Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. My wife and I went for a perfect walk in our woods along the Oyster River to welcome the day. Cold, crisp, and bright with the sunrise. Our 15 year old dog Marley was able to come along and she was unusually lively, zipping about and smelling all the smells. That is perhaps the best gift of having a dog - they teach us through their example to live in the present. Some good food, some good company, and a little sense of wonder - if we could be more dog-like in our day-to-day lives, we wouldn’t need a holiday to celebrate gratitude. But we aren’t dogs and we have more complex motivations, needs, and capabilities, and frankly we can live richer and deeper lives than dogs, as lovely as their examples are. To be fully human, one has to live up to human potential, not dog potential. It’s complicated being a complex being, so having a holiday like Thanksgiving is a good exercise in being a little more dog-like, in the best of ways.
We spent the day with family enjoying fabulous food and company. While Thanksgiving is a holiday for gratitude, it is also the holiday for Connection, one of the Three C’s of Meaning I have been talking about. Perhaps gratitude for connection is the best way of thinking of it. I think about the many Thanksgivings during my Army career we celebrated far from home and family, and how we always found other families who were likewise far from home, and celebrated with them. Those holidays were some of the best memories from that time because they were intentional in a way that, again, it is possible to roll along in life and just go through the motions without really being present.
Speaking of great food, I made these limoncello cookies as my contribution to Thanksgiving dessert. The lemon is an excellent counterpoint to the heaviness of much of the rest of the meal.
As usual, willing good for all of you, and maybe 10% more dog-likeness, have a great week and I present you with the links!
Read
What: Psyche, How do good conversations work? Philosophy has something to say
https://psyche.co/ideas/how-do-good-conversations-work-philosophy-has-something-to-say
Why: Some people dread Thanksgiving because they are forced into conversation with difficult relatives. Why are those conversations difficult? Also, what makes a good conversation good? Some thoughts in this short essay.
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What: Vox, Most people are bad at arguing. These 2 techniques will make you better.
https://www.vox.com/2016/11/23/13708996/argue-better-science
Why: This piece offers some interesting insight into conversation as well. The two techniques basically involve listening and trying to understand the person you are conversing with. Vox is a Progressive media group, so the examples they use to illustrate are mostly Progressives trying to convince conservatives to be more Progressive, but if you read past that, the advice is useful. These don’t really strike me as rhetorical tools just for persuasion. If you learn to listen better, you are likely to be persuaded yourself. Good conversation should be about connecting, not about winning.
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Watch
What: 2022 NORAD Tracks Santa (2 min)
Why: Thanksgiving is over, which means it is officially Christmas season. All three of our girls were able to come to the LHH on Friday morning, so we decorated our tree. And if you have been following RWL for a few years, you know one of my favorite traditions is to watch the NORAD Tracks Santa website. It was something I did with my girls when they were little, and now it’s something I still enjoy - nostalgia for my military life, and nostalgia for when my kids were little and they really thought NORAD was tracking Santa. So here is the NORAD Tracks Santa teaser for 2022. I’m super excited!
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What: Bruce Springsteen - Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (4 min)
Why: The first Christmas song I play each year is Bruce Springsteen’s Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. I pulled this up on my Spotify playlist for the drive home from Thanksgiving dinner and made the family listen to it as we headed back up I-95. My other favorite Christmas album is the Tran-Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Eve and Other Stories (free YouTube link). What can I say? I’m a classic rock guy. I still love the traditional carols, too. But these are first in my playlist after Thanksgiving.
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Listen
What: EconTalk, Agnes Callard on Meaning, the Human Quest, and the Aims of Education (81 min)
Why: This discussion revolves around a thought experiment: what if you knew that the human race was ending - that at some point, the last child had been born and that no more children after that would exist. How would that reshape your thinking about the present, if you knew there was no future, not just for you, because at some point the future ends for each of us individually, but what if there was no future for humanity? It’s an interesting point how that assumption that humanity will go on operates in each of us.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
If you’re looking for a searchable archive, you can see my draft folder here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jwGLdjsb1WKtgH_2C-_3VvrYCtqLplFO?usp=sharing
Finally, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://markbonica.substack.com/welcome
See you next week!
Mark
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” – Pablo Picaso