Personal Growth
Sick Burn, Thoreau
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. That’s the quote from Walden. The one everyone and their mom cites as their motivation for quitting their job or leaving their spouse or starting a side hustle and becoming a nomad! Take life by the horns! LIVE! Do not become one of them. Living the unexamined life, (…)
Going On a Newsletter Sabbatical
Over the last 5 years, few things have brought me more joy than these Thursdays with you. Our debates about what is or isn’t true, the safe container to think in public, the testing of ideas. I love being in the public sphere and you have given me the space to do what I love: (…)
Why You Should Throw Yourself a Pity Party
Have you ever thrown a pity party? Like a REAL one. An ugly-cry, blame the world, curse your parents, rage, scream, resent, and regret till your heart’s delight one?? I highly recommend them. I worry that people who don’t know how to throw a good old-fashioned pity party will remain identified with their pity because (…)
Why “Just Work Harder” Doesn’t Work
Ok quick history lesson because I thought I knew this stuff but I really didn’t learn it till I was an adult. We’re taught that for centuries women were denied access to capital, property, employment, separate economy, government, and our own freaking children. What we’re not really taught was how this was true as recently as the (…)
Putting Creative Dreams On Hold
Right now, many people I love are being forced to put their creative ambitions on hold. Everyone is dealt a different deck of cards and a lot of really awesome humans have been dealt a shit deck of cards. And I don’t think it does us any favors to ignore this. Sometimes circumstances ARE a (…)
The Nonsense Gap
It is impossible for me to watch Particle Fever without crying. Particle Fever is my favorite documentary about the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle. You can watch it on Netflix. Peter Higgs is a theoretical physicist who published his theory predicting the existence of the Higgs particle in 1967. It took 45 years before (…)
How Was Your Day?
Why do we insist on the question: “How was your day?” I know it’s a colloquialism. I know it’s intended as an exchange of pleasantries, where I say: “Fine!” “Well!” “Doin’ alright, how ‘bout yourself?” Then you say, “Good!” and we move on. It’s an exercise in acknowledgment, which I believe in. But, occasionally, someone asks it (…)
Time To Think
It started as an ordinary discussion of books and life, but ended (naturally) with a fight about Emily Dickinson. Not the Dickinson you remember from high school, the one on Apple TV (featuring Wiz Khalifa as death and John Mulaney as Thoreau. I KNOW RIGHT.). In the show, teenage Emily refuses to participate in household (…)