Generations and Gymnastics

Morning routine. Weekly Review at Coffee Culture. Dan Carlin on Alexander the Great. OSU gymnastics meet with Rajeev. Minecraft with Leland. Philomath Salon on emerging adulthood. Book Club announcement. Hot tub reflections.

From competitive athletics to philosophical inquiry

Events and activities that occurred on Sunday, January 25, 2026

The morning routine included Dan Carlin's Hardcore History episode on Alexander the Great—Mania for Subjugation III—ancient military campaigns providing backdrop to shower and laundry. The weekly review unfolded at Coffee Culture Annex afterward, a chance to step back and examine patterns across the week while refining the review process itself.

Gymnastics meet

The afternoon's gymnastics meet pitted OSU against Utah State in a close competition. Rajeev and I walk to these meets from his house, the route there and back filling with conversation that makes the athletic events just part of the outing.

Leland and I continued our Minecraft collaboration, building a warehouse in Foo with a natural division of labor emerging: I gathered materials while he constructed. The project revealed his growing competence with systems, a development worth appreciating.

The Philomath Salon anchored the evening with its January meeting exploring why it takes so long to grow up today. The conversation traced how four major revolutions—technological, sexual, women's movement, and youth movement—created a new life stage where traditional adulthood markers like marriage and parenthood increasingly delay until the thirties. Discussion ranged through the shift from agricultural to service-oriented work, how technology and changing architecture (porches giving way to garages) have eroded community engagement, and Wendell Berry's Bringing It to the Table as a lens for examining modern agricultural and social disconnection. The gathering began with remembrance for Dan, a longtime friend and group member who passed away on January 12th.

The hot tub offered space to process the day and the loss. Zelda shared the full story of Dan's passing, filling in details that transform abstract grief into specific remembrance. The conversations we have about those who've left help anchor their presence in memory.

Sunday wove together generations in unexpected ways—Leland building digital worlds, college athletes pushing physical limits, and the Philomath group examining why the path between childhood and adulthood has lengthened so dramatically. The question of what it means to grow up feels different when you're watching it happen across multiple timescales at once.