brainglow

BRAINGLOW is the visual adornment of a cartoon brain — usually represented as a disembodied organ — with an outward-radiating illumination-of-sorts. Brainglow doesn’t exist in nature, of course. Brains don’t literally glow blue-green. But you’d never know it from the pictures of brains you’re likely to encounter walking through a bookstore or surfing the internet these days. You see brainglow everywhere — dust jackets, glossy conference brochures, websites promising heightened brain power.

hara hachi bun

THERE’S A CONFUCIAN teaching that instructs people to eat until they are 80% full. As the saying goes, “eight parts of a full stomach sustain the man; the other two sustain the doctor.” I can’t remember who told me about this tradition, but it has stuck with me ever since, and I see echoes of this wisdom in various aspects of life that have nothing to do with eating. A broader interpretation of the teaching might be: “You don’t always have to fill something to its capacity.”