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Tuesday, October 26, 2021

The Four Agreements: Thumbs Down

I read a summary of the best-selling self-help book “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom”. I had never heard of it, but read that Tom Brady swears by it. Some revile the book, which claims to be an adjunct to religion, though at the end offers a prayer to the “creator” and re-defines sin as holding yourself back. Glad I didn’t bother with the actual book, which states that the more you leave behind the things you were taught in childhood, the more power you have to leave behind other harder assumptions and create your own reality.

1. Be impeccable with your word.  

2. Don’t take anything personally.

3. Don’t make assumptions.

4. Always do your best.

While the four agreements may be good advice (I know some who repeatedly violate all four agreements), it’s the corollaries that are bizarre and mystical. The whole story started with a dream, that everyone can be friends with the earth and moon and sun and the universe. Just goes to show what crap people will fall for.

While Brady calls the book “the mantra of his life”, he also has famously taken personally his opponents’ slights to use as motivation, like being picked in the sixth round of the draft.

https://www.thefouragreements.com/celebrities-like-tom-brady-use-the-four-agreements-to-navigate-public-scrutiny/

From the book I am reading, “Killing the Mob” (a history of how historic crime figures were brought to justice) I learned that the term “plastic surgery” was coined 80 years before the petroleum based material known as plastic was invented.

Gym shorts sure are more comfortable than regular shorts. I have enough pairs, but recently bought a pair of Puma gym shorts to match my Puma sneakers. Then yesterday I found a pair of Champion vintage basketball shorts, with stripes down the sides. I’d been looking for that exact pair for a long time, so I snapped them up.

Last weekend I was eating up the chicken salad that Ceil had made. She had only added celery and mayonnaise, so it lacked zing. I usually toast the bread, add mustard and cheese. Decided to add pickles, since I like my chicken salad with relish. Better. Perhaps I’ll be eating more pickles going forward.

Denison: we've discussed the relationship between private character and public service, noting that private sin keeps us from being used and rewarded by God while personal character positions us to be used publicly in ways we may not imagine at the time. While God forgives all we confess and forgets all he forgives, Satan does not. You may think you erased your sins from your spiritual "hard drive," but he keeps them until a time he can use them most effectively against us.

CRAIG COUNSELL  [SABR Bio] a former Colorado Rockie, is the only active National League manager with more than 500 career wins yet has only managed one team in the majors. Counsell with the Brewers. While all of Dave Roberts wins have come w/LAD, he was interim manager for one game with the Padres in 2015. Counsell has been compared to both a chicken and a chimney sweep. Baseball-Reference says his nickname is Chicken.”  Tim McCarver compared his batting stance to a “chimney sweep who missed a spot” during game one of the 2001 World Series. Counsell had more championship walk-off opportunities than at-bats for the team that drafted him. While he never delivered a walk-off hit for a championship, he tied Game 7 in the 1997 World Series with a sacrifice fly, and scored the winning run after reaching on an error in the 11th inning.  In 2001 he was hit by a pitch with runners on second and third.

Bob Uecker was rocking some snazzy sneakers during the Brewers' playoff run. 

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