You’ve got to live right to be the light of the world. Godspell, 1973.
Ponder
On the wall.
We are story-processing creatures, and the most effective stories are often embodied in people. Living examples of the lesson we’re trying to learn and the posture we hope to model.
Heroes, mentors, martyrs, examples, icons, avatars, archetypes, and even villains.
Sometimes those people are fictional, living in an anecdote and refined to form a legend.
The leverage of media, though, has made history more powerful than any made-up story ever could be.
When we rehearse and amplify the story, we can’t help but make the person less real. The story has a purpose, and its purpose is to remind us of who we could be and how we move forward.
This is what saints do for us. This is why we put pictures on the wall or invoke the memories of the people who came before us.
Reminded of our heroes, we know we can improve. We can work harder for justice, find more compassion and show up as a contribution. We can look at the ordinary moments when someone chose to keep going and realize that choice is available to us as well.
There are so many extraordinary people who have come before. It’s on us to choose our heroes wisely and to do the hard work to honor the contributions they made. Even when it’s difficult and unpopular. Especially then.
Today is a fine day to consider who’s on our wall.
The Lord has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
What justice have you helped make happen? When have you loved as God loves? How are you walking humbly with God, or when did you recognize you are God’s image in the world?
Ponder
The empathy of instructions
It’s difficult to write directions. A user interface, a map or a recipe all require empathy. That’s because the person writing it knows something the reader doesn’t. In fact, that’s the only reason to do it.
But because instructions exist to bridge this gap, we benefit by understanding and focusing on the gap. The instructions aren’t there to remind you of how to do something. They serve to help someone who doesn’t know, learn.
Here’s a useful way to begin:
Assume less.
Yes, the person reading your recipe knows what a knife is, but do they know you keep your mustard in the food cabinet, not the fridge?
List every step you could imagine, and then list some more.
Once the overdone, step-by-step instructions exist, begin removing them. The interface for your induction cooktop probably doesn’t benefit from having icons so obscure they’re meaningless, but it also doesn’t need every step for boiling water enunciated in capital letters.
In my experience in reading instructions, it’s easier for the user to skip over steps that are too complete than it is to try to guess what the person writing the directions had in mind. ———- Seth Godin, January 20, 2026
Respond
What have I learned about myself in challenging times? ———- The Daily Question, grateful.org. January 25, 2026.