The Wisdom of Maria Popova

Regularly reading The Marginalian by Maria Popova will open your mind, make you think, inspire your best self, and bestow upon you abundant wisdom.

What I read: “17 Life-Learnings from 17 Years of The Marginalian” by Maria Popova.

Because friends and acquaintances know I read a lot, I’m often asked for my favorite blog site. Without hesitation I immediately answer The Marginalian by Maria Popova. If I were to be allowed to only follow one blog, this would be it.

I’ve been reading Popova’s blog since its early years. Few writers continue to maintain both a remarkable dexterity of language and wonderful depth of analysis and insight. Popova does so with apparent ease. Truly remarkable mind and writer.

Seven years into her ongoing examination of what it is to be human and seek meaning in this sometimes unpredictable and nonsensical world of ours, Popova decided to post an annual summation of the main crux of wisdom she learned in the previous year. “Happy Birthday, Brain Pickings: 7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living” began those posts and referenced the first seven years. One only has to look at what she wrote she learned the first year to realize what a gem she and her writing is.

Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind. Cultivate that capacity for “negative capability.” We live in a culture where one of the greatest social disgraces is not having an opinion, so we often form our “opinions” based on superficial impressions or the borrowed ideas of others, without investing the time and thought that cultivating true conviction necessitates. We then go around asserting these donned opinions and clinging to them as anchors to our own reality. It’s enormously disorienting to simply say, “I don’t know.” But it’s infinitely more rewarding to understand than to be right — even if that means changing your mind about a topic, an ideology, or, above all, yourself.

Popova just recently posted her latest wisdom summation and yet again she does not disappoint. If every single one of us would ponder and act on all or even some of what she articulates for each year, we would all be living happier and more fulfilled lives. Of that, I’m sure.

Of course, I recommend you read Popova’s entire post, but let me pluck a couple of years out and comment. The first is from her 3rd year.

Be generous. Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words. It’s so much easier to be a critic than a celebrator. Always remember there is a human being on the other end of every exchange and behind every cultural artifact being critiqued. To understand and be understood, those are among life’s greatest gifts, and every interaction is an opportunity to exchange them.

This one seems timely. We’re awash in rampant negativity. Online discourse can devolve into nasty tirades and assaults that cut no one any slack for course correction or self-improvement. Politics is seeing a resurgence of unfounded critique and blaming as the foundation of power motives. Everywhere we turn, the negative, the hurtful, the unhelpful.

Being generous in word and deed blunts such social maladies. Whether it’s the manager giving adequate credit to an employee, calmly asking someone to explain their political position without a literal or typed screaming voice, or holding a friend’s hand who fucked up royally but who you maintain a friendship with because kindness overrides aspersions, being generous is rarely the wrong way to proceed.

The second wisdom I’ll highlight is from her 15th year.

Outgrow yourself.

Popova links us to her “Becoming the Marginalian: After 15 Years, Brain Pickings Reborn” in which she announced that the former name of her blog, Brain Pickings, was to be replaced with The Marginalian.

Change is the only constant. That means we should acknowledge that and continually outgrow our former selves to become someone new, better, wiser, and kinder. Popova chose to rename her blog creation as a mark of her and the site’s growth. But all of us should try to become different people than we were the year before and the year before that.

Some aspects of myself haven’t changed much, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing. When I find myself in a rut of sameness, in activity or mindset, it makes me wonder if I’m missing something that should be nudging me toward being better in some way.

Do yourself a favor and subscribe to The Marginalian. Even if you only read an occasional post, you and your life will be better for it.

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