Inspired Learnings
Brain Pickings, a blog by Maria Popova that is a personal favorite, celebrates its seventh birthday this week. Originally “start[ed as] a weekly digest featuring five stimulating things to learn about each week, from a breakthrough in neuroscience to a timeless piece of poetry,” it is proof that a blog can be smart, savvy, and inspirational. So much so, that Brain Pickings is now archived at the U.S. Library of Congress as “material of historical importance.” Over the years, I have shared a number of posts—addressing creative inspiration; celebrating reading, math, and science; reminding us about balance and perseverance; and even offering guidance on how to write a well-crafted story—with our community.
In celebration of this seventh birthday, Ms. Popova shared seven things she learned during the time she has worked on the blog. I passed on two at the Monday Assembly and invited attendees to read the others in this week’s post.
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I first shared: “Do Nothing for Prestige or Status or Money or Approval Alone.” While these motivations may produce short-lived feelings of accomplishment, they do not sustain us over the long term. I then merged this idea with another favorite learning of Ms. Popova to suggest a sustaining motivation of “Being Generous.”
Our Community Code offers ample opportunity for applying your generosity. For example, our eighth grade host this week, Christian, spoke about the importance of being generous with courage, the third tenet of our code, in his presentation at the Monday Assembly. I believe also that being generous with your awareness, caring, honesty, and efforts to seek inspiration and to inspire others will result in a fulfilling life.
Another learning from Ms. Popova’s blog that inspired me reflects a theme I have shared in a variety of ways at the Monday Assembly this year: “Expect that anything worthwhile will take a long time.” Our technological culture has seduced us into expecting that things happen fast, so we quickly move on to the next thing. We see people whom we define as successful—athletes, performing artists, business and political leaders—and assume that their successes were achieved overnight. We don’t see the lifetime of work and attention that led to their successes. I believe excellence is a process of building, one block at a time, which we should savor. Let’s model that for our children.
I wish a very happy birthday to Brain Pickings and Maria Popova. I hope to continue to find wisdom in her stimulating learnings each week.
I closed the Monday Assembly with this advice, which Albert Einstein shared with one of his sons, to consider as we sat in silence.
I closed the Monday Assembly with this advice, which Albert Einstein shared with one of his sons, to consider as we sat in silence.
“That is the way to learn the most, to do something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that time passes.”
Brad Weaver, Ed.D
Head of School
Head of School
Sonoma Country Day School
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