November/December 2017: The Radical Nature of Sincerity Â
Books Bought
None
Books Borrowed (all @ Multnomah Public Library)
Most Likely to Succeed by Tony Wagner & Ted Dintersmith
White Tears by Hari Kunzru
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker
Getting Smart by Tom Vander Ark
A Natural by Ross Raisin
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Books Read
Most Likely to Succeed by Tony Wagner & Ted Dintersmith
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
A Natural by Ross Raisin
White Tears by Hari Kunzru
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker
(half of ) Getting Smart by Tom Vander Ark
Most Likely to Succeed is the educational book every American should read to better understand why teaching and learning is so (generally) awful in the United States. Despite the wrong framing of the solution around education that supports entrepreneurialism, the authors skillfully lay out the problem and show how the historical legacy of educational standardization has wrought a system of testing that measures things that donât really matter. And despite the scope of the problem, I found it profoundly inspiring, sparking a moonshot educational idea of my own that I hope could change what happens in classrooms across the world.
Given that level of personal impact, and even considering the merits of the beautiful and heartbreaking soccer (sorry football) story A Natural and the eerie parable of racial retribution in White Tears, itâs disorienting to admit that The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up was the most meaningful book I read as 2017 came to a close. Itâs not the writing or the simple but intriguing method it advocates, but rather it was the earnestness of the author.Â
David Foster Wallace talked a lot about sincerity, and to paraphase a quote I remember (but canât find again), he said something along the lines of âthe most radical thing you can do at the end of the twentieth century is to be sincere.â And so when Kondo write home tidying tips like this itâs easy to make fun of her:
âThe first thing I do when I visit a clientâs home is to greet their house. I kneel formally on the floor in the center of the house and address the house in my mind. After giving a brief self-introduction, including my name, address, and occupation, I ask for help in creating a space where the family can enjoy a happier life. Then I bow.â (pg 188)
But rather than tease her (our default 21st century response to all of lifeâs problems) perhaps we can learn something from this level of sincerity and ceremony. After a year of bad-news-exhaustion when resistance felt both essential and impossible, it was inspiring to think that getting rid of some of my books that I hadn't cracked in 22 years could actually do something profound. So thank you Marie Kondo for helping me remember why I read books: to revel in the profundity in the mundane. Â
