More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
November 10 - November 15, 2019
To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time. —LEONARD BERNSTEIN
I couldn’t let it go, and I realized why: focusing on a glorious fairy tale was a lot more pleasant than the ugly reality that was kicking us in the face.
Movement is big medicine; it’s the signal to every cell in our bodies that no matter what kind of damage we’ve suffered, we’re ready to rebuild and move away from death and back toward life.
For most of human existence, animal intuition wasn’t just common; it was a matter of life or death.
With canines at our side, we became masters of the universe; these new companions were our night watchmen, our GPS guides, our first-wave assault team.
We had animals on the brain for more than 300,000 years—and then, out of the blue, Edison and Ford came along and stole our hearts.
Our brains, our bodies, our conscious and subconscious minds—they all evolved in response to the creatures around us.
But among prisoners who’ve worked with animals, the recidivism rate tends to be as low as 10 percent.
and they found that the dogs weren’t just entertaining the kids; they were creating a pharmacological reaction.
the “love hormone”—oxytocin.
During those sunny moments when you feel the world is a wonderful place and you’re lucky to be here, more than likely you’re experiencing a burst of oxytocin.
Our animal intuition is dead. If you want proof, take a look at Cesar Millan’s bank account.
Deep inside, we still feel that ancient yearning to connect with other creatures. But when we try, it’s a disaster.
“People think I have a special power,” Millan has said. “The dog changes when I come in, and for them that is magic. But the dog is not thinking, ‘Thank God Cesar finally got here!’ The dog is responding to my energy. In the animal world, everything is energy.”
When it comes to training animals, dogs are beginner level, pure bunny slope.
After 30,000 or so years, we’ve created the MacBook of the animal kingdom, a creature ready to operate right out of the box.
Donkeys don’t react; they reason.
“Indians didn’t have donkeys,” Curtis says. “They saw ours and thought they were called ‘Goddamnyous.’
Dude, he’s like the Good Will Hunting of donkeys.”
“Anything you want a donkey to do, you’ve got to make him think it’s his idea.
This was the time to decide, she said, between “easing” and “flooding.”
I haven’t found any goat that does not like pasta.”
You’re not his dictator, she began.* You’re not his slave driver. You’re his leader.
That’s how a herd works: it doesn’t matter if you’re in the lead or bringing up the rear, you have to prove you’re on the ball. Donkeys operate on one frequency—trust. They do nothing on faith, but everything on certainty.
The Amish have a better retention rate than Netflix: roughly 90 percent of young Amish adults choose to stick with the faith and join the church for life.
the five words that define Amish life: Slow down. Savor your world.
Patience and kindness don’t show up on demand; they’re disciplines that require constant practice, and there is no better boot camp for learning those skills than hitching your survival to your ability to discern—and respect—the needs of another creature.
The Amish aren’t closed to the world, he’s saying; they’re just a little more goal-oriented about how much of it to let in.
Bird-in-Hand is now ranked as one of the best and most memorable races in the country, partly because of the sheer beauty of the Valley of No Wires, but mostly because of the warmth and friendliness of the Amish hosts.
Dreams are the beginning of every new adventure, and our greatest dreams come
“It’s all about building a bank of goodwill. You never want to draw down too much. You want to keep adding to the reserve, one good experience after another.
Brain opioids are so powerful that if you exercise, you can lower your “mental health burden” by nearly 25 percent and enjoy a much higher ratio of positive mental health days—a whopping 43 percent—than non-exercisers experience.
When researchers dig into the mental health histories of athletes, that’s exactly what they discover: the most perilous moment is when athletes face “injuries, career termination, decline in performance, or a catastrophic performance.”
There’s no way you’re going to alpha-male a burro into doing what you want, so Hal had to take a step back and recondition himself to accept, adapt, and improvise.
If meeting your hero someday is on your bucket list, take it from me: you will never feel more naked, more awkward and useless and stripped to your bare insecurities, than being invited to stand next to your god and show your stuff.
“Figure out your own mistake before you start crying about the burro.”
problems come in two flavors: “Stubbed your toe” versus “Lost control of the chain saw.” You need to determine the degree of damage, in other words, before you decide the degree of response.
With donkeys, there’s no such thing as a tiny glitch. Every stubbed toe is a gathering storm.
“All creatures have a biological imperative: The sun is up, so how do I fill my day?”
I leaned into the hill that the hard facts were a lot more helpful than a happy lie.
“Remember what I told you with the Copper Canyon race? You don’t start with today and aim toward your goal. You start with the goal, and aim back toward today. Do it like that, and you’ll always find a way.”
It’s not even toughness or luck; it’s just math. Spot your finish line, count the steps to get there, and take them one at a time.
Burro racing is one of those rare, beautiful, come one/come all events that doesn’t care a hoot about the size of the dog in the fight, or even the size of the fight in the dog: muscle and testosterone are no match for stamina, patience, and respect for your teammate.
Even though Boulder is a hotbed of endurance athletes and only a few hours from Fairplay, the two are separated by the iron curtain dividing Carhartt from kombucha.
Talkers aren’t listeners, and Barb had seen too many first-timers who acted like ugly Americans abroad, thinking all they had to do was shout louder instead of learning the language.
“If you engage in a partnership with them—if you are polite, considerate, respectful in the things you ask—and you keep it fun and exciting, they’ll like doing things with you. They like the extra excitement. They think it’s pretty cool.”
The pros could run like the wind, but they couldn’t partner for crap.
Running fast can auto-correct your biomechanics, he explained, while slow leads to sloppy.
The Thirty-Second Drill was kind of genius: it was a workout, biomechanical feedback device, and fitness tracker all in one.
Hills are the universal equalizer; that’s why even in races, shrewd ultrarunners will hike any terrain that makes them lift their heads.
