Eric, I am loving the Digest! It's a great way for me to catch up on articles I may have missed. One thing I love about the zebra-print shoe essay is how it illuminates the inherent kindness of Italian people. And I have to tell you: I like you even more now knowing you're a cyclist. Just like you, there's no way I would have left that bike on the side of the road!
Thank you, Annie! That's exactly my goal: helping people catch up on what they might have missed. That, plus highlighting some of the wonderful comments I've seen.
I do think there's an inherent kindness here, but also a kind of strange cruelty. That's one of the country's contractions.
The police captain was sweet to send the officer in Rome, and the other cops certainly leapt into action on realizing the woman was clinging to life. But they were also flippant in referring to her with the vulgar word "mignota," and a couple of the cyclists on my former team were unusually crude by nature. All of us, I guess, have a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. But I bet they tailor their messages.
Sadly, at the moment I'm a *former* cyclist. Knee issues. But I miss it. So you cycle? What kind of bike do you have? Is it a road bike or off-road?
That aluminum bike I had then was by an Italian bike maker called Olmo, which was the sponsor of our team. Later, I upgraded to a carbon fiber Trek, which I still have and which I hope to ride again after I straighten out the knee problems. As soon as I could afford it, I began using Campagnolo gears exclusively (even before I moved to Italy).
That's the way I looked at it too! I didn't miss any article this month, but it made me think of them again and I liked seeing some of the comments. I like it.
I never expected to be quoted in one of your articles! Thanks!! I do worry about over tourism a lot. But it's nice to be reminded of the posts and see what other readers wrote about them. Good job.
Thanks for the mention! I think the university students are a great example to bring in for this – I don’t know how realistic it is to expect a bunch of eighteen year olds to completely change behavior (no shade to eighteen year olds more broadly, but it makes sense to me that the majority may not have the awareness or the skillset needed to treat a shared space well; it feels like that’s something you learn during university, a lot of the time). So how do we make it a lower barrier of entry for all people (including teens, or people who haven’t traveled a lot before) to both enjoy a space and treat it well, or contribute to its preservation? The policy versus individual action conversation reminds me of Atul Gawande’s examination of strategies hospitals use to combat hospital-acquired infection. If you embed best practices into the environment – requiring doctors to complete a mandatory checklist, installing a sink and soap to wash hands right next to the door, etc. – you get much better results than simply relying on the individual actions of doctors. That’s not to say that individuals shouldn’t take ownership of their decisions or that we shouldn’t want to expect better from ourselves and the people around us, but it does make me think that (generally) there’s more to be won from trying to work together to change the systems versus focusing on individual behaviors. How do we make it so that those eighteen year olds have an awesome time, but also feel like they’re part of the community? Or at the very least, how do we make it so that it’s less of a decision and more of the default that they’re respecting the shared space, because it’s so easy for them to? This is why I’m so interested in policy or collective interventions, though I definitely don’t know what the answers are!
You made me look up who Atul Gawande, so that's already a good start. He seems very interesting!
I have a vague idea for a future post at least tangentially related to this idea of incentivizing community action. But it remains unfocused in my head.
Regarding the students, I'll often see them eating pizza and drinking beer and smoking while I'm out walking Mocha, my dog, and in a friendly way I'll say (in Italian), "Guys, please don't leave the trash on the steps when you're done tonight" and they'll all straighten up and they'll insist they won't (one time they even offered me a beer!) and the next morning I'll pass by the same spot on my way to get coffee and almost without fail the steps will be clean. But if I don't say anything (maybe I'm on a phone call or tired) I'll see some of the same kids and in the morning the trash is there.
There was also a case of a neighborhood kid who just left his bags of trash on the same spot on street. Eventually, the trash would be hit by a car and end up everywhere. Inspired by the kids on the steps, I put up a sign kindly asking him to walk an extra 50m and use the dumpster. No impact. Another neighbor, a cop, said he'd handle it and he replaced my sign with one in all CAPS threatening to arrest the kid and warning that there were security cameras. That worked.
I don't know what lesson to draw from these two experiences. Any theories?
Evviva, I hope you enjoy his work (Atul Gawande) 😊 It would be cool if, across the world, universities had more infrastructure to connect students to the people living near the university, or to the people working at the university. But maybe there are also approaches that are more informal and more personal. I think you saying something directly in a friendly way is a great approach, and something that could potentially be scaled up! When I was at school, I was part of our Progressive Student Union and we would occasionally host a big breakfast for the people working in the dining hall – both to get to know them and to help build solidarity for labor organizing, etc. Maybe a shared meal with people in the neighborhood could help the students feel more invested in the community (it would be nice if the students organized it, but maybe it could be a joint effort if you find one student to champion it with you).
