Well, it was bound to happen at some point – I have nothing to write about this week. I made it halfway through a couple of ideas before scrapping them all and saying, To hell with it! The 21st iteration of the newsletter will just have to be a lame one.
Each week I have a couple options. I can respond to something I see in the news (George Floyd, cancel culture), I can write about something I feel particularly strongly about (optimism, COVID-outlook), or I can update all of you on my writing process. Well, as of September 13th, the news sucks, I have no inspiring thoughts, and my writing process is dead in the water.
Okay, that’s all a bit exaggerated. But the news does suck and I wrote very little this week, so there we have it: I Got Nothin‘.
Now, the logical next step is to lose my sh*t a little bit. This week was a failure, and next week won’t be any different. But there’s a better solution! I can remind myself of the words of Lao Tzu, who said:
If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
Ah, there it is. Some sage Chinese wisdom to carry me through this dry spell. Last week was last week. In fact, if I were to dissect, last weekend was a holiday that I spent with Anne and her family, and this weekend was one I spent in the Hamptons with friends. Both were great times. So what if I did relatively little writing?
And next week? Well, next week I don’t have any plans. And next week I’ll be fired up from writing so little this week. So next week will be a different story.
Look, I’m being a bit obnoxious to make a point. There is no value in my being stuck in the past or fixated on the future. Judged that way, this week was a bust. But judged as it should be, by how I felt in each moment, it was a great one.
We’re at the tail end of six months spent in imperfect circumstances, and it’s easy to feel as though that time was “wasted.” It’s also easy to feel anxious that the coming months, spent in similarly imperfect circumstances, will also be “wasted.”
Fortunately for us, we are fully in control of that feeling. The antidote to feeling like time is passing us by is to stop feeling that way! We can identify something we can do every day that makes us feel good and productive, whether it’s cooking a healthy meal at home, calling our parents, or going for a long walk, and just do it!
Tim Urban’s piece, Life Is a Picture, But You Live in a Pixel, is the best representation of this I have found anywhere, period:
“So while thousands of Jack’s Todays will, to an outsider from far away, begin to look like a complete picture, Jack spends each moment of his actual reality in one unremarkable Today pixel or another. Jack’s error is brushing off his mundane Wednesday and focusing entirely on the big picture, when in fact the mundane Wednesday is the experience of his actual life.“
“As far as what will actually make Jack happier as he lives in his mundane Wednesday, there are a number of scientifically proven things, including spending time with people you like, sleeping well and exercising, doing things you’re good at, and doing kind things for others.“
This piece is my Bible, whenever I forget the wise words of Sun Tzu. A reminder to focus on the small things that make today more enjoyable, and trust that the big picture will turn out alright.
This week I went back and listened to Ezra Klein’s podcast with Ta-Nehisi Coates from June 4th, a week or so after the George Floyd protests began. I feel like I’ve somewhat lost sight of what this whole summer has been about, as the narrative around the protests has been corroded and presidential politics have overtaken the original message.
Everything has gotten really messy. But that doesn’t change the reality that each person on this distribution list, faced with the death of a loved one at the hands of police, would expect justice. And even justice wouldn’t come close to compensating for the loss of that person. What the narrative around protests, rioting and looting does is it moves the conversation away from this fundamental question: How would you feel if the police – the state – killed someone you loved, and how would you respond?
At any rate, both Ezra and Ta-Nehisi focus on lot on that question in the podcast, and it was great to revisit.
And finally, I read Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl, and came across this reference to Sunday Scaries, long before the term invaded college campuses:
“Let us consider, for instance, ‘Sunday neurosis,’ that kind of depression which afflicts people who become aware of the lack of content in their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest.”
Next week is a new week!
– Emmett