Weekend Wrap: Music to Break Your Heart and Other Things

Each weekend, I like to pause, reflect, and look back on the past week. This isn't meant to be a deep dive or sweeping life philosophy—just a collection of things that caught my attention, made me think, brought me joy, or stayed with me in some way.

What I Noticed

I know I wrote about it earlier, but I still am thinking a lot about systems and optimization. I continue to be conflicted about how it all fits together with the ongoing need — and I continue to believe it is a need — for us to improve.

There is a balance. I'm trying to figure out what it is, but this week it became incredibly clear to me that part of this is our connections with others.

There is a power in realizing and understanding this. When others become the focus, when our systems are built with this key facet in mind, they become powerful. The temptation for obsession fades.

So, while Sartre isn't wrong when he wrote, "Hell is—other people," he also wasn't painting the full picture. Other people are also our salvation. Whatever that salvation looks like, I'm pretty sure we only achieve it together.

What Helped

Dungeons and Dragons.

It helped. It has, for years now.

Our group got together, again, this week. We generally play every other, but I will be out of town for the next couple and time zones will make it pretty much impossible for me to Zoom in. So we got together, murdered some wizards, cultists, and undead.

And had a blast.

Through this regular activity of getting together, I have made the best friends of my adult life. I have found my social anxiety quiet and fade in a way it hasn't in the previous twenty years.

Because of other people.

Maybe Sartre just needed to play tabletop RPGs with some friends.

What I’m Enjoying

Twenty years ago, Warning, helmed by Patrick Walker, dropped Watching From a Distance. These many years on, it is still considered one of doom metal's great masterpieces.

And also one of the "bleakest rock and metal albums of all time," by Kerrang.

But truly beloved, in large part because of the absolute gut-wrenching catharsis it manages to cram into its 5 songs. The band then dissolved.

This week, they released their third album, Rituals of Shame. Anyone who thought that twenty years would temper the bleakness in Walker's heart was wrong.

This picks up right where Watching From a Distance left off. Slow, emotional, and equally cathartic, Rituals of Shame is music for gray, cold, and rainy evenings. Those times when you look out at the world around you and wonder, "why?"

Perfect for a sunny June day.

What I’m Practicing

So much lately has just been getting ready for our trip. It is a big one. Honestly, this will be both the furthest from home, for the longest time, that my wife and I have both been.

She has traveled further and been gone for longer. But not I. And not both of us. So things have slowed down. Just getting ready to enjoy London. Back in 2 1/2 weeks.

Wrapping Up

I've been really taking stock of the people around me. I invite you to do the same. Really pay attention to them. Appreciate them. Value your connection with them.

It means more than we realize.