1. Austin Kleon on violence and Bach:
… I’m not just trying to raise “gentlemen,” I’m trying to raise gentle men, men who have a full range of emotions and expression available to them. But it’s just so hard. Even if they’re home with me all day right now, I can’t protect them. They were born into a country steeped in violence. A country where killing machines are sold in convenience stores. A country that has a longtime habit of dropping bombs on innocent children just like them. A country that sees kids their age shot to death in classrooms and won’t do a thing about it.
The only thing I feel like I can do is make my home a haven, a place where we celebrate things of beauty and rationality and love and peace. Bach’s music is one of those things.
2. From Buzzfeed (I know), 3 Anxiety Tips You’ve Heard, And 7 You Probably Haven’t. Number 7 is genius (“I keep photographic evidence of my [locked] door and my oven’s knobs when I leave for vacation“) but the suggestion to watch horror movies to channel anxiety is just right out for me.