• It was Mary’s Oliver birthday yesterday. Read about it here and here.

Amid the harshness of life, Mary Oliver found redemption in the natural world and in beautiful, precise language. Oliver, who died in 2019, was one of the most beloved poets of modern times.

“On Being” – Mary Oliver; Listening to the World

---

• Eric Topol’s interview with Paul A. Offit on vaccines. Via Medscape.

---

• To be creative, abandon your originality.

The Zhuangzi (莊子), a classical Chinese philosophical and literary text, provides a different perspective. On one interpretation, creativity isn’t conceived as aiming at novelty or originality, but rather integration. Instead of aiming at something new, it aims at something that combines well with the situation of which it’s a part.

Julianne Chung via Aeon

---

• Why every year—but especially 2020—feels like the worst ever? A hint: Unfettered media consumption skews our perception of the present.

---

• A great interview with David Epstein (the author od “Range”). Via Writing Routines.

Until the next time.