It’s too bad that only threatening worked on the trash bag guy! I don’t have any brilliant theories; I guess sadly there will always be kind of shitty people in the world. But generally I feel like it’s better to approach people with the benefit of the doubt (like you did with your friendlier sign) and hope that people will either naturally respond to it or that approaching them respectfully will elicit respect in return.
Another thing this discussion makes me think about is the novel “Walkaway” by Cory Doctorow – he’s the science fiction writer who coined the term “enshittification” that people are using to describe the deterioration of tech platforms. “Walkaway” is a sci fi novel about people building utopian communities away from their dystopic society and there are some really interesting parts that explore ideas of social trust. Like part of building a utopian society is not approaching other people with the expectation that they’ll steal your stuff; even if they do steal your stuff, the characters argue that it’s worth it to leave your stuff unattended in the utopian community to try to create conditions where people expect respect as a baseline. I don’t think I’m doing a good job explaining it – but this discussion makes me think of it because it’s almost like, to a certain extent it doesn’t matter that trash guy kept leaving his trash. What matters more is that you tried to reach out to him as a fellow human being because you were creating conditions for, and behaving as if, mutual respect is the baseline. That’s at least an equally significant action that contributes to the overall environment (counter to the trash), even if this time it didn’t drive an immediate result. Does that resonate at all?
I actually love surfing through the comments as well here. Although, tbh, I can`t even call these comments, since they are pretty much short essays themselves, a real dicsussion, filled with many intriguing details, observations and real connection to your topics.
What a good idea to round up and compile your best comments (honored to be included!). Writing like this truly cultivates the global discourse - you're not in a pulpit, talking about whatever, but with your readers fomenting exchange. This is why I traffic in Substack and literary magazines. This is where conversation and fresh new thinking are found.
Thanks for the succinct summaries and links. I read all the pieces when you initially published, and I'll confess, when the comments section ranges from vivacious to rambunctious, I'm here for it. Now I'm going to have to go back and see what witty comments I may have missed !
"...why I traffic in Substack and literary magazines." Great line.
The idea of readers fomenting exchange is the biggest surprise for me since *I* started trafficking in Subtack. If I'd been doing this kind of digest since the start, I would have discussed ways that reader comments impacted my views on refugees, Airbnb, what it means to be "Roman," and several other topics.
I'm in the same sentence with Anna Magnani!!! Where's the prosecco? Eric, such a wonderful way to celebrate your amazing community AND an opportunity to look back. Honored to be included!
I don't think I appreciated the sheer number of thoughtful, interesting comments until I went back through the last few essays to pull together this Digest. Smart readers for sure.
Love this idea for a post-- really smart both to review and to expand the dialogue. But it also highlighted for me what great stuff you're writing at the moment. All of these pieces, but particularly "Rome, from the Right Angle", "Two Countries, One Warning" and the devastating "The Zebra-Print Shoe" left a lasting impression.
Appreciation for Life... I think that's what runs through your writings here, and indeed through our friendship. I also had a mini-reckoning this week with the fleeting nature of everything: Every so often I visit my dad's small town's city hall website, mostly to keep up with bureaucratic bull***t I may have to deal with. This week I got a gut punch with their post "Avvio del procedimento di revoca delle concessioni cimiteriali perpetue e programma di estumulazione" (roughly "Start of procedural repeal of ongoing cemetery concessions and exhumation program", too lazy for a better translation :), a simple PDF of about 90 names of people buried in the town's cemetery between 76 and 120 years ago. Meaning their bodies will now be exhumed (to where I don't know, I shudder to imagine) and disappear forever, probably with their names as well. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. For all of us. Let's make it worthwhile.
Eric, I am loving the Digest! It's a great way for me to catch up on articles I may have missed. One thing I love about the zebra-print shoe essay is how it illuminates the inherent kindness of Italian people. And I have to tell you: I like you even more now knowing you're a cyclist. Just like you, there's no way I would have left that bike on the side of the road!
Thank you, Annie! That's exactly my goal: helping people catch up on what they might have missed. That, plus highlighting some of the wonderful comments I've seen.
