New Year's Resolution: Simplicity

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While others are making lists of New Year’s resolutions, I have only one: simplicity. I used to make lists of resolutions. It seemed comforting and the thing to do. But lists of resolutions have become nothing more than yet another to-do list in a world of too many things to do. What’s needed isn’t another list, but a principle that takes away the need to have a list. That principle is simplicity.

Simplicity means reducing the number of things you do in a day. It means focusing on the task at hand. Because we divide up our days in 24 hours and we need sleep, simplicity means limiting the number of tasks we do in any given day. How much time have we spent tweeting, sending text messages, updating our profile on the various online social networks we have joined? Was all that necessary?

I will be the first to admit that I have spent countless wasted hours reading blog posts, commenting on them, posting on Twitter, reading and retweeting tweets, updating my Facebook page, and then wondering why I don’t have time for anything else and why I feel so unsettled. I don’t want to spend 2010 in this way. To start the year, I have cut in half the number of blogs I subscribe to and am limiting my time on Twitter.

As for my offline life, I have been doing my daily meditation, spending time with friends, cooking, reading books that have been screaming for attention on my bookshelf, and writing. I feel peaceful and grounded.

17th Century Christmas music

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I love Christmas carols, especially the traditional ones from 19th century England. But if you want to go farther back in time and listen to 17th century Christmas music, make sure you get these songs from the album “Angels and Shepherds” (in MP3 format) recorded by the Netherlands Bach Society (Nederlands Bachvereniging). Among the composers whose work they perform are Bach and Buxtehude. The Netherlands Bach Society’s choir and Capella Figuralis perform the vocals. Jos van Veldhoven, is the conductor. Hearing these heavenly voices and melodies brings me closer to the first Christmas.

Angels and Shepherds 17th Century Christmas

You can buy the CD from Amazon.com: Angels & Shepherds 17th Century Christmas

John Cheever on fiction

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John Cheever is my favorite writer. His short stories are masterpieces. Here is what he says about fiction (from The Paris Review Interviews, Vol III):

Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction. One never puts down a sentence without the feeling that it has never been put down before in such a way, and that perhaps even the substance of the sentence has never been felt. Every sentence is an innovation. [my emphasis]

Recommended reading:

The Stories of John Cheever

The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. III

Amsterdam-Paris high speed train just got faster: 3 hours 18 min

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thalys amsterdam to paris

Thalys high speed rail Amsterdam to Paris

What used to be a 4 hour plus train ride is now only 3 hours and 18 minutes. The Thalys TGV between Paris and Amsterdam is finally running at its intended speed. After many years of incompetent bumbling around, the Netherlands railway authority and the Dutch government finally got their act together. This comes years after the Belgians were already allowing the high-speed trains to run at high speeds through Belgium. Sigh.

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Norman Fischer on the spirituality of art

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From The Spirituality of Art:

Imagination draws its energy from a confrontation with desire. It feeds off desire, transmuting and magnifying reality through desire’s power. Fantasy does the opposite; it avoids desire by fleeing into a crude sort of wish-fulfillment that seems much safer. Fantasy might be teddy bears, lollipops, sexual delights, or superhero adventures; it also might be voices in one’s head urging acts of outrage and mayhem. Or it might be the confused world of separation and fear we routinely live in, a threatening yet seductive world that promises us the happiness we seek when our fantasies finally become real. Imagination confronts desire directly, in all its discomfort and intensity, deepening the world right where we are. Fantasy and reality are opposing forces, but imagination and reality are not in opposition: imagination goes toward reality, shapes and evokes it.

Rome in October: the Eternal City still enchants

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View of the Colosseum from the Palatine Hill

View of the Colosseum from the Palatine Hill in Rome

The best time to visit Rome is NOT in the summer, but in the early fall or in the spring. October is a perfect because the churches and museums are not as crowded, the restaurants are serving classic autumn dishes such as tagliolini with black truffel, and the air has a cool crispness that encourages walking and exploration.

Most people, myself included, have visited Rome in the sweltering heat of July when walking up the Palatine Hill feels like a death sentence handed down by Caesar Augustus. When you finally make it down from the Palatine Hill to the Forum to marvel at the columns of the Temple of Saturn and the Arch of Septimus Severus, you find yourself drenched in sweat and in such a foul mood that instead of spending the time to make out the details of the carvings on the Arch of Titus, notably, Roman soldiers carrying off loot taken from the Temple in Jerusalem, including the only concrete proof that there was a menorah in the Temple, all you want to do is seek shelter from the sun. Alas, this is the Forum and there are no trees. So you find yourself crouching behind one of the columns, together with hundreds of other tourists. Therefore, Rule no. 1 is do not visit Rome in July or August.

My visit to Rome in October of this year was simply marvelous. The weather couldn’t have been better: in the evenings, one needs a light jacket, but during the day, it is warm enough to walk around in summer clothes. Romans are already outfitted in their best fall clothes, including knit jackets with fur trim, gorgeous lightweight cashmere coats and boots. I find people-watching in Rome as entertaining and informative as a walk through the Pantheon.

I have begun posting reviews of restaurants and boutique hotels on Mapplr and will finish this week with a short guide to my favorite shops and restaurants in the city, as well as practical tips on getting around, finding Wi-Fi and more.

I posted my Rome photos in two sets on Flickr: one shows the Forum and Palatine Hill (above), and the other has shots of Rome’s neighborhoods and the Pantheon (below).

Check out my recent posts on Mapplr (with more to come):

Kame Hall: modern boutique hotel in the heart of Rome

Al Pompiere: traditional Roman cuisine in an old palazzo

Il Buco: excellent Tuscan food near the Pantheon in Rome

Mapplr’s favorite restaurants and cafes in Rome

Mapplr’s favorite hotels in Rome