“In high school I played center field. In Damn Yankees.”

by chuckofish

Yes, today’s blog title is from Brooklyn-99 which I am rewatching–but this time, I’m pausing to write down memorable lines. I know, I know, I don’t know how I am as cool as I am. I could not believe it when this video was published this week. I feel seen.

As I mentioned at the start of the year, I’m reading the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. I’m nearing the finish of book two–they are slow going, but very good. You can really get enveloped in the story and the myriad of characters. Anyway, I thought this was a great passage.

“To succeed as you want, you have to be precise; you have to have polish; you have to carry polish and precision into everything you do. You have no time to sigh over seigneuries and begrudge other people their gifts. Lack of genius never held anyone back,” said Lymond. “Only time wasted on resentment and daydreaming can do that. You never did work with your whole brain and your whole body at being an Archer; and you ended neither soldier nor seigneur, but a dried-out huddle of grudges strung cheek to cheek on a withy.”

Francis Lymond to Robin Stewart in The Queen’s Play by Dorothy Dunnett

And because I’m going to continue this thread of writing about things I’ve written about before, I received the new Magnolia Journal last week. As you know, I just love Chip and Jo. I think they are so great and I am so grateful for the work they do. Chip always used to annoy me a little bit on the show–he’s so goofy. But lately, I’ve realized, he’s really just a joy-filled person. He wrote the below in his “Chip Gets the Last Word” column at the end of the magazine and I thought it was pretty great.

“Our culture has come to quantify influence based on algorithms, not beating hearts. Impact is estimated by the number of views, likes, or shares a social media post or viral video gets in a day. But rarely do we get to see how far that impact goes, whether it changes a thing for anyone on the receiving end. Besides, these days the state is already so crowded, and the shooting match already so convoluted, that our world is becoming overwhelmed with all the noise that comes at us day after day. Noise we’ll never fully control, hard as we might try. And it makes me wonder if maybe we’re missing the forest for the trees.

…

I believe our homes are wear our intentions take root. And that on most days my most powerful platform looks an awful lot like our kitchen table and the conversations that happen there. Nurturing the vales we want to stand for when there’s no audience but the seven of us. So that one day when the world is watching, our actions will speak louder than words ever could.”

Chip Gaines in Magnolia Journal, Spring ’22

Happy Wednesday! Hopefully the impending snow will turn out to be nothing…