I absolutely love Craig Mod’s newsletter Ridgeline, which is all about walking. In the most recent edition, Craig shares his experience walking the French Camino de Santiago, the 110 kilometer pilgrimage across the Pyrenees. The descriptor ‘French’ is added here because traditionally walkers begin in Spain and finish in France, but Craig chose to begin his journey in France and head the opposite direction.

After long days of walking, Craig and his fellow pilgrims like to finish their evenings with Jeffersonian Dinners, where the traveling group dines and discusses one topic in detail during the meal.

Craig shares an example of a conversation that stemmed from the prompt: Is being an optimist amidst existential idiocy an amoral position?

We had a great long chat about optimism. Big takeaway: Optimism is a tool. (A tool independent of the global situation, apolitical as a hammer). And I came away defining myself as: A realist who chooses to use the tool of optimism to drive decision-making.

I identify strongly with this notion of optimism and share a similar perspective.

The long relaxed walks and long relaxed conversations that make Ridgeline is a perfect pairing. I look forward to each new installment hitting my inbox.