When your water bottle comes out of your checked clothes bag scratched up and dented in a way it wasn't before, and that was the only thing that was damaged, you have to wonder what the story was. Did they play football with it? We may never know. 😄

“And it’s all ugly. Physically ugly. The strip malls in Elmsford—the Walmarts and Kmarts and Home Depots—all plastic and chrome, with blaring, clashing colors, and everyone in a hurry… to do what?” —Shep Knacker, So Much for That (Lionel Shriver)

Attempts by Christians to predict the end times only results in self‑imposed misery and learned helplessness. By trying to “read the signs of the times” through methods little better than tea‑leaf reading, Christians hold themselves back from being all they could be.

The temptation for this kind of thinking grows as quality of life declines in the West, but in reality it's just another distraction.

Fix the money, fix the world.

I found @Saifedean Ammous's The Gold Standard to be a very enjoyable book. It reminds me of some of the optimistic fiction and historical fiction that I listened to by authors of the past. It's definitely in that same vein but it felt far more grounded. The audiobook version is very well produced. It was a very refreshing listen.