A few post-worthy things that have been buzzing around in my head lately.

⇓ A sort of privacy in public
Wendy Richmond writes about “What We Reveal” in the latest issue of Communication Arts. (It’s the Design Annual issue, not online yet.) She touches on one of the things that I love most about New York City.

During a recent television interview on NYI, the host, Sam Roberts, asked me, “Is New York City different from other places?” I responded that for me, a major difference is its extreme density and the intense, unconscious aptitude of its inhabitants that enables us to share our public space. We are able to be close and simultaneously maintain our distance — a sort of privacy in public.

⇓ Because of the times
Bob Dylan write a few words about our new President and the challenges he and all of us as Americans have ahead of us. Obama’s election is “the first step in a long, hard journey for America.”

Dylan writes:

Let us not forget how our founding fathers had no experience in governing a nation, but they succeeded based solely on the fact that they had to succeed.

Sometimes that is really all it takes: such a strong desire for something that you have to succeed. It’s what they call the American dream. Not that we always succeed, it’s that we succeed when we need it most. Today can be a day to be proud to be an American, but also a day for people with a vision to come together and try building a better and stronger America. We cannot fail, but I think that is why we will succeed.

I love that line: Such a strong desire for something that you have to succeed. You can apply that to almost anything: our country, your work, parenting, marriage, etc.

(You may have to become Bob Dylan’s friend on Facebook to read the whole note. I don’t know what’s weirder: that Bob Dylan is on Facebook or that he and I are “friends” on Facebook.)

⇓ My, you have a…
Lovely Package is a recent discovery all about product design. They bill themselves as “the leading source for the very best that package design has to offer.” It’s a constant source of awe and desire.