The Tea Letter #2 (Stories, Algorithms, and Historical Fiction)
Hey friend,
Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about the importance of stories. I care about what stories mean to mankind because for most of our history, humans communicated our traditions, wisdom, knowledge, and ideas through stories.
When I was a child, I was raised on classic rock. The family radio was almost always dialed to either 94.7 or 107.1--the "oldies" stations. Of course, it was oldies to me. For my parents, it was their childhood.
As I got older my rock obsession deepened. I learned to play guitar with a Beatles “fake book”. I would fantasize about growing up in the golden days of rock and roll. What must it have been like to hear bands like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Cream on the radio? Or even better--live?
Both of my parents grew up in Detroit (also known as "Rock City"). My dad, a "long-haired" rock and roller, saw Yes open for Black Sabbath before anyone knew who Yes was. ("Yes stole the show," my dad said.) I once asked him what those days were like. He said: "Rock wasn't just music for us; it was a lifestyle."
Rock and roll was a lifestyle--his lifestyle. I can't download his memories (yet) and I can't go back in time, but I felt a bit of what it was like to be alive back then through his stories.
Tea of the Day
While packing for my move from San Francisco, I found a sealed pack of tea my mother-in-law sent me from Japan that I never drank. I brought it with me and recently opened it for a taste.
The only thing I know about it is it’s likely kama-iri (pan-fried) tea from Ureshino, which is located in the Saga Prefecture of Kyushu. Saga is famous for this style of green tea, which is known as the “Chinese style”. Unlike the seaweed umami and fresh sweetness of steamed green tea, I feel kama-iri tea is more savory and bold.
The overwhelming feeling I get drinking this tea is the rich, sweet, and savory experience of eating a bowl of Cheerios cereal in whole fat milk. It’s such a powerful associative memory it’s almost all I can think about. I haven’t eaten Cheerios in years, but one sip of this tea transports me straight back to my childhood.
Recent Readings
Fiction Books: The Anti-Algorithm, by Matt Tillotson
One of my favorite new writer frenemies (we’re sports rivals) wrote a piece on why he thinks fiction is the anti-algorithm. I strongly recommend reading it, but here's the gist:
Fiction breaks us out of the search algorithm. The hunt for new fiction is usually one of divergence and then convergence. We hunt broadly and try many different things before we find a book, series, or author we want to dive in on. Algorithms try to do this job for us by telling us what they think we like, removing the exploration and joy of finding a new book and leading to read the same things everyone else does.
Fiction teaches empathy as we learn to connect with people who are different from us in a non-threatening environment. We get to try on different worldviews, personalities, and perspectives in a safe way.
Fiction teaches social skills by improving our focus. The focus required to get through over 1,000 pages of one Game of Thrones book is the same focus required to engage meaningfully in conversation with others. Through reading fiction, we also learn how to consider others' goals and perspectives.
I’ve been reading epic fantasy and fiction since I was a child. If you want recommendations, I’ve got plenty. Find me on Twitter or Instagram or hit reply and ask me for my favorites.
My New Obsession: Historical Fiction
I am increasingly obsessed with historical fiction. I've always loved history and part of my enjoyment comes from imagining the experience people from the past had as a part of their daily lives. Historical fiction lets me not only enjoy historical experiences more intimately, but it does so while satisfying my other curiosity: exploring the “whys” and “what-ifs” that are so common in the timeline of human history.
Here are a couple selections from a pair of historical fiction books I’ve recently enjoyed from the same author--Eiji Yoshikawa.
Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa
Miyamoto Musashi is known as the greatest swordsman who ever lived in Japan. In this fictional account of his rise to fame, he’s watching two potters make simple clay wares. At first, he thought something as simple as a tea bowl must be easy to make. How hard could it be to make a bowl, after all?
He quickly learns he is completely wrong:
“Since boyhood he had enjoyed doing things with his hands, and he thought he might at least be able to make a simple tea bowl. Just then, however, one of the potters, an old man of nearly sixty, started fashioning a tea bowl. Musashi, observing how deftly he moved his fingers and handled his spatula, realized he’d overestimated his own abilities. “It takes so much technique just to make a simple piece like that,” he marveled. These days he often felt deep admiration for other people’s work. He found he respected technique, art, even the ability to do a simple task well, particularly if it was a skill he himself had not mastered.
...Contemplating the skill, concentration and devotion put into making wares, even as cheap as these, made Musashi feel he still had a long way to go if he was ever to reach the level of perfection in swordsmanship that he aspired to.”
What I love about this passage is how quickly he realizes the simplest things are the hardest. Not only that, but he goes from an arrogant feeling of “I could do this” to “I have a long way to go” in a short moment of observing a master craftsman at work.
That sort of introspection and humility has a lot to offer every one of us in our daily lives.
Taiko, by Eiji Yoshikawa
Taiko is another piece of historical fiction covering Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s rise from an impoverished peasant to shogun. He broke into the samurai scene by literally carrying the sandals of Oda Nobunaga, the first of the three great unifiers of medieval Japan (Hideyoshi himself being the second).
When he was promoted from sandal-bearer to stable manager--a dead-end job as far as the samurai men born into wealth and status were concerned--he went about the task with enthusiasm:
“Unlike other men, he was able to find pleasure in any job that he was given, but this was not simply because he was born poor. Rather, he saw the work at hand as a preparation for the next task. He was convinced that this was the way he would one day realize his ambitions.”
Hideyoshi was able to thrive in jobs that would have sent other highborn men into despair. He knew the task in front of him was just the next obstacle in the way in his ambitious path to become a true samurai lord.
With this attitude, he overcame his lowborn peasant status and rose to sit at Oda Nobunaga’s side as one of his lead generals. He would be the one to take revenge after his liege lord’s betrayal and ritual suicide at Honnō-ji and from there establish himself as shogun--military ruler of all Japan.
Certainly a lesson or two in there for each of us.
That’s all for this edition of the Tea Letter. Until next time, happy drinking.
Mike
P.S. If you love historical fiction too and have favorites to share, please hit reply and send me all your recommendations!