Bull in the China Shop

Sweet Bites for April 4, 2025

Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.

This month we’re exploring the theme of Story.

Welcome to another edition of Sweet Bites, Mind Candy’s bite-sized newsletter with thought-provoking finds to send you into the weekend with.

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🍰 Mini Bite

One story Theodore Roosevelt carried with him through his life was that the “triumph of war” was greater than peace.

Roosevelt, having had asthma as a young child, dreamed of war. Throughout most of his life, Roosevelt fantasized about being called upon to fight on the front lines and defend his country.

Around 9:40 pm on February 15, 1898, an explosion erupted in the Havana harbor of Cuba where the USS Maine was docked. The explosion killed over 260 American soldiers. While President McKinley looked to reassure the angry public and keep the nation calm, Roosevelt, second in command of the Navy, wanted a war.

A little over a week later, Roosevelt’s chance opportunity would come his way.

Navy Secretary Johnny D. Long stepped away for a few hours leaving Roosevelt in charge. Before doing so, he provided Roosevelt strict instructions and demanded he not take “any step affecting the policy of the administration without consulting the President or me.”

“Roosevelt had been agitating for war in the Philippines, Cuba, or really anywhere that Spain had colonies,” one biographer would write.

As another would say of the situation, "[Long] should have known better. Like a mischievous child, Roosevelt churned out an orgy of orders while the adult was out of the room. Among other things, he asked the House Naval Affairs Committee to authorize the enlistment of 'an unlimited number of seamen, and had guns sent from Washington to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to be mounted on cruisers."

By April, Roosevelt got his way and war had broken out.

He immediately resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and joined the front lines to fight in Cuba. He would create the first Volunteer Cavalry, the “Rough Riders,” and bring his fantasy to life, fighting in battle for his country.

But while Roosevelt’s life-long story was finally able to come true, it wasn’t without consequences.

His brashness to act for personal gain could have left the country vulnerable. As Long would later reflect upon Roosevelt, "He has gone about things like a bull in a china shop.. It shows how the best fellow in the world, and one with splendid capacities, is worse than useless if he lacks a cool head and careful direction."

Stories can be guiding lights. They provide us a direction in a sea of endless sea. They help ignite motivation, provide us purpose, and determine the steps we take.

But they can also be detrimental if we refuse to update our stories or allow them to impair our judgment.

“He means well,” Long would reflect, “but it is one of those cases of aberration-desertion-vain-glory; of which he is entirely unaware."

“Reason can overrule our biases, but usually not when our personal prestige or group identity is at stake,” Jonathan Rauch has written.

This is why checking our stories, seeing which are motivating us, are so critical. If we do not take the time to understand the underlying motives to our actions, we risk not only being out of control, but also making poor judgments.

“Your ability to control your thoughts - treat it with respect,” Marcus Aurelius reminded himself. “It's all that protects your mind from false perceptions - false to your nature and that of all rational beings.”

The stories that underlay our actions control more than we think. It’s best to make sure they are functioning for, and not against, us.

🧘🏻This Week’s Monday Meditation

🦉 This Week’s Wednesday Wisdom

📰 Article Worthy of a Read

Your life is not a story: why narrative thinking holds you back by Karen Simecek

📖 Book Recommendation

The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr

This has been one of my favorite books to read so far this year. Combing an approach to storytelling and the underlying psychology, Storr explores why stories drive so much of our human behavior.

Favorite passages:

“Our flaws form part of our perception, our experience of reality. This makes them largely invisible to us.“

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“We often think of 'culture' as surface phenomena, such as opera and literature and modes of dress, but culture is actually built deeply and directly into our model of the world. It forms part of the neural machinery that constructs our hallucination of reality. Culture distorts and narrows the lens through which we experience life, exerting a potent influence on us, whether by dictating the moral rules we'll fight and die to defend or defining the kinds of foods we'll perceive as delicious.”

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“Everyone who's psychologically normal thinks they're the hero. Moral superiority is thought to be a 'uniquely strong and prevalent form of positive illusion'. Maintaining a 'positive moral self-image' doesn't only offer psychological and social benefits, it's actually been found to improve our physical health.”

📚 Wisdom

“A dream is a personal experience of that deep, dark ground that is the support of our conscious lives, and a myth is the society's dream. The myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth. If your private myth, your dream, happens to coincide with that of the society, you are in good accord with your group. If it isn't, you've got an adventure in the dark forest ahead of you.”

Joseph Campbell

Source: The Power of Myth

🎥 Interesting Short Film

‘Once upon a time…’ Deconstructing our insatiable appetite for stories by Director Aisling Chin-Yee

Think someone you know would enjoy these? Hit below to forward and spread the love.

Until next time,

D.A. DiGerolamo

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