Miles to Go Before I … Zzzzzzzz

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“We measure the quality of our day by the number of achievements we have. Number of documents published versus quality of work, or the number of times this week we beat personal commuting records to and from the office, or numbers of reps at the gym, or, worse, for those dieting, number of days without “cheating,” which represents even more harsh ways to harshly self-judge.
 
“We live in a culture of Other Peoples’ Success and thus exist in a competition with others for more successes than them and yet better ones. This is because, as Brené Brown, a famous sociologist, points out, we live in a “culture of scarcity. We wake up in the morning and we say, ‘I didn’t get enough sleep.’ And we hit the pillow saying, ‘I didn’t get enough done.’ We’re never thin enough, extraordinary enough or good enough—until we decide that we are. The opposite of ‘scarcity’ is not ‘abundance.’ It’s ‘enough.’ I’m enough.”
 
“I’m enough. Not “I’m good enough.” I’m enough. How hard that is to say, and to mean it to be about me, myself, and not you. It is even harder to embrace.— “Get Some Sleep Already,” October 24, 2014

I only remember my nightmares. Which means that either I do not have pleasant dreams at all (not the case) or that I have them all the time but they are unremarkable to me because I live my life under the self-centered guiding philosophy that the only life worth experiencing always feels like a victorious night at an awards ceremony, so I spend my waking life continuously happy and flinging thumbs-up signs at the world (not the case, either).
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Today in History: September 10

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

U.S. Patent No. 4750 was awarded 170 years ago today to Elias Howe for his “Improvement in sewing-machines.” It is the first U.S. patent for a sewing machine that employs the lockstitch method, and it is the first patent for a machine that is recognizable to anyone who has used a modern sewing machine all these years later: it placed the eye of the needle at the point, which was an ingenious innovation over the equipment that people had been using by hand for centuries, with the eye at the back of the needle; and it offered an guide and an automatic feed.

Howe was not the inventor of the sewing machine concept itself, but he was the inventor of the modern sewing machine, a device that revolutionized several industries. An early model is in the photo at top.

Howe spent many years defending his invention and his patent in the courts: He had almost no success selling his version of the sewing machine, but Isaac Singer manufactured a copy of Howe’s invention in the 1850s and sold many of them under the Singer name. (The only real difference was the name on the machine: Singer placed the word “Singer” where Howe had located his own name.) Howe eventually won royalties from Singer and recognition as the modern sewing machine’s inventor.
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Enjoy Every Sandwich

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Cemeteries are cram-packed full with people who had other plans that day. Reservations for dinner, a movie ticket in the pocket. A refrigerator with new groceries. A sink with dirty dishes.

We all know this deep down, but the occasional reminders can nonetheless surprise. “Always wear clean underwear,” a clichéd cartoon version of a mother tells a clichéd cartoon version of ourselves in a clichéd cartoon version of a conversation that never happens in real life. But the end comes in a moment, and it is always dramatic, even when it is mundane.

(I suppose it is never mundane for the person who experiences it, but I have not yet been there, and no one who has had the end moment has made a verifiable report about it. Tsk-tsk. Where are their priorities?)
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