good morning Hank it's Tuesday last
night I did something specifically I
attended a live recording of one of my
favorite podcasts Harry Potter and the
sacred text and it was such a lovely
evening of thinking hard about stuff
that matters and I emerged from it
feeling different and more hopeful about
the human Enterprise like it's been
spring for a couple weeks here in
Indianapolis but driving home last night
I finally felt like it was spring and I
kept thinking about that e Cummings poem
that begins spring is like a perhaps
hand which comes carefully out of
nowhere anyway all of this was quite a
contrast from my usual Monday nights in
which I do nothing for me doing nothing
means not making an active choice to do
something generally in my case this
means after the kids go to sleep I
scroll through Netflix for like 20
minutes trying to find something to
watch and either do find something to
watch or else go upstairs to read a book
doing nothing can be lovely of course
but generally I don't actively choose to
do nothing it's sort of like a passive
thing that happens it feels like the
default state of affairs or the natural
way of being doing something feels like
making a choice and doing nothing feels
like not making one slightly off topic
but there are many places in my life
that feel like this for instance every
day I take a medication for my mental
illness but taking the medication feels
like doing something and not taking it
feels like doing nothing and the same is
true of making the active choice to get
a flu shot or to engage in philanthropy
or to plant seeds in my garden in all
these cases doing nothing feels like the
default it feels like it isn't a choice
and if I look for voices telling me to
do nothing I will find them there are
plenty of sources out there to tell me
that my medication won't work or isn't
worth the side-effects or that the flu
shot is dangerous or that philanthropy
never does any good or that gardening is
a waste of time they may not be the most
accurate or authoritative sources the
flu shot is safe I am definitely better
off taking my medication philanthropy
can be an excellent way to improve
people's lives and gardening is only a
waste of time if you don't enjoy it but
because passive choices feel natural to
me I'm vulnerable to misinformation
telling me that those choices are
virtuous I struggle to make active
choices every day but the thing is
passive choices are also choices not
taking medication that has
been prescribed to me is a choice and an
unwise one staying home to watch Netflix
is also a choice for me sometimes a wise
one other times less so the truth is
most nights I need to be at home in a
kind of metaphysical quiet resting and
recovering but I need to see those times
as the choices they are rather than as
some default or natural setting which
they aren't years ago a mayoral
candidate in Birmingham Alabama had a
campaign slogan that's become kind of a
catchphrase in our family the slogan was
Larry Langford let's do something not
like something prudent or something good
just something now of course this is a
horrible campaign slogan and indeed the
candidate in question would go on to be
convicted in a huge bribery scandal but
lately I've been thinking a lot about
that slogan like while we're here we're
going to do something a lot of some
things actually and doing nothing is not
a way out of the responsibilities and
opportunities of personhood whether I'm
playing board games with my family or
watching the recording of a podcast I
love my days end up better when I
remember that I'm not choosing between
doing something or doing nothing I'm
choosing which something to do Hank
thank you for doing this something with
me for the last 12 years I will see you
on Friday