I do think there's an inherent kindness here, but also a kind of strange cruelty. That's one of the country's contractions.
The police captain was sweet to send the officer in Rome, and the other cops certainly leapt into action on realizing the woman was clinging to life. But they were also flippant in referring to her with the vulgar word "mignota," and a couple of the cyclists on my former team were unusually crude by nature. All of us, I guess, have a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. But I bet they tailor their messages.
Sadly, at the moment I'm a *former* cyclist. Knee issues. But I miss it. So you cycle? What kind of bike do you have? Is it a road bike or off-road?
That aluminum bike I had then was by an Italian bike maker called Olmo, which was the sponsor of our team. Later, I upgraded to a carbon fiber Trek, which I still have and which I hope to ride again after I straighten out the knee problems. As soon as I could afford it, I began using Campagnolo gears exclusively (even before I moved to Italy).
Ah yes, all so true.
Sorry to hear about the knee problem! My cycling is now mostly mountain, gravel, and winter fat biking, but I’m looking to upgrade my road bike soon.
That's the way I looked at it too! I didn't miss any article this month, but it made me think of them again and I liked seeing some of the comments. I like it.
I never expected to be quoted in one of your articles! Thanks!! I do worry about over tourism a lot. But it's nice to be reminded of the posts and see what other readers wrote about them. Good job.
Thank you for the insightful comment!
Thanks for the mention! I think the university students are a great example to bring in for this – I don’t know how realistic it is to expect a bunch of eighteen year olds to completely change behavior (no shade to eighteen year olds more broadly, but it makes sense to me that the majority may not have the awareness or the skillset needed to treat a shared space well; it feels like that’s something you learn during university, a lot of the time). So how do we make it a lower barrier of entry for all people (including teens, or people who haven’t traveled a lot before) to both enjoy a space and treat it well, or contribute to its preservation? The policy versus individual action conversation reminds me of Atul Gawande’s examination of strategies hospitals use to combat hospital-acquired infection. If you embed best practices into the environment – requiring doctors to complete a mandatory checklist, installing a sink and soap to wash hands right next to the door, etc. – you get much better results than simply relying on the individual actions of doctors. That’s not to say that individuals shouldn’t take ownership of their decisions or that we shouldn’t want to expect better from ourselves and the people around us, but it does make me think that (generally) there’s more to be won from trying to work together to change the systems versus focusing on individual behaviors. How do we make it so that those eighteen year olds have an awesome time, but also feel like they’re part of the community? Or at the very least, how do we make it so that it’s less of a decision and more of the default that they’re respecting the shared space, because it’s so easy for them to? This is why I’m so interested in policy or collective interventions, though I definitely don’t know what the answers are!
You made me look up who Atul Gawande, so that's already a good start. He seems very interesting!
I have a vague idea for a future post at least tangentially related to this idea of incentivizing community action. But it remains unfocused in my head.
Regarding the students, I'll often see them eating pizza and drinking beer and smoking while I'm out walking Mocha, my dog, and in a friendly way I'll say (in Italian), "Guys, please don't leave the trash on the steps when you're done tonight" and they'll all straighten up and they'll insist they won't (one time they even offered me a beer!) and the next morning I'll pass by the same spot on my way to get coffee and almost without fail the steps will be clean. But if I don't say anything (maybe I'm on a phone call or tired) I'll see some of the same kids and in the morning the trash is there.
There was also a case of a neighborhood kid who just left his bags of trash on the same spot on street. Eventually, the trash would be hit by a car and end up everywhere. Inspired by the kids on the steps, I put up a sign kindly asking him to walk an extra 50m and use the dumpster. No impact. Another neighbor, a cop, said he'd handle it and he replaced my sign with one in all CAPS threatening to arrest the kid and warning that there were security cameras. That worked.
I don't know what lesson to draw from these two experiences. Any theories?
Evviva, I hope you enjoy his work (Atul Gawande) 😊 It would be cool if, across the world, universities had more infrastructure to connect students to the people living near the university, or to the people working at the university. But maybe there are also approaches that are more informal and more personal. I think you saying something directly in a friendly way is a great approach, and something that could potentially be scaled up! When I was at school, I was part of our Progressive Student Union and we would occasionally host a big breakfast for the people working in the dining hall – both to get to know them and to help build solidarity for labor organizing, etc. Maybe a shared meal with people in the neighborhood could help the students feel more invested in the community (it would be nice if the students organized it, but maybe it could be a joint effort if you find one student to champion it with you).
