Hey 👋🏽,

Yesterday, we went to a park in a different part of town. Water under the bridge ran brown and trash in the grass kept us on the paved path for the first quarter mile.

We looked up. A vine twisted around the first tree we paid attention to. We looked around. Most of the trees. The vineless few had shed their bark, smooth but sick.

Bad vine! Let’s pull it off!
It’s not that easy.

Awareness is tiring. The thick and thin vines climbed up trunks, each tree in a different stage of resistance against or succumbing to them. Seeing the struggles of other living things can make you sad or desensitized, compassionate or dismissive, proactive or distracted.

5yo tugged at the bottom of a vine until it popped out of the ground.

He turned around and pointed finger guns at me.

Toldja, dude. Now, I think the tree needs a hug. You know, to get the love in.

He wrapped both arms around the trunk and turned his head, cheek to bark.

I smiled. We walked further. The water under the bridge ran clear.

🧠 finite and infinite games: a vision of life as play and possibility James P. Cause, 2hrs

A few weeks ago I shared an article about infinite games vs. finite games. I returned to the concept as a framework to understand the sociopolitical events unfolding before us as an infinite game, first via Simon Sinek’s the infinite game and then this . A long, conceptual but mind expanding read.

“The rules of an infinite game are changed to prevent anyone from winning the game and to bring as many persons as possible into the play…the infinite player does not expect only to be amused by surprise, but to be transformed by it, for surprise does not alter some abstract past, but one’s own personal past.”

+ avoiding the global lobotomy Meta Nomad, 8m

❤️ the three questions Tolstoy, 6m

“It once occurred to a certain king that if he always knew the right time to begin everything; if he knew who were the right people to listen to, and whom to avoid; and, above all, if he always knew what was the most important thing to do, he would never fail in anything he might undertake.”

🚶🏽‍♀️study excuses LessWrong, 12m

There’s a lot of pressure for action right now but as protests slow and black lives matter headlines slip out of the news, it will be easy to make excuses to return to personal or social ignorance. This article applies game theory to excuses through a series of 8 anecdotes to help us reconsider what is acceptable and why.

+ understand intersectionality Anti-Racism Daily, 3m

I see you, I love you, let me know what you’re thinking about/reading,

P.S. last week, I got to share some thoughts on writing and leadership with Eddie Schlyner of Very Good Copy. Check it out or, if you’re trying to improve your writing, sign up for his newsletter.