I listen to a lot of baseball on the radio. In fact, I am even working on a plan for a weekly Mets podcast for next year. I dabbled with some beta-testing this year. You can find them under the podcast tab.

I am also beginning to interview people for next year's big project, The Emotional Census. This is what it sounds like, a census focused on our emotional lives. It will be much more a qualitative census than the census. So good things coming as I try and find a way for the Urbanmonks to thrive in this online world.

This picture is a cool one to share, for it is a preview of things to come. I sketched this based on an interview with my friend Adam, a barista and all-around nice guy. We are going to get into charts - into making our emotional lives more visual, so we can understand them better. Here is an example of the long view, an emotional chart that is meant to encompass the entire life of the individual.

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Ok, back to the book. I am going through the book in chronological order, in case you were wondering. We just finished the intro and now we are diving into the chapter, Studying Wisdom. So happy to share this with you. This excerpt really sums up a lot of what drives my research, me, my life. Interwoven French-braid style. Well, it is never that neat.

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Studying Wisdom

I began to study wisdom in search of a solution, a solution to the high rates of anxiety, depression, and addiction in our culture. We did already have some solutions, but these were reactive, after-the-fact solutions. I found myself wondering, where are the before-the-fact, proactive solutions? Did we have any? Could a wisdom curriculum serve as a proactive solution, with the goal of nurturing the growth of emotionally healthy people?

I began to search for wisdom. Could I find it and observe it and learn the nature of wisdom. I searched for wisdom in individuals, wisdom in families, wisdom in schools, wisdom in nature, wisdom in neighborhoods. I sought out wisdom in foresight, in sound planning and design, and wisdom in hindsight, in thoughtful reaction and response.

I began to understand that the wisdom of our minds is related to the wisdom of places, for we are shaped by the culture that surrounds us. What does a wise workplace, a wise school or a wise home look like? What are the elements of physical design and social design that can foster wisdom? How do we engender wisdom in our schools and homes?