Recently, I listened to David Brooks in an interview with Scott Galloway talking about the transition Brooks is making from author to podcaster. Brooks said his writing has become more like his public speaking as he ages. And now that speaking will become more of what he does in the form of podcasting, Brooks guessed that the story/point pattern he learned in his public speaking will be what he uses in podcasting. Story/point is the pattern in the presentation. Tell a story, make a point, over and over. It's hard to read the points without the stories. What you've presented here, Samir, is point after point. What I'm missing are the stories paired with the points. But I understand you've given us just a glimpse. I'm hoping the stories are coming.
A round of cheers to you, Samir! Of course you already know I resonate with what's here. Yet it is no small act of courage to make your own life visible, to drag the lonely chapters into the light, to make public what's so personal. I'm drawn to the micro-stories you've teased here: The Eastern Bloc car and two boys bursting with life inside, having no idea what lie ahead. The experienced heart surgeon telling the apprentice he has sixty seconds. "So take your time." Screaming at the subway cars. The nod to you after, "I get it." Standing before the forest and saying, "I am. So there." Your sacred, irreverent self. Then fire as human story origins. I'm curious about it all. About the gnarly Solingen knife that's traveled an ocean and familial generations. About the ordinary liturgy of two people who chose each other in a Chicago basement and Harlem apartment and all the unspoken in-between. And in the end, your counterintuitive claim: your story is not about you. Perhaps not even about humanity. It's too wide. Too long. And a miracle and privilege to create within it.
I just read your recent post and it was SO wonderful - even as fragments, the words you wrote carry such power, and I'm excited to see the completed book when it has fully ripened.
This piece expressed a current 'growing edge' of mine that I've recently realized:
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Chapter 8: What Makes You Beautiful
The polished version of you is hard to see. The explained version of you is harder to hear. The version of you that has been carefully kept is, by that careful keeping, slightly out of reach. On the other hand, people experience your honesty as presence, the felt sense that you are actually in the room, no longer manipulating the distance between yourself and the world.
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I have started to see how I've been so professional and 'appropriate' for so long that I can have a reflexive response to people and life that is effectively filtered - or 'slightly out of reach' as you say so well. Thank you!
Yes, the culture of the last 20 years, since Seinfeld, who innocently introduced making fun of people who are earnest about anything. But earnestness is another name for our love for life, and if we follow it, there will be cringe to embrace. Make yourself and others cringe. No cringe, no progress. You owe it to the world to be yourself and learn to be yourself farther, deeper, and better. BTW, there will be a whole chapter about that towards the end of the book. Thank you for making yourself and your heart visible here!
Wow. The topic, the title, so much has changed in this writing season. I miss the bit about being an immigrant into the future, into our own lives. Is that still in here somewhere? Or is that a different book?
Recently, I listened to David Brooks in an interview with Scott Galloway talking about the transition Brooks is making from author to podcaster. Brooks said his writing has become more like his public speaking as he ages. And now that speaking will become more of what he does in the form of podcasting, Brooks guessed that the story/point pattern he learned in his public speaking will be what he uses in podcasting. Story/point is the pattern in the presentation. Tell a story, make a point, over and over. It's hard to read the points without the stories. What you've presented here, Samir, is point after point. What I'm missing are the stories paired with the points. But I understand you've given us just a glimpse. I'm hoping the stories are coming.
Thank you so much, Greg! Yes, it will be 80% stories, 20% reflections. Can't unfold 18 stories in a newsletter.
A round of cheers to you, Samir! Of course you already know I resonate with what's here. Yet it is no small act of courage to make your own life visible, to drag the lonely chapters into the light, to make public what's so personal. I'm drawn to the micro-stories you've teased here: The Eastern Bloc car and two boys bursting with life inside, having no idea what lie ahead. The experienced heart surgeon telling the apprentice he has sixty seconds. "So take your time." Screaming at the subway cars. The nod to you after, "I get it." Standing before the forest and saying, "I am. So there." Your sacred, irreverent self. Then fire as human story origins. I'm curious about it all. About the gnarly Solingen knife that's traveled an ocean and familial generations. About the ordinary liturgy of two people who chose each other in a Chicago basement and Harlem apartment and all the unspoken in-between. And in the end, your counterintuitive claim: your story is not about you. Perhaps not even about humanity. It's too wide. Too long. And a miracle and privilege to create within it.
I just read your recent post and it was SO wonderful - even as fragments, the words you wrote carry such power, and I'm excited to see the completed book when it has fully ripened.
This piece expressed a current 'growing edge' of mine that I've recently realized:
-------
Chapter 8: What Makes You Beautiful
The polished version of you is hard to see. The explained version of you is harder to hear. The version of you that has been carefully kept is, by that careful keeping, slightly out of reach. On the other hand, people experience your honesty as presence, the felt sense that you are actually in the room, no longer manipulating the distance between yourself and the world.
------
I have started to see how I've been so professional and 'appropriate' for so long that I can have a reflexive response to people and life that is effectively filtered - or 'slightly out of reach' as you say so well. Thank you!
So glad that resonated with you.
Yes, the culture of the last 20 years, since Seinfeld, who innocently introduced making fun of people who are earnest about anything. But earnestness is another name for our love for life, and if we follow it, there will be cringe to embrace. Make yourself and others cringe. No cringe, no progress. You owe it to the world to be yourself and learn to be yourself farther, deeper, and better. BTW, there will be a whole chapter about that towards the end of the book. Thank you for making yourself and your heart visible here!
All 18 seeds feel healthy. Chapt 3’s “the Tuesday of it” sums it up for me 🙏🏼
2,4,9,12.
I really like your writing. Always have.
I can still picture the knife.
Wow. The topic, the title, so much has changed in this writing season. I miss the bit about being an immigrant into the future, into our own lives. Is that still in here somewhere? Or is that a different book?