Hey 👋🏽

It was clear that I had miscalculated when I felt something wet hit the back of my neck.

I screamed and looked up, gripping the steering wheel.

We were 60s from home after a few hours of running errands at a pace somewhere between panicked and leisurely.

A small scream mirrored mine, quickly followed by blubbering.

I looked for tissues or toilet paper, grimacing at the memory of Oliver’s “look, I’m a mummy,” historical reenactment on Tuesday. “We might need that later,” I’d said.

Maybe. Uncertainty is viral. Tuesday’s glimmer of unknown now stretches wide and deep, leading to our pan-leisurely errand adventure.

Well, sort of unknown. There are knowns we just don’t want to be aware of, like what “I really need to pee!” an octave higher than normal equals in seconds.

A smashed box of Kleenex smiled at me from under the passenger seat.

I handed a tissue back, wiped off my neck, shoulders and rear view mirror and started laughing. I should have pulled over 2 stop signs ago.

Here are a few things I enjoyed this week:

🧠why we swing for the fences Gates Notes, 30m

Bill Gates is stepping down from the boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to spend more time on his foundation. His annual letter details how they spent $53.8 billion in the last 20 years, and how they’ve set themselves up for the future.

When you swing for the fences, you’re putting every ounce of strength into hitting the ball as far as possible. You know that your bat might miss the ball entirely—but that if you succeed in making contact, the rewards can be huge.

❤️the wood wide web, emergence magazine, 37m

Issue 7 of emergence magazine is devoted to trees. This intriguing piece is an excerpt from Robert Macfarlane’s Underland: A Deep Time Journey.

Occasionally—once or twice in a lifetime if you are lucky—you encounter an idea so powerful in its implications that it unsettles the ground you walk on.

😷why you must act now Medium, 26m

My mom works in public health. She shared this authoritative piece filled with data, logic and models that objectively answers the question “why are people freaking out.”

+online learning and the digital divide The Conversation, 4m: if you know how we can help kids impacted by shuttered schools, please get in touch.

I see you, I love you, stay healthy.