Dear #Positivity Friends,

This time of year, we find ourselves celebrating all kinds of deserving people—Dads, grads, and newlyweds, for starters. Let’s also take a moment to show some heartfelt appreciation for the stars and stripes (Flag Day, June 14th) and for freedom (Juneteenth, June 19th). These two days draw our attention to very different aspects of our history and experience as Americans.

Flag Day commemorates the day in 1777 that the Second Continental Congress declared the “thirteen stripes, alternate red and white…and thirteen stars, white in a blue field” design conceived by Betsy Ross would become the first flag of the United States of America.

Juneteenth celebrates the day in 1865 when slaves living in Texas finally learned of their freedom, more than 18 months after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “all persons held as slaves…are, and henceforward shall be free.”

In the nearly 90 years between June 14, 1777 and June 19, 1865, the colonies united under this flag to win their freedom from Great Britain, then went on to fight bitterly amongst themselves to decide whether freedom should be a right enjoyed by everyone, regardless of the color of their skin. We should celebrate the fact that we have preserved our democracy for almost 250 years, but we owe it to ourselves to keep thinking hard about the meaning and cost of freedom today.

As always, I hope that you are enjoying my newsletter. If you miss any edition, you can find it on my website. Pass this newsletter along and encourage your family and friends to sign up.

With hope and positivity,

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#Positivity® Stories

Animal Crossing

In real life, animal crossings are no game. As cities grow larger, animal migratory routes are overtaken by roads and freeways in areas where animals used to roam freely, creating a danger to both animals and drivers. The “largest animal crossing in the world” over the 101 freeway in the Agoura Hills near Los Angeles, California, is being built to keep everyone safe. The first girder was placed over the eight-lane freeway in April, which when completed in 2026 will provide safe passage for animals that move between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills in the Santa Susan Mountain range. The Annenberg Foundation, in association with other groups, spent years planning and raising money for this project. The California Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation Beth Pratt said, “This structure is a testament to us all wanting a future for wildlife and mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains.”

Storybook Maze

Known for hosting pop-up bookstores, “stoop story times” for kids of all ages, and setting up vending machines that provide books at no cost, Araba Maze is doing her best to get books into the hands of her young neighbors. Maze lives in a “book desert” in Baltimore City, Maryland—a lower-income neighborhood where there is no walkable library or bookstore in the area. She uses her popularity on online forums to raise money for the vending machines and pop-up stores and has so far distributed over 7,000 books. Her next venture is a “book trolley” that will choo-choo its way through the neighborhoods of Baltimore. “This book haven on wheels aims to break down barriers and provide access to books that traditional libraries can’t,” Maze says. “As the wheels of the Book Trolley turn, so do the pages of countless stories waiting to be discovered.”

The Billionaire and the Graduates

Graduates from UMass Dartmouth got a nice surprise at their graduation ceremony in May. Not only did they receive their degrees, they each also received an envelope containing $1000 in cash from billionaire Robert Hale Jr., co-founder and president of Massachusetts-based Granite Telecommunications. Hale was onstage to accept the Chancellor’s Medal for his philanthropic work when he interrupted the ceremony to announce his surprise gift to the graduates. When the students’ cheers and applause died down, Hale made the other half of his announcement: each student would be asked to keep $500 for themselves and give the other $500 to another person or organization that could use it more than them. “Some of the most joyous times in our lives have been when we’ve had the chance to share’” said Hale of himself and his wife Karen. “And so we thought, if there’s a way that we could create that seed within another generation where they would get to experience the joy of giving, then maybe that becomes something that they would strive to do…and make us all a little better along the way.”

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Tip of the Month

Be someone who eagerly seeks advice but be careful whose advice you take. If the person giving you advice isn’t an expert in the subject being discussed, take what they say with a grain of salt. The best advice comes from people who have shed their own blood, sweat, and tears in the area you’re interested in hearing from them about.

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What’s Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready by Dr. Frederik Pferdt

Most of us wait to see what the future will drop in our laps rather than chasing after the future we want to have. Instead of bracing for what happens next, author Frederik Pferdt argues that you can be making what happens next.

Pferdt was Chief Innovation Evangelist at Google for more than a decade. There he helped shape one of the most fabled creative cultures in the world. He also trained tens of thousands of Googlers to develop cutting edge ideas and discovered a compelling quality that the most innovative among them shared—what he calls the “future-ready mindstate.”

You can respond to unexpected events or challenges by turning them into opportunities with a future-ready mindstate that consists of radical optimism, unreserved openness, compulsive curiosity, perpetual experimentation, expansive empathy, and your “Dimension X”—the unique lens through which each of us sees the world not as it is but as we are.

Equal parts inspiring and actionable, this book provides dozens of thoughtful exercises and illustrations, real-world practices, and provocative insights that engage your personal sense of discovery and allow you to clearly see the power you have to craft an exceptional future for yourself.

If you like our #Positivity® Newsletter...You’ll 💕Our Podcast, Common Denominator. Each week, I have inspiring conversations with great thinkers.

New Episode! How A Positive Mindset Will Instantly Change Your Life

Nebiha Boudjoudad is a fitness and mindset coach, who believes in a holistic approach to mental and physical fitness. She talks about the power of positivity, the importance of clarity, and how the universe will give you back exactly what you give it.

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Catch up on previous episodes:

How To Change Your Life By Investing In Yourself with Michael Anthony, aka “Michael Unbroken”
How To Create Life-Changing Habits with Michael Chernow
Ten Strategies To Improve Your Mental Health in 2024 with Moshe Popack

Listen to Common Denominator on Your Favorite Podcast App & YouTube

Spreading #Positivity^®

Thank you, readers, for sending us your photos with your comments. We are so excited that you are helping spread a positive message everywhere you go! Let’s keep spreading #Positivity^® together! Send us your photos and stories to info@moshepopack.com and include your name and social media handle. We will feature them in the next newsletter and on Facebook!