Where hope comes from

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"My hope emerges from those places of struggle where I witness individuals positively transforming their lives and the world around them. Educating is a vocation rooted in hopefulness. As teachers we believe that learning is possible, that nothing can keep an open mind from seeking after knowledge and finding a way to know." - bell hooks

A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.

As we enter a new year I am comforted and motivated by bell hooks' reminder. Wherever learning is possible so too is change, growth and transformation.

Let's welcome the new year with a renewed commitment to learn and then to share what we learn. As Rainer Maria Rilke said, the new year is "full of things that have never been".

Happy Friday.

Personal Development
"If we want to have hope, we’ve got shit to do."

"This drawing is of a Fairy in the sun with a yellow wand. I used pencils to colour it in." - Meggy

"Hope — that messy, terrible thing that requires so much work and effort and energy — has the potential for a happy ending, the fairy tale 'happily ever after' that everyone scoffs at. We could have that, if we have hope — and, of course, put in all of that work to bring that happy ending about.

"Happiness is frequently the result of a combination of hope and effort — the idea that things could be better and the work it takes to bring that about. Sometimes the work is easy, but it frequently isn’t, and that can be difficult to manage. Hard work is, well, hard, and most people don’t like hard work and avoid it whenever they can.

"But, if we want to experience the happiness that comes from our hope for the future made manifest, we have to put in that hard work." - Matthew Maniaci

Article: Hope is Messy. Choose Hope Anyway.

Learning
"I recognize June by the flowers, now. I used to know it by review tests, and restlessness."

This book was written for me, but too late. Author Grace Llewellyn, a former middle school teacher, wrote it in 1991, 19 years after I left high school to pursue my own self-directed education. The publisher says:

"The Teenage Liberation Handbook is (still) the only complete guide to unschooling written for youth. It tackles everything:

- why to consider self-directed education
- communicating with reluctant parents
- getting a social life without proms
- designing a 'tailor-made intellectual extravaganza' and getting into college
- finding great mentors, apprenticeships, and volunteer positions"

Kevin Kelly describes the book this way: "The purpose of this book is to encourage the teen to make their education their own responsibility. They can remain at school, or as a homeschool take only some classes, or find apprenticeships, volunteer, or even skip directly to college. In short they are designing their own self-education, where ever it may happen. Along the way they develop a better idea of themselves and many more life skills then they would in formal school."

This part of her intro seemed directed to me: "If you have already considered leaving school—as a 'dropout' or anything else, of course this book is for you. If you have been feeling guilty or inadequate because of your 'failure' in school, perhaps I can knock some optimistic sense into you. Perhaps I can get you to think of yourself as rising out instead of dropping out. The way we think of ourselves makes all the difference."

Review: Tools for Possibilities: Home Schooling

Excerpt: The Power & Magic of Adolescence vs. The Insufferable Tedium Of School

Personal Development
Resolutions as a compass

Woody Guthrie penned this list of 33 resolutions in the center-fold of his journal on New Year's Day in 1943. I like that he didn't set specific goals. Instead he summarized his personal philosophy of life.

13. Reads Lots Good Books
18. Stay Glad
19. Keep Hoping Machine Running
27. Help Win War - BEAT FASCISM
31. Love Everybody
33. Wake Up and Fight

Web Page: Woody Guthrie's New Years Rulin's

Centering, Personal Development
"The word 'planner'—as in an object used to facilitate planning— wasn’t introduced into the English language until the 1970s."

In the 1770s, an aspiring publisher, Robert Aitken, developed what is generally recognized to be the first planner in America. Aitken’s “Register” displayed an entire week on a page. Image from The Accidental Diarist, A History of the Daily Planner in America, by Molly A. McCarthy

"The daily planner as we know it descends from the almanac—a yearly publication listing useful information such as weather forecasts, currency conversions, an interest rate schedule, and planting schedules. Next to the Bible, the almanac was the bestseller of early America. And the almanac was most valued for its calendar."

"...Today we tend to think of daily planners as records of what will happen. But most of its early users saw daily blank space in their notebooks as a way to record what had happened. It was a way to account for one’s time and how it was spent.

