Hello,
This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. I deeply admire teachers, and I’m so fortunate to have been taught by many extraordinary teachers throughout my life. A few of my most vivid memories: my formidable teacher Mrs. Fritz telling our fifth-grade class that she’d re-read Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel The Secret Garden every year of her life; my professor Richard Brodhead telling my English literature class, “I have no time to digress—but how can I resist reading this Emily Dickinson poem aloud?”; Judge Ralph Winter telling my law school Business Organization class, “The investor is wise who diversifies.” (That last teaching moment was particularly notable: it taught me the value of the fluency heuristic, and I heard it as I was sitting in class near Jamie—then my crush, now my husband.)
These days, I love collecting Proverbs of the Professions from teachers. A few of my favorites: Attention-seeking behavior is connection-seeking behavior; When you take a child by the hand, you take a parent by the heart; The children who are hardest to love need it the most.
Need end-of-year ideas for great gifts for teachers, to show your appreciation? We asked this question of Happier podcast listeners and collected their helpful answers here.
By the way—Please forward this newsletter to people who you think might enjoy it. You can click here to read previous editions.
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5 Things Making Me Happy
My new book Life in Five Senses (can’t resist mentioning: New York Times bestseller) gave me the chance to write about my love of color, and I wanted my clothes for the book tour to be colorful. I got a big kick of having one outfit that was ketchup red from top to bottom (it looks better than it sounds), a chartreuse cardigan, purple earrings, and gold shoes. Now I just need to figure out what to do with my odd little writing project, “My Color Pilgrimage.” |
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Recording the audiobook for Life In Five Senses was such an interesting process. For one thing, I learned a lot of proper pronunciations. Ahead of time, my director sent a list of 59 tricky words, such as names of people (Dorothy Kunhardt), artworks (Sarcophagus of Harkhebit), places (Eleusis), materials (maiolica), and foods (ke-tsiap sauce). Despite the long list, we had to stop several times during the recording to check challenging words such as “satiety,” “lazuli,” “Weimaraner,” “madeleine,” and “Worcestershire.” Useful hack: I now often use the site “youglish.com,” a site that gathers clips of videos showing real people pronouncing a certain word or name. If you’re curious to know more about the behind-the-scenes work of recording an audiobook, I wrote about it here. |
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I was delighted to spot my book The Happiness Project in a scene in the season finale of Fantasy Island. Elizabeth told me that when the writers asked, “What book should the character be holding?” she proposed my book. What a nice sister! Fun fact: that book also appeared in Big Little Lies, Orange is the New Black, The Night Agent, and JEOPARDY!
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For my book tour, I was recently in Toronto, where I rode the subway. It’s always interesting to check out the different look of a city’s subway system, and I particularly noticed the design of the seats. So I was delighted to come across this article, “The Good, Bad, and Ugly Public Transit Seat Covers of the World.” It always astonishes me how much thought and care go into so many decisions that I take for granted as I move through my days. |
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This week on Happier with Gretchen Rubin
PODCAST EPISODE: 429
We talk about why and how we should try the Strategy of Unpairing when trying to change a habit. We also discuss an easy way to get more exercise while traveling, and how to know when to accept ourselves—and when to expect more from ourselves. Plus a listener asks for suggestions for dealing more effectively with a Rebel father who resists help.
Listen now>
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ARTICLE
A Quick, Easy—and Pleasant—Way to Boost Your Focus, Energy, and Health |
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ARTICLE
Four Levels of Mental Energy — Do You Agree With These? |
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