Five Bullets 3.17.23
This week: Thinking, the Queens Coyote, NYC Parks & more
Hello and welcome back to Circles In Space for Five Bullet Friday, where each Friday I share some interesting stuff I collected during the week.
If you’re new to Circles In Space, I wrote a bit about myself and the process of creating this newsletter.
After some wind, rain and snow earlier in the week, Spring is nearly here in New York City with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 50s.
Today’s newsletter explores some topics I’m very passionate about: writing and parks. In the first bullet, we’ll look at an article on thinking and how our minds work. While reading the article, I noted my own thought processes. I’m more of a verbal thinker - I think with language instead of pictures. Writing things down helps make sense of the jumbled mess of thoughts in my head. Also, I think ‘better’ while walking. Sometimes the best thing for my writing, problem solving and general pondering is getting outside for a walk.
This week’s bullets:
Are you a visual or verbal thinker? Do you solve problems by talking them out or visualizing them? Does the voice in your head run on an endless monologue or do you see a procession of images? New Yorker article How Should We Think About Our Different Styles of Thinking? takes a look at how our minds work, which, as you might imagine, isn’t so simple to understand. Everyone’s pattern of thinking may be different and when we try to examine the pattern, the patterns can change. What kind of thinker are you?
A coyote was spotted in Queens last week! Though this is not a normal occurrence, coyotes have been seen before in the City. The coyote was filmed walking the sidewalks of Glen Oaks, Queens (near where I grew up). The article doesn’t explain how the coyote got to the area but nearby Alley Pond Park, at 635 acres, is the second largest park in Queens and a haven for all sorts of animal and plant life, including the tallest and oldest tree in New York City, the Queens Giant.
As a mayoral candidate, New York City Mayor Eric Adams supported an increase of funding for the Department of Parks & Recreation but Adams seems likely to cut funds in 2024. NYC Parks manages over 30,000 acres of parks, beaches, playgrounds, pools and more despite currently having one of the lowest budgets of any city department as well as any major U.S. city. New Yorkers For Parks released their Parks Impact Report, which explains how an increase to 1% of the city’s budget would improve the Parks system. Clean, maintained parks are vital to the City’s health and impacts every New Yorker.
At a recent speaking engagement, writer John Jeremiah Sullivan reads some of his poems and essays. I’ve shared Sullivan’s work in past newsletters. Hearing his words reminds me how much I enjoy his writing and why I revisit his book Pulphead at least once a year. Sullivan has an ability to observe clearly and then distill his observations into articulate, thought-provoking sentences which get to the deep core of the subject. In the linked video, Sullivan reads from his works The Toll and Uhtceare.
A post from The Marginalian shares some memorable quotes from famous writers extolling the benefits and difficulties of journaling. Journaling is an important part of my writing practice and overall wellbeing and over the past year I’ve made an entry (almost) ever morning. The Marginalian writer Maria Popova writes: “A journal is an artificially permanent record of thought and inner life, which are invariably transient”.
Which brings us full-circle back to the discussion raised in How Should We Think About Our Different Styles of Thinking? Perhaps the nature of the mind is “invariably transient”. We may think we know what we’re thinking but how much of it is just the stories we tell ourselves? Can we really know what’s going on up there?