"It’s not until the 20th century that we see pocket diaries regularly used for recording future events." - Jillian Hess

Article: A Short History of the Daily Planner

Learning, Persuasion
Why some people do and some people don’t trust science.

Still from Asteroid City, 2023, Director Wes Anderson, Director of Photography Robert D. Yeoman

"Recent evidence has revealed that people who reject or distrust science are not especially well informed about it, but more importantly, they typically believe that they do understand the science.

"This result has, over the past five years, been found over and over in studies investigating attitudes to a plethora of scientific issues, including vaccines and GM foods. It also holds, we discovered, even when no specific technology is asked about. However, they may not apply to certain politicised sciences, such as climate change.

"Recent work also found that overconfident people who dislike science tend to have a misguided belief that theirs is the common viewpoint and hence that many others agree with them." - Joel Abrams

Article: Why Some People Don’t Trust Science – And How To Change Their Minds

Related Article: Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science

Food
"A common misconception outside of Asian communities is that tofu is just an ingredient. In fact, it’s an entire category of proteins."

Image by David Huang

We were earnest kids trying to explain to indifferent Americans why they should learn to cook with curdled soy milk. Apparently the fact that this amazing protein had been central to multiple Asian cuisines since before the Sung dynasty wasn't all that persuasive. It was the early '80s, and I was starting an in-house ad agency for a regional manufacturer of tofu.

I wish I had this article then. After finding it very painful going vegan in college, George Stiffman visited China to "find foods that would excite me and other would-be vegans back in Los Angeles. I had to learn about the tofu dumpling of love."

Learn he did. He travelled the country, apprenticed himself to master teachers, and tried dozens of variations of the not-so-simple curd. "City by city, village by village, my astonishment gave way to wonder. How were people not talking about these foods?"

Article: America Doesn’t Know Tofu

Advertising, Social Messaging
"Two-thirds of the 16.9 million low-income women in the US could not afford menstrual products in 2022, with half needing to choose between menstrual products and food."

I know that I said that we had reviewed enough holiday ads for the year. But then I stumbled upon this one. Using a brilliant and superbly executed short-form video, it informs about an important social problem, names a simple solution and makes a clear call to action. It does so not by preaching but by entertaining. And it does it in a little more than two minutes.

Holiday or not, great advertising is a welcome way to engage and inform. I wish we could see more use of this overused and underutilized medium to sell good ideas, not things we don't need.

Article: Holiday Demon ‘Crampus’ Takes Bold Stand Against Period Poverty

Video: Deck The Stalls | PERIOD. x Public Inc.

One-liners

Article: Screen reading isn't as beneficial as an old-fashioned book for comprehension.

Article: Queer Louisianans are fighting book bans—and winning.

Article: Green prescriptions, a growing medical movement, is sending patients back to nature with remarkable results.

Article: Twelve plant species and five animal species are responsible for 75% of the world’s food supply.

Article: A Filipino aeronautical engineer has invented an organic, nontoxic aviation sealant using the pili tree’s spent resin.

Study: Compostable plastic bags buried in soil for three years were so sturdy they could still hold a full load of groceries.

Playlist

Video: Susie Arioli - Ruler Of My Heart

This performance is a trifecta of musical delight. It's got a singer who has been described as having "satiny tone, perfect phrasing, a way with the lyrics, and the ability to tell a story". She's backed by a guitarist, Jordan Officer, who is recognized for "virtuoso playing that reaches unequaled levels of subtlety and finesse". And they're playing a song written by Allen Toussaint for Irma Thomas. Pinch me.

Weekly Mixtape
Rhythm, blues and groove are always good for what ails you.

Playlist: Ruler of my heart

Image of the Week

Sunday morning: A not-white family living illegally in the “White” group area of Hillbrow, Johannesburg (1978; printed later), David Goldblatt. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. © The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

"The title of this exhibition, No Ulterior Motive, at the Art Institute of Chicago (until 25 March 2024) is taken from language used by David Goldblatt in a newspaper advert, seeking subjects for his photographs. It‘s a neat encapsulation of the objectivity and transparency Goldblatt strove for in his photographs recording Johannesburg during and after apartheid, which continue to be celebrated as among the most limpid and intimate representations of life in a society riven by racial division." - Apollo Magazine

Article: David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive

What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
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