Newsletter #7
7 min. read
Hello.
At the time of writing, I am currently on Spring Break and about to head off shortly to Las Vegas, from which point I will be road-tripping around a few different states as I and some others do a rapid-fire national park tour. The week has marked a steady stream of students fleeing their dormitories with glee to all parts of the country and beyond, so it's safe to say that things have quietened down a lot recently. At just over half-way through the semester, it marks a really good time to draw breath before we commence the final push towards exams and the ultimate conclusion of this chapter in my life.
As you will see in the writing, it is also a time where I can reflect on all the ways in which I have had enough luck cast my way in the past months to last a lifetime. Each and every day here has truly been a blessing - it's just such a wonderful place to be. With the week off from classwork, it will hopefully also be a chance to continue (and in some cases renew) progress in the areas of focus - writing and creation (of various different kinds) being the general theme at this point.
The next time you here from me will be on the other side of the break, so until then, thank you if you choose to read on (see the big button below) and in any case, have a terrific day wherever this email is reaching you 🙂.
Photos.
Bullet digest.
A new lens that I am using... The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens. Most beginner photographer courses I have seen recently have almost unanimously recommended that the next lens a novice should get in their kit is a 50mm one like this with a fixed focal length. The wide aperture is great for portrait shots - all the shots at the Illinois game where of me testing it out, and I already love the versatility of it. One thing I would say is that because my camera has an APS-C sensor (not a full-frame), the 50mm lens gets cropped into something more like a 75mm lens, so it feels somewhat annoyingly zoomed in at times. I think a similar 35mm lens (giving a slightly wider, cinematic shot) would be a good addition to resolve this.
A poem that I'm thinking about... One I originally discovered in Capote's In Cold Blood, it is Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. As the title suggests, it is not the most uplifting of poems, but the malaise and melancholy of the voice has always lingered with me, and if you've read the Capote it takes on heightened significance in the context of that novel's plot.
A book I'm reading... The Art of Seeing Things, a series of essays by John Burroughs collated by Charlotte Zoe Walker. This is a book I got a while ago that came from The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) I think. Standing on the precipice of a visiting some of the best national parks in the country, it seemed a fitting time to read a book about the value of attention, and how one can observe nature properly in its full glory.
Digressions.
Things that matter are things that you will still care about in the future.
Trying to decide what is and isn't important in the present moment is an extremely challenging prospect, but the ability to do well in this regard has a disproportionate impact on the enjoyment you receive out of what you do.
As a general rule, I think there are far few things that are important than aren't.
One possible metric to figure out what matters is by considering how we will value this particularly task/thing in the relative long-term (this could be months, years, decades, etc.)
The challenge is that the things which are least important often seem in the moment to be the most important. See below for a really rough sketch of this emotional characteristic.
On the flip side, the most important stuff only holds up in value in the long run.
- So, we have to recognise that generally, the things you feel most compelled to do in the present moment are either (a) addictive things like social media, or (b) falsely important based on the importance given to them from other people (errands, work-related, etc.)
It is yet another reason why it seems to me that everything we do seemingly has to be done with one (or sometimes both) eye cast to down the road into the future.