Andrew Boardman

Neshamah, one of the Hebrew words for breath, also means soul. The sages of the Talmud suggest that upon awakening in the morning, a person should say, Elohai neshamah shenatata bi tehorah. “My God, the soul that you have placed within me is pure.” Berakhot 60b

Poet Yahia Lababidi on the power of listening:

“A good listener is one who helps us overhear ourselves.”

We call it a belief system because it's more than a collection of values. It's how we see the world and what is missing.

1. Make stuff you use every day —it makes for a better life.


2. Make it better —do less if you need to.


3. Nothing is finished —everything can be rethought.


4. Think small —make one small part of the world as it should be.


5. Slow down —put in

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We are debris arrangers. Equipped with what we have inherited, we try to make a life, make a living and make art. We are assemblers. We forge received parts into meaningful compositions. This state of affairs is our plight and our destiny, but it also offers the opportunity to find meaning as well as to find communion with others.”

I like overhearing more than I like being told. I love eavesdropping. That was the punishment in South America, that my Spanish is too bad for good eavesdropping.

You don't have to throw away your critical reasoning to accept that in the face of unknown potential, optimism beats pessimism. We all have to believe in something, and you're much better off believing that things can get better than not.

And I increasingly think our job, maybe our method of rebellion, is to be people who care, who have taste, who like and share and look for good things, who read and watch and look at those things on purpose instead of just staring slackjawed at whatever slop is placed between the ads they hope we won’t really notice.