We’re moving on up! Not to the East Side, but to nearly three months of The Three Things presented by Michael Schechter, Howie Goldfarb, and me.
I am headed back home from Amsterdam. What an amazing city! I’m very happy to have been invited to speak here. Big, big thanks to Jody Koehler, Jos Govaart, and the Coopr team. They really know how to treat their speakers.
For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t suscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.
While I fly home via London, I leave you with the 10th edition.
Enough – Ep 178 – Experience Happiness
Michael on Emotions. Patrick Rhone and Myke Hurley’s weekly conversations on the Enough podcast on The 70Decibels network are always thought-provoking, but this week’s examination of our emotions and the control they have over our lives was easily my favorite episode (which is saying something when you consider I’ve listened to nearly every episode of this 178 show run). While my own thoughts on the subject fall right in between Patrick and Myke, this is a very a worthwhile listen, especially if you feel like your emotions have far too much control over your life.
How a Nice Jewish Boy Learned to Like Christmas
Howie on the Holidays. I am always conflicted this time of year. Born Jewish who gave up the religion the Sunday after I was Bar Mitzvahed, and currently a semi-practicing Buddhist/Taoists/Pagan/Spiritualist/Logicalist I always have found this time of year very perverted in terms of Christmas and Hanukkah. I personally cannot believe Jesus would be okay with this holiday of rampant consumerism. And nothing made sense. No way Santa could ever have been in Israel. And do they have evergreen trees? I always assumed palm trees there. Why do we celebrate a birthday in December for someone born in the spring?. Could eight days of oil versus one really have saved the Jews from ancient oppression? Was that the first war over oil? And why did the gifts have to be money? Other than reinforcing Jewish stereotypes.
Read this. You will think differently about the holidays and the symbols. And it is okay…feel proud to embrace your Pagan roots. We all have them. And seriously I think it is pretty cool that we still celebrate Winter Solstice and that my Jewish people had a Santa Claus character thousands of years before the big red party animal came onto the scene.
Gini on Science. You know white noise that helps you sleep when you’re not in your own bed? Now scientists have figured out something comparable for smell. They’ve discovered, when more than 30 scents are combined, we can’t distinguish anything in there, including very easy-to-tell scents such as coffee or sulphur. It doesn’t really have a use yet, but it’s a big step toward figuring out how our brains work when more than one sense is used.
Now it’s your turn. Is there a podcast, video, or article you think we need to see?