this is 8/27

• Do we improve ourselves for our own sake (to achieve / produce / impress more) or for the sake of others (to love, to give, to serve)? is self-improvement any good if it is selfishly driven, or are we just making ourselves more machine-like?

• Water democratizes beauty. Every body under water is beautiful, reptilian, slithering through the blue. Awe-inspiring because of the way it moves, and not because of its proportions or how much space it takes up. I watched a one-armed, pot-bellied man swim yesterday, and his elegance was remarkable. At the public pool, I often submerge myself completely and just watch the bodies pass on by.Then I lift my eyes above the water and watch the rhythmic motion of arms move in and out, in and out.

• How to create space for grace?

• Addictions are always attached to a compulsive behavior.

• The best things in life are rarely prizes won, but gifts given, or received.

• The chocolate rye tart at Tartine is my current favorite food. A swell $4 dinner. I rarely go to Tartine because it's crowded and touristy. But damn, it is good as ever.

• Benefit of doubt: every person has a complex interior life. Most of these lives I will never be privy to, but I acknowledge they exist.

• Three years ago, I was 100 pounds and starving myself. I'm finally writing about this, in more depth than I have ever before. It's the most difficult writing I've ever done, but it feels important, feels necessary.