 Good day, night 40 here So I got up this morning That's after 4 a.m. Had to be all limber and ready To watch United States tackle Iran Get into the knockout stage in the World Cup Which started at 6 a.m. Sydney time and When I logged on I saw and I checked Twitter I saw the column down That said sometimes I think look forward is the last sane man On the internet and then I remember he's an Aussie Aussie bro, laughing as a Jew That's a nice thing to say and then I thought a lot of people are reasonably sane perhaps in part They have a large segment of their life It is non-rational Right man does not live on reason alone and nationalism It's largely a state of mind Not necessarily the most rational thing, but it's a it's a bond that you feel with members of your nation and scholars of nationalism often say that nationalism can be best understood By looking at songs Looking at poetry Looking at effusions of emotion They're rather than rational feces And so to the best marriages I've noticed People tend to have highly irrational views of their spouse I believe that their their wife of 50 years is the most beautiful woman in the world and I've seen the scientific surveys that You know having a vast overestimation the value and worth of your spouse is One of the predictors for a lasting marriage I think about the enormous Emotion that I get from being a supporter of the Dallas Cowboys Los Angeles Dodgers or the American soccer team or the Australian cricket team Right, that's that's non-rational. There's no reason that I should give a toss about what these professional athletes do, but It moves me emotionally When Tony Romo Undrafted free agent became the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys All right, that was that was moving to me And that's non-rational even irrational that I should be so emotionally affected by Tony Romo So I think for a lot of us that we benefit from having a substantial portion of our life that is irrational It's non-rational so Makes life a little more magical and enchanted like When you see more to reality than is really there. Of course, this can get you into trouble So I'm talking about using these things in an adaptive way but A lot of religious faith is non-rational even irrational national feelings sporting feelings Having a boss over estimation of the relative value or qualities of your spouse frequently non-rational even irration so think some of us like need room to play even to lob and to indulge in the non-rational and the irrational and and then that that then You know facilitates being rational in other areas of your life. So For example, you may not want to study music critically. You just want to enjoy music. So some people when they break down the notes and Study music critically or they study poetry critically or they study the Bible critically It removes the enjoyment and so any people Find the Bible more enjoyable more emotional experience They believe that every word came from God Many people get more enjoyment from music if they don't critically analyze it Or from movies or from TV or from novels Like Sam Bankman freed Talked about how he never read books He thought anyone had written a book as a loser Because he could probably have summed up the point of his book and a six paragraph blog post but the journey The journey through a book is the is the point not necessarily the upshot. It's not necessarily the destination It's the pleasure that you you get along the journey You need pleasure in life You need joy in life that frequently comes from the non-rational and the irrational and For example, I'm not taking bus 374, which is the fastest way to get where I want to go. I like taking light rail Even though it's gonna delay me 20 30 minutes I just like the slow pleasant light rail journey rocking me back and forth I'm not in any rush 1240 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon here in Sydney and I'm just gonna irrationally non rationally And we're actually Make my way to circular key next to the Sydney Opera House And maybe I'll take a ferry to paramatta And I intend to enjoy the journey It's not just about getting to paramatta. In fact, there's nothing in paramatta of which I'm aware of that I want to see I just want to enjoy what I believe is the longest ferry ride in the Sydney ferries Nice leisurely 30-minute Jaunt Up to the paramatta River So just because someone may be lapping in one area of their life, and I don't accept that I'm lapping as a Jew conversion to orthodox Judaism. That's very demanding and It remains an integral part of my life Way more than 20 years now That's my friends are orthodox Jews. I spend Most of my social time with orthodox Jews and orthodox institutions doing orthodox rituals participating in orthodox study of Torah having meals with orthodox Jews All right, it's a high intensity high-demand religion. It's not something that you can just lop at All right, you spend so much time in synagogue so much time around other orthodox Jews But if it was just a lot for you, you would just see through it in a second But even if you do have things that you lop at Doesn't mean that the rest of your life can't be serious and effective and rational and clear There's a time for love and a time for hate. There's a time for reason and a time for Non-reason. There's a time for love, joy, peace There's a time for anxiety and fear and revenge For everything there is a season and a purpose on the heaven So there are all these little Places in Sydney where you're in the middle of the city and then suddenly you go down some stairs like over here And you just descend into some kind of lush tropical paradise