start of this is pretty cool. Ten minutes well spent.

If you want to help your community, help your friends, you have to express yourself. You have to be willing to play the fool.

Give Yourself Permission to be Creative: https://kottke.org/21/06/give-yourself-permission-to-be-creative

Stuff I wrote and drew about this week:

Stuff I did, was reminded of, or was thankful for last week:

• Riding bikes never gets old. They say that you notice a lot about an area if you walk it. Well the same also goes for running and riding bikes. I got to get out on a bike ride with Vivian (I drove her finally, by myself!). We used the bike rack and headed to the nearby canal to just ride out and back. We were gone for about two hours, so she did pretty good! More adventures like this to different parks and tracks a little further away should be explored.
• Started feeling much better on Tuesday of this week and was able to move. I’ve been able to sleep on my sides now. I can actually go on the real (and stationary) bikes now. Running again starts next week.
• Sam tried snorting salt flakes from the chips plate tonight, just to see what it’d feel like. 🤷🏼
• Vivi created a snakes and ladders game with cheetahs reaching or pouncing. Board on the left, rules on the right (she’s such a stickler about rules). Pretty cool.
• I took Sam to the barbershop for his first-ever real haircut. It was pretty uneventful. He was definitely brave about the whole thing. Being bribed with a lollypop helps as well.

Last but not least, check out what I’m up to now.