It’s too bad that only threatening worked on the trash bag guy! I don’t have any brilliant theories; I guess sadly there will always be kind of shitty people in the world. But generally I feel like it’s better to approach people with the benefit of the doubt (like you did with your friendlier sign) and hope that people will either naturally respond to it or that approaching them respectfully will elicit respect in return.
Another thing this discussion makes me think about is the novel “Walkaway” by Cory Doctorow – he’s the science fiction writer who coined the term “enshittification” that people are using to describe the deterioration of tech platforms. “Walkaway” is a sci fi novel about people building utopian communities away from their dystopic society and there are some really interesting parts that explore ideas of social trust. Like part of building a utopian society is not approaching other people with the expectation that they’ll steal your stuff; even if they do steal your stuff, the characters argue that it’s worth it to leave your stuff unattended in the utopian community to try to create conditions where people expect respect as a baseline. I don’t think I’m doing a good job explaining it – but this discussion makes me think of it because it’s almost like, to a certain extent it doesn’t matter that trash guy kept leaving his trash. What matters more is that you tried to reach out to him as a fellow human being because you were creating conditions for, and behaving as if, mutual respect is the baseline. That’s at least an equally significant action that contributes to the overall environment (counter to the trash), even if this time it didn’t drive an immediate result. Does that resonate at all?
The idea of the post is great and helps to learn of so many interesting people here and their experiences. Thank you !!!
Thanks, Ella! The input from readers may be my favorite part of the newsletter.
I actually love surfing through the comments as well here. Although, tbh, I can`t even call these comments, since they are pretty much short essays themselves, a real dicsussion, filled with many intriguing details, observations and real connection to your topics.
What a good idea to round up and compile your best comments (honored to be included!). Writing like this truly cultivates the global discourse - you're not in a pulpit, talking about whatever, but with your readers fomenting exchange. This is why I traffic in Substack and literary magazines. This is where conversation and fresh new thinking are found.
Thanks for the succinct summaries and links. I read all the pieces when you initially published, and I'll confess, when the comments section ranges from vivacious to rambunctious, I'm here for it. Now I'm going to have to go back and see what witty comments I may have missed !
"...why I traffic in Substack and literary magazines." Great line.
The idea of readers fomenting exchange is the biggest surprise for me since *I* started trafficking in Subtack. If I'd been doing this kind of digest since the start, I would have discussed ways that reader comments impacted my views on refugees, Airbnb, what it means to be "Roman," and several other topics.
Also honored to be included.
I'm in the same sentence with Anna Magnani!!! Where's the prosecco? Eric, such a wonderful way to celebrate your amazing community AND an opportunity to look back. Honored to be included!
Elfin and La Nannarella! Wait, it is wrong to include "La"?
Yes, drop the article
It's a good idea. I read all of or most of the posts, but I never check back to look at the comments. There are some smart readers for sure.
I don't think I appreciated the sheer number of thoughtful, interesting comments until I went back through the last few essays to pull together this Digest. Smart readers for sure.
Pretty cool roundup ... I always like the comments section on the essays. Keep going.
Love this idea for a post-- really smart both to review and to expand the dialogue. But it also highlighted for me what great stuff you're writing at the moment. All of these pieces, but particularly "Rome, from the Right Angle", "Two Countries, One Warning" and the devastating "The Zebra-Print Shoe" left a lasting impression.
That Zebra shoe one almost gave me nightmares. That was the most powerfulone.
Very cleverly done. Amongst other things, it shows how much you respect the comments that your readers make.
Good point ... sometimes the comments are one of the bet parts
Appreciation for Life... I think that's what runs through your writings here, and indeed through our friendship. I also had a mini-reckoning this week with the fleeting nature of everything: Every so often I visit my dad's small town's city hall website, mostly to keep up with bureaucratic bull***t I may have to deal with. This week I got a gut punch with their post "Avvio del procedimento di revoca delle concessioni cimiteriali perpetue e programma di estumulazione" (roughly "Start of procedural repeal of ongoing cemetery concessions and exhumation program", too lazy for a better translation :), a simple PDF of about 90 names of people buried in the town's cemetery between 76 and 120 years ago. Meaning their bodies will now be exhumed (to where I don't know, I shudder to imagine) and disappear forever, probably with their names as well. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. For all of us. Let's make it worthwhile.