Today is going to be a bit of a mixed bag. Every day my newsletter is a combination of what I read, hear and see. My job is to get into all of this and pull from it the most interesting pieces, wrap it up with as much honest commentary I have based on decades of life experience and deliver it to you!

Yesterday was Yom Kippur and from what I read today is the holiest day of the year for Jewish followers. I am not Jewish but I practice my faith as best I can. Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement”, and as a layperson, it is a day of fasting and contemplation. The absence of activity can help a person focus on forgiveness. In reading about this, I find it to be spiritually cleansing. My own faith has several days of fasting throughout the year and they are a great way to help me actively participate in contemplative thought.

The next version of the iPhone is set to hit stores soon. I read a great article from Seth Godin about upgrades. Favorite Quote from the article: “They’re not trying to sell you a phone any longer. Or a house. They’re spending all their time selling you an upgrade.” I have three working iPhones right now. I have a working iPhone 5 that is now 10 years old, I use it as a backup and iPod. I have an iPhone X I use for work and I have an iPhone 13 I use personally. What this means is there isn’t a need to upgrade my iPhone every 2 years, but the cell phone providers have made it too easy not to.

We are also working on a podcast that will go with the newsletter and With A Shout the podcast also sounds better.

The Hollywood sign is almost 100 years old. It was originally the “HOLLYWOODLAND” sign and represented a real estate development in 1923. The city of Los Angeles took the sign over in 1944 after the real estate development went bust and removed the word “land” from the original sign.

A couple of quick quotes from a famous Russian Philosopher.

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.”

“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”

But not through me. That’s it, that is all we have to do. Don’t let the lie come through you. As I’ve said before, it’s simple, not easy.

I’ve created a new form for gathering news and music pieces that helps organize some of the newsletter info. Progress is good!

Take some time this week for contemplation and give thought to forgiveness.

Nick Cave the Australian singer-songwriter and frontman for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds writes a newsletter called The Red Hand Files. Today he answered a few user questions and his answers about faith were inspiring.

I recommend signing up for the newsletter here: Subscribe

A busy newsletter today, full of news and interesting thoughts. Today’s music goes well with redemption, contemplation, and poetry. O Children.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedClick on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen on Spotify.

“Faith is not passive but fiercely active, so we need to invest in something of ourselves in the world to appreciate its value.” - Nick Cave

Be Good,

Johnny