Go Gentle by Maria Semple is a stunning, stunning, stunning book, and I’ve loved all of the philosophical questions woven through the book, even more once you learn how she got into philosophy.

On page 60, she’s watching the ground crew at her workplace tend the library’s massive garden. They switch out the annuals to go with the season, and she muses: “The efficiency and finished product never failed to impress. But ultimately, it felt airless and safe. Me, I’m a God’s-will girl.”

Of course, you need to pause and ask yourself: Are you a wild garden sort of person or a tended garden? Does “tended” automatically mean airless and safe? Does “wild” automatically give you room to breathe?

Me, I’m definitely a tended garden sort of person. I would rather have safe over surprises.

How about you?

I learned about a website from Kottke that allows you to see reciprocal library card options. I knew about all of the ones tied to my card, but then I started looking up libraries that had reciprocal agreements with my original library, and they had reciprocal agreements with other libraries. I looked at the library furthest east, west, south, and north, often finding that one of my reciprocal partnerships opened up into a whole new set of additional partnerships.

It’s kind of an odd idea: Could you cross the US building on reciprocal partnerships? I think I may have found myself a summer project.

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I’ve had “Simple Gifts” stuck in my head for weeks due to a line in A Deadly Education where she uses it as a meditation. Oh no. I read the line, and the song started looping in my head, over and over again.

Then Josh asked if I wanted to see The Testament of Ann Lee. A movie about Shakers? “Simple Gifts” is a Shaker song. The song went back into my brain.

Finally, we went to the symphony, and lo and behold, the final song of the evening? Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, which contains… yes… you guessed it… THE TUNE OF “SIMPLE GIFTS.”

I am never going to get this song out of my head.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I saw this on a website and thought it was a fun idea that captures some of the old excitement that came with developing a roll of film. Remember that? When you would take pictures on a trip or at a party, and you wouldn’t know for weeks—or months!—how they turned out? They could be terrible. Or they could be the most amazing photo ever.

I feel sad that kids never experience the rush of getting a sleeve of photos back. I also feel relieved knowing that all my pictures are great before I leave somewhere. But in case you miss it, this is an app that lets you take a limited number of photos and then makes you wait to see them, mimicking a roll of film.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

I feel everything in this essay very deeply:

By most objective measures, I’m doing quite well, financially … But there’s this hum underneath everything. This feeling that no matter how much I accumulate, I’m never going to feel financially “okay” — which is as much a state of mind as it is a number.

I think it began for me when I started to think about retirement. How much would I have to save to think we’ll be okay? What about the stuff we can’t predict? You very rarely come into unexpected money, but it’s pretty common to have hidden expenses.

And then it spilled over into pre-retirement life. What is enough? Where is the “okay” line, where you actually feel okay and not just rationally acknowledge that you’re okay?

And then it’s not just me. It’s this next generation. Will they be okay? And if they’re not okay, that’s going to impact all of us.

But mostly, I loved this piece near the end:

Be suspicious of any analysis that makes you feel only helpless. The doom-scroll economy benefits from your nihilism … Some of the doom is real. Some of it is a very specific class of writer describing their own anxiety and universalizing it. In other words, take everything with a grain of salt.

Thank you for this reminder.

And passing this along in case it resonates with you, too.

Ted Lasso is one of those shows that get better and better with each viewing. There were so many things I noticed the second time I viewed the series, or lines that landed differently the third time through. I’m currently watching the entire series for a fourth time to get ready for Season 4 on August 5.

The world feels really hard. Watching Ted Lasso feels good. They fix their bad choices, apologize for their mistakes, and bring their humanness to every scene.

Will you watch?

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

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But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• • None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Scientist on the Roof is having major bird drama, and I am here for it. Go pop some popcorn and see who wins. Are you Team Bluebird or Team Chickadee? This made me laugh.

Lastly, it was NIAW, which used to be a huge deal in the ALI blogosphere. Finding a Different Path writes about inclusive infertility awareness. After her former clinic collects thank yous on their post, she writes, “But when I saw comment after comment thanking the clinic for the existence of children, I felt like the narrative was skewed. And of course it is — who is going to thank them for not succeeding?” She did because there is a lot to say about the process itself and your experience on it separate from the outcome. I love this post for everything she points out.

The roundup to the Roundup: New Ted Lasso season in August. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between April 24 – May 1) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.