Worry Isn't Worth It
A Renaissance Approach to Calm
“And if you, O poet, tell a story with your pen, the painter with his brush can tell it more easily, with simpler completeness and less tedious to be understood.”
Leonardo da Vinci
1
Over the holidays, I gifted my friends Calm in 40 Images. I chose this little volume for two reasons:
First, I’m beginning to believe that calm is the central virtue of emotional life. Without it, the mind spins, the heart scatters, and life becomes harder to navigate. With it, even the toughest moments feel manageable. Calm is the quiet foundation on which a good life rests.1
Second, I’m drawn to the way ideas come alive through art - how a thoughtful message is amplified by the energy of an image. The essays are brief but resonant, and the pictures give their lessons a vivid anchor. Together, they pay homage to the Renaissance ideal - beauty in service of wisdom, with each complementing the other in a way that feels whole.
2
A passage in the introduction speaks directly to the purpose of this pairing:
“There are a stream of pictures, but this is no standard art book. The words aren’t trying to explain the images; they’re being invited to shed light on a theme - and to usher in a mood. They’re there chiefly for their capacity to soothe and reassure…
… The odd one might spark a daydream; it might hold your gaze for a moment and pave the way for a more hopeful train of thought. The true purpose of any book should - in the end - perhaps just be to leave the reader feeling a bit better.”
3
Put simply, the book is a collection of ideas meant to ease the mind - with art serving as the bridge between insight and impact.2
Here’s an example I plan to carry forward in the new year:
“One of the basic courtesies we almost never remember to pay our worries is to go back and check how they fared against reality. We move from one worry to the next, without pausing to compare the scale of the worry with what actually happened.
If we force ourselves to perform a ‘worry audit’, a strange realization is likely to dawn on us: our worries are nearly always out of line with reality. Extended out across a year, we’ll note that we didn’t run out of money; the conflictual work situation found a sound resolution; our friend wasn’t offended, and so on…
We might fairly say that only 1% of all the things we worry about ever reach the levels of awfulness we’re convinced - in anticipation - that they possess. Mark Twain’s famous dictum comes to mind: ‘I have lived through many disasters; only a few of which actually happened.’
We should, far more than we do, use the data about the unreliability of our fears as a guide to the future. If we got it so wrong in the past, we’re likely to get it rather wrong now too.”
The Yellow Curtain, Edouard Vuillard 1893
4
I’d rather embrace the idea that “worry isn’t worth it” than live in a state of alarm and dread. I’d rather remind myself to push aside the heavy curtain - to let in a little light - than allow my mind to overshadow the good things around me. While the 1% might catch me off guard, the 99% will feel more peaceful - and life is too short to be on the losing side of that trade.
From My Notebooks
Welcome to a new corner of the newsletter - a window into the ideas I’m actively exploring in my notebooks. They may lack the polish of finished work (they’re still evolving), but perhaps that’s their charm: honesty, a sense of process, and the momentum of thoughts taking shape.
01.01.25Fear is a visitor. It might bring something valuable to share, or it might echo old programming designed to keep you small and safe. The aim isn't to ignore or avoid it but to create space and build resilience around it.
01.02.25The elements of my current well-being: health, optimism (an enthusiasm for the future), my family in high spirits, a kind and communicative romance, the affirmations from close friends, the balm of nature, a growing capacity for self-understanding and expression.
01.03.25What if, instead of promoting shopping malls, restaurants, and legal services, the billboards along the highway showcased Sugimoto’s seascapes?
“Peace of mind needs an advertising agency.”
01.04.25When Toscanini was rehearsing Debussy’s “La Mer,” he wanted to achieve an effect that was delicate and fleeting. Struggling to articulate what he wanted in words, he took a white silk handkerchief from his pocket and threw it high into the air. The orchestra watched, entranced, as it floated down - softly, sensuously - until it came to rest on the floor. Smiling, the maestro said, “There. Play it like that.”
The gesture communicated what language could not.
Wimberley, TX 2025
If today’s note brought a touch of clarity or warmth, consider passing it along. Small moments of insight are gifts, and change gathers momentum when ideas travel together.
“Plenty of things are important and notable: money, friends, art, work. But if we probe hard at why they matter, if we push upstream, we eventually find that it’s because of their power to contribute to something else, to what the Romans poetically knew as summum bonum, the highest of all goods: a steady, unruffled and peaceful state of mind.” Calm in 40 Images, The School of Life
Art a a Tool for the Mind, The Inner Act
Agreed! Thank you