Tag: book

Wired Wisely

So this morning I have some appointments, and so I felt some angst about figuring out what I would write about in the blog today. (I am typically good about limiting my commitments in my mornings because I like to have my mornings devoted to leisurely reading and writing and thinking, but sometimes I have no choice.) Anyway, my email today from the Daily Inspiration included this quote:

Kevin Kelly is the editor of Wired magazine. Oh boy, I love a quote like the above that really makes me take some time to ponder it. So immediately after reading the quote, I felt the need to learn more about Kevin Kelly. I found out that he wrote a book in May called “Excellent Advice For Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier. (Kevin Kelly is 71 years old.) So of course, I’ve already downloaded this book to my Kindle as an early Christmas present to myself (When I looked at excerpts from Kevin Kelly’s X page, this book is clearly right up my alley!) I take the above quote to mean that we enjoy our passions for ourselves, but they become our purpose when we make our passions our gift to the world.

Here’s another quote from the book:

My husband and I have often discussed why it is that many famous bands and singers seem to have their “heyday” of amazing songs, and then they kind of stop creating really great new stuff, and they rely on their old standbys to retread again and again at their concerts. Is it possible that these rich and famous people may have lost their hunger? How do you stay hungry if you have reached a certain level of security and fame? I love the idea of “Stay hungry.” It is another one of those “simple, but not easy” edicts of life.

And here are a few of my other favorites to share, before I go hop into the shower:

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Adulting – First Half

I recently purchased a book for the two reasons that we are told never to buy or decide to read a certain book. The reason why I chose this book to read, is that I found the title intriguing and I liked the cover. (I’ve decided that I will focus A LOT on the cover and the title, if I should ever write a book.) I had no idea what the book was about.

The book is called Guac is Extra, But So Am I – The Reluctant Adult’s Handbook by Sarah Solomon. The funny thing is this book is all about Adulting – First Half. I’m feeling very voyeuristic reading it, because it is like peering into the young twenty-somethings lives of today’s world without having to ask for details from my 23 year-old son, who might be tempted to sugarcoat things that he would think that his “fragile mommy” wouldn’t understand – ha! I dare you to ask your kids what a “thot” is? (or just look it up on the Urban Dictionary website)

The book is hilarious, offering all sorts of advice, in every aspect of a young person’s starting out adult life, from practical issues, such as investments and house buying (according to the book, a new trend is for people to purchase their “vacation homes” before their real homes, because those homes are more affordable and can offer investment income later – hmmm, the economy is humming, I guess.) It offers advice on crypto-currencies, how to make mixed drinks with the complimentary drinks offered on airplanes, and why certain engagement ring trends may be too trendy.

Apparently, I missed the boat on the blog trend. Bloggers who started blogs in 2006-2010 hit the market at the right time, before the market got saturated, according to the book. Here is an actual quote from the book, highlighted in red:

“Another one bites the dust,” she muttered, seeing another longwinded FB post about someone quitting their jobs to focus on their, blog, seven years too late.”

There are a lot of the things in the book that are quite different than when I was starting out my adult life, in the early 1990s. Certainly, our trendy “early adulting advice books” would never have had whole chapters devoted to social media, and the etiquette and career ramifications surrounding social media. Hell, I didn’t spend much time at all, on a computer, until around 1998, when I was about 27. Of course, most of that time was spent waiting forever and ever, for an internet website to download, listening to the noisy dial-up connection doing its thing, as I changed a fussy baby’s diaper.

That baby, whose diaper I was changing, is now a twenty-three year old IT professional. Yesterday, he texted his Dad and I, a picture of his lobster roll that he is eating in San Diego, where he is attending a business conference. He has always loved to eat. I figure that when I am done perusing this fun, interesting read, I’ll pass it on to him. While reading the book, it struck me that while a lot of the advice offered in the book would never have applied to me when I was in my young twenties (there is a whole chapter entitled Personal Brand and a whole sub-chapter on Ghosting), the tone and the feelings imbued in the book, are the same feelings that I think that I felt, at that stage of the game – excited, scared, a little cocky (which most likely was a cover for a lot of insecurity), a little defensive and yet optimistic and hopeful about the wide canvas ahead of me. Interestingly, these feelings are not too different than the feelings that I feel now, as I am embarking on the new empty nest stage of my Adulting – Second Half. And what’s even better about this situation, is that all of the advice for 20-somethings, is written and contained in a beautiful, hardbound book (with a lovely cover, I might add). I take this to mean that books are classic and timeless and likely to be around, for at least a little while longer. Books are something that still connect us, no matter what generation we are from. And if that universal connection, that knowing connection that I am feeling right now, is the only thing that I get from purchasing this book (chosen mostly for its title and its cover) than it was worth every single penny that I spent on it.