Smorgasbord #3

Chess, 100, noticing, and virtual hangouts

Hello friends! This is Peregrino, a newsletter about the journey. And welcome to another edition of Smorgasbord, a self-service buffet of ideas.

This week was interesting:

• The Diamondbacks lost the World Series against the Texas Rangers.

• Trick or Treating went well. There were a lot of Marios this year.

• Going to the 8:30 a.m. Mass on Wednesday for All Saints Day was challenging.

I feel like it’s been go-go-go for a couple of weeks now, yet I’m glad I made time to sit down and write this email to share a few things that I found interesting.

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Chess

I’ve been playing chess with other fellow writers like

Scoot

,

The W.C. Dispatch

,

B. Christoph Wachtel

and

d.w.

; you can find me at chess.com by the handle @unperegrino if you ever want to play. I had an interesting conversation with D.W. about my chess style of play.

D.W.: Do you see yourself as having a style of play?

Me: No, I would be lying if I said I did. My style is no style. If anything, I pray my opponent blunders and hopefully capitalize on that error. Opportunistic, maybe?

D.W.: Interesting. I see you as having a certain character on the board.

Me: Tell me more.

D.W.: This isn’t good or bad. You seem to me to have a conservative and entrenched attitude on the board. Fortifying and playing defensively. And then sending pieces out for raids and sorties at unexpected moments.

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Peregrino reached 100 Subscribers!

This milestone was achieved a month away from Peregrino’s first anniversary, and I’m incredibly thankful to all of you who have an interest in this publication. I’m sorry

Dames Jietz

didn’t get to be the 100th subscriber, maybe for the 200th?

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Noticing

I read “The Art of Becoming a Noticer” by

Seth Haines

, and it stuck with me all week. During my commute on Thursday, a car passed me on the highway, and on the back window, this person had written: “Moshiach now!”

This made me think of “King Without a Crown” by Matisyahu, a Jewish musician who started recording reggae music and has evolved into hip hop and rock with spirituality as the themes of his lyrics.

It also made me think of an exchange between Motel and the Rabbi in “Fiddler in the Roof”:

Motel: Rabbi, we've been waiting all our lives for the Messiah. Wouldn't now be a good time for Him to come?

Rabbi: We'll have to wait for him someplace else. Meanwhile, let's start packing.

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Impromptu Virtual Hangout

I got to—virtually—meet several writers in the spontaneous “Substack Write-a-thon”

Sara Dietz

put together on Thursday night. I like how

Substack

has provided an environment where communities have organically grown.

I found out that

Derek Petty

reads Peregrino while feeding his baby in the middle of the night. It warms my heart that I can accompany him while taking care of his child.

If you haven’t, check out the work of

S.E. Reid

,

Kristin Haakenson

,

The Chronicler

,

Scoot

,

Daniel Joseph Petty

, and

James Dietz

.

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That’s it for this week! Feel free to share Smorgasbord with friends and family.

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Sobremesa

1. Do you have so much candy from Halloween? How do you control yourself and not eat all the fun-size chocolate?

2. Do you play chess? Let’s play chess.

3. What have you noticed this week?

4. Would you be interested in a Lessons Learned essay from 100 subscribers?

5. Have you met other writers from Substack?