A Family Affair
Welcome to the 40th entry of my public journal, where I share *some of the things* I've been thinking about, learning about, and exploring across work, tech, wellness, and life.
Dear Friends,
In this post I write about a small cousins reunion I attended last weekend plus my usual roundup of things on my mind and interesting things around the internet.
Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.
Cousins Reunion in Aspen
Almost 100 years ago, a man named Morris and a woman named Rebecca started a family. They had seven children. Those seven children had 16 of their own children. And those 16 cousins went on to have 35 of their own children.
Those 35 kids, Morris and Rebecca’s great-grandchildren, spent a lot of time together when they were young. But as they grew up, they moved all over the country, and their own families became too large to stay in touch. Last weekend, however, seven of them reunited in the mountains of Colorado. And that’s where I was—hanging out with second cousins I hadn’t seen in many years.
Here are some highlights & reflections from the weekend:
Highlights. We hiked the Maroon Bells, watched a slideshow and old home movies from roughly the 1940s through the 1980s, and laughed at dinner with people who “knew you before you were you.”
Migration. Morris and Rebecca were my great-grandparents. One of their seven children was my dad’s mother. Morris, Rebecca, and their children all lived in the Philadelphia area. By the time it got to my parents’ generation, there was some migration away—most of my dad’s cousins still lived near Philadelphia, but some moved north to New England, south to Florida, or west to California. By my generation, we are much more spread out across the country. The seven of us who got together last weekend came in from Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York, and Colorado.
Slides. The slideshow we watched was made from my grandfather’s old slides. I’m grateful he not only took so many photographs but also took the effort to digitize them. While it’s great to see the people in the photos, it was really cool just to see everyday life captured. A good number of photos were of people hanging laundry to dry outside. It made me think of how many hours each week this older generation had to spend on laundry.
Aspens. We hiked among the aspen trees as they were starting to turn yellow. An aspen grove appears as individual trees, but in reality, it’s a single organism, connected through its roots. The aspen forest was a perfect metaphor for the weekend. Hanging out with second cousins, all with very different lives, we felt connected through our common ancestors. It was surprising how easy it felt to be together, and how similar our values are, even if our lives are so different.
Aspen trees as one single organism, a heart-shaped rock, the Maroon Bells, Cousins, Laundry day 1963, more Laundry
Some of the (other) things
We had some great guests on /gmfarcaster last week. On Wednesday, Deana from
boysclub joined us and on Friday we had British triple jump champion Naomi come by, as she’s documenting her journey to the 2028 olympics onchain.
Taste Is Eating Silicon Valley. “In a world of scarcity, we treasure tools. In a world of abundance, we treasure taste.”
I’m co-hosting a coffee meetup in NYC tomorrow for anyone in the Base or Farcaster community, or anyone interested in learning more about the benefits of building on top of a blockchain network.
“There is no way. Peace is the way” I spotted this quote at my local church’s roadside sign and I liked it enough to write it down.
We’re still getting lots of tomatoes from the summer garden. In the past week I’ve made roasted tomato soup using yellow heirlooms and a simple tomato salad using the cherry tomatoes.
A Note to My Readers
I started this substack in December 2022 as an experiment to see if developing a writing habit would help clarify my thinking and/or provide other benefits. You can read about my original intentions in my first post or my more recent reflections after sticking with it for a year.
I write about twice a month and share musings, meditations, and links to things I’m finding interesting as I build out a farcaster-native media company, a modern technology consulting company, raise my kids, and have fun creating and learning in the worlds of crypto, tech, finance, science and wellness.
Thank you for supporting my writing and journey. If you’d like to get in touch you can reply to me here or find me on X and farcaster.
Until next time, keep putting good into the world. —adrienne🌏❤️