🪵 Tomorrow! Tomorrow!!

Hey everyone, 

Keeping the guest posts coming with all the positive feedback we’ve received thus far. Stoked to introduce our third from Ethan in Washington, DC. Here’s Ethan sat on the original Thinking Log circa 2017:

Ethan is a man of many talents. He’s a talented golfer and singer. A great writer and public speaker! Most importantly, Ethan is an exemplary friend and human. 

I’ve been lucky to are his active listening and perspective for over 8 years and am excited for him to share some of that in this week’s Roots, Leaves and Wind. 

Enjoy! 🪵

Roots 🌱 

Something from me

I loved my friend Greg E’s piece defining authenticity a few weeks back, so I wanted to try my hand at defining another word: wisdom. 

I’ve been living alone since October 2022. Under normal circumstances, this is the sort of arrangement that would work well for me. Anyone who’s lived with me (Greg M. and Greg E. included) knows that I’m particular. I like a clean kitchen - unless I’m the one cooking - and the music turned low - unless I’m the one playing it. In other words, I’m a pain in the ass, and much better off managing my own space than negotiating it with anyone else.

Under normal circumstances, my living arrangement would work well, but these have hardly been normal circumstances. A few days after I moved-in, I started a fully remote job that kept me locked away in the four walls of my new apartment for up to 15 hours a day for months on end - no easy feat for an extrovert. And to make matters worse, in September, I ended a relationship with someone I adored and kept me company during very lonely times. 

That’s when the spiral started. October brought deeply troubling global conflict, and a corresponding and all-consuming fixation with social media; November brought problems at work; and December brought Christmas, a holiday I don’t celebrate and therefore spent alone, doomscrolling Instagram to see my happy friends gathered in their living rooms with loved ones or on island vacations with significant others. This confluence of forces created such a new low for my mental health that by early January, when I was laid off from my job, I could hardly care. 

So, now let’s talk about wisdom. 

I leaned heavily on my friends for support over the past few months, first through the breakup, and then through all the trouble with my job (which started a long time before the lay-off). I count myself extremely lucky to have great friends who care about me deeply and consistently reminded me to rest, practice self-care, and above all, be kind to myself. For whatever reason, this advice didn’t work for me. 

At last I called my dad. He grew up in a time (the 1960s) and a place (small-town, post-industrial Massachusetts) that lacked an appreciation for mental wellness, and he never cared for an update. When I called and explained I wasn’t doing well, he replied as many men his age probably would: “Eh, today stinks but tomorrow will be better. I promise.” 

Callous as his rebuttal seemed, my dad was right - the next day was better. 

How did he know it would be? Maybe he’d recently seen Annie. But it’s more likely, I suspect, that after 64 years, he’s had his fair share of bad days, bad weeks, or bad months, and after each of them, things got better. 

I imagine many of us in our 20s have learned this lesson many times during our lives only to discard it the next time times got hard. But with each passing year and each additional challenge, we get closer to appreciating and accepting that this phenomenon - the ever-swinging pendulum of happiness - is among life’s universal truths. 

That, to me, is wisdom: knowing that good times almost always follow the bad, and that nothing is permanent, no matter how permanent it might feel. 

Life has been better over the past few weeks, which means harder times might be around the corner soon. When they come, I’ll know they too are temporary.

Branches 🌲 

Something from you

Big ups coming off of last week's post on sports, change and bringing awareness to it all. Here are some of the thoughts from the Thinking Log community:

Leaves 🍃 

Something to leave you with

Tired? Distracted? Burned-Out? Listen to this

• I was burned out from my job for months and months and this podcast helped me understand why.

• One thing that stuck out to me: in the days before the computer, workers spent around 30% of the day at their desk; in 2019, that same number was 90%. How could that not impact our well-being? 

A century of cartoons about therapy 

• Sometimes it can feel like you’re the only person in the world struggling with mental health. These cartoons are a good (and usually funny!) reminder that you’re most certainly not. The human condition and such… 

I was addicted to my smartphone, so I switched to a flip phone for a month

• It’s a trueism at this point to say that smartphones are a disaster for our mental health. This reporter took matters into her own hands and swapped out her iPhone for a flip phone with stellar results. 

• Has anyone tried anything like this? 

The goal of this blog is to learn a ton and to help others do the same.

Your feedback is always welcome, and if there’s a topic that you want to hear more about, please contact me or fill out this quick survey!

• Twitter: twitter.com/gregmilnarik

• Survey: forms.gle/Mbg5xaHmw8JKriFo8

If you enjoyed the read or found it thought provoking, I’d be grateful for you to share it with one other person who might as well by sharing the subscribe button below.

I’m stoked to have you here and talk soon!

Greg

Wind 🌬️ 

What I’m listening to

This song is all about staying authentic and not “forget[ting] your roots,” as MGMT sings in the opening verse. How Thinking Log of them. 

Still, that’s not the reason I’m recommending it. Not even close. It’s just a banger. I’ve probably listened to it a hundred times over the past month.

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