Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.

I'm Coming For You, Brother

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. As I mentioned last week, "When these people become real and this event becomes personal, that's the most powerful way to understand what this was and why it mattered."

This is a great documentary from Nat Geo telling us who these people were and why it mattered. It's the story of Ladder 6, a group of firefighters who were trapped in the B stairwell, on the fourth floor, of the north tower when it collapsed. Miraculously, they weren't killed in the collapse, and they eventually made it out alive.

I hope you take some time today to listen to their story—or anyone's story from that day. To make the people real and the event personal. Because for every American, it's so important to understand what this was and why it mattered.

Tough Love Advice for Every Writer

On a lighter note, this was a great interview with some pop culture relevance. Harlan Coben is the author of 38 books. You may have heard his name recently due to his Netflix series, I Will Find You.

That was the first I had heard of him.

After watching the interview, I'm much more inclined to watch the series and pick up some of his books.

You'll find it interesting if you read his books, watch his TV series, or are a writer yourself. He had a lot of great writing strategies that he shared throughout the conversation.

My favorite was the question, "What if?"

He runs almost every experience of his life through the question, "What if?" And that's the primer he uses to start many of his books. He gives a concrete example in the first few minutes of the interview, and if you're a writer, I think you'll love it.

This Makes Life Richer

You probably could've guessed, but the answer is reading. Reading makes life richer. Ryan Holiday explains in this article the many ways reading can improve your life.

If you read this newsletter, I'm sure you don't need any convincing, but you'll probably also enjoy the article because it confirms what you already believe (which in this case is a good thing).

He shares a lot of good examples in the article, but I'll leave you with one.

Reading can help you take an experience you're having and put it into words. We often have feelings we're not able to properly articulate. Authors have those same feelings, and sometimes they articulate them beautifully. Putting beautiful words behind beautiful feelings is one small way to make your life just a little bit richer. So why not pick up a book this weekend?

Song of the Week

You've probably heard this one before, but it's one of my favorites from Noah Kahan, and I've been listening to it a lot recently. Hope you enjoy it too!

Quote of the Week

"A man's life is all a matter of mountains and caves—mountains we must climb, caves where we hide when we can't face our mountains." - J.R. Moehringer

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Talk soon,

Joe