Something Interesting
You know it when you feel it. That sensation you get when you watch the ocean waves crash against the shore, or when you gaze into sky on a dark, cloudless night. The appreciation that there’s more to the world than just your trivial existence. You may not have formed the words to express this feeling but psychologists call it awe. (Which is also a nice reminder that the word “awesome” used to have a meaning beyond “cool.”)
Dr. Dacher Keltner is one of the leading scholars studying awe and has found that experiencing awe actually has a physiological impact on our bodies, specifically on the vagus nerve, which is the main nerve in our parasympathetic nervous system, controlling involuntary activities like breathing and heart rate. In fact, studies have shown that experiencing awe has the opposite effect of our “fight or flight” response, slowing heart rate and creating a sense of safety and connection. Keltner’s studies also show that the broader impact of experiencing awe — whether through a connection with nature, or beautiful art and music, or mind-boggling human achievements — is that we also become more altruistic. By losing ourselves in awe, we become less self-centered and more thoughtful of the needs of others.
As it turns out, making yourself smaller in the universe leads you to be a kinder person and, arguably, a happier one.
Something Beautiful
Several years ago, while watching Anthony Bourdain’s old travel show, I became aware of the work of Enric Rovira, a chocolatier based in Barecelona, Spain. Rovira’s most noteworthy specialty is the creation of these large chocolate eggs which are, on their own, strikingly beautiful in their graceful simplicity. But what was so fascinating to me is that when Rovira has finished sculpting these beautiful pieces of chocolate, he then takes them outside and allows the natural heat of the sun to warp them into whatever shape they decide to be. As somebody who has always been drawn to the beauty of entropy, I found his process to be fascinating and the results to be absolutely gorgeous. Here are some of his eggs:
And here’s a link to the episode, with the Rovira segment starting around the 11 minute mark: https://dai.ly/x8gxaqu
Something I Worked On
Over the past few weeks I had been finalizing the art on a project called “Her Life’s Work,” which I planned to present in a “storybook” format, a series of two-page spreads which paired an illustration with a passage of text. I say “had been finalizing” because after I printed out my line art I realized that it made better sense to present my story as a short 2 or 3 page comic, not a 12 pages storybook. So lately I’ve been adapting my existing art into a different form. So far the results are an improvement, so I’m not too discouraged that I wasted time on the wrong path.
A Final Thought
It’s interesting to me that there’s no term or phrase for a singular piece of evidence that absolutely proves somebody’s innocence: the opposite of a smoking gun. I suppose an “alibi” serves that purpose, but it seems that whenever we hear that word it’s always couched in terms of being “ironclad” or, when lacking that qualification, subject to manipulation. It could be that the lack of a non-smoking gun is the result of our “innocent until proven guilty” legal system, but I suspect that it points to our inclination not to believe somebody is innocent. We don’t need a word for proof that we don’t actually believe.