I started the day yesterday with a glorious pocket of reading time, diving into Helen DeWitt’s captivating book, The English Understand Wool.

The story somehow managed to present a calculated, logical point of view as warmly human and victorious, triumphing over a pack of wolves in sheep’s clothing. This alone is worthy of the highest recommendation, but at the end of the volume there was also a postscript that referenced Edward Tufte – yes THAT Tufte, he who proclaims “the presentation of data is a moral act,” and whose beautiful dense publications powerfully prove this point.

It turns out that Tufte took out a second mortgage on his home in order to publish the exacting type of book that he knew was required to do justice to his topic – a part of history I had never known, and a theme echoed in both the story of DeWitt and its form of publication. Each refused to compromise to satisfy lesser priorities of fashion or editorial whim.

What a delight to see this thread of principle stretched between different authors and genres. Isn’t this the sign of a deeply foundational idea, that it is discovered and rediscovered, proved and re-proved?

Dear ones, may we discover our own root-level truths. 

May we realize that they are shared.

May they be tested, and proved worthy, again and again.