Alright, this is happening; again, kinda, but in a different way. For years I kept hearing people making noise at me about publishing more about the adventures that came up along the timeline I’m riding, and stuff that comes out of my mouth in conversations with folks that could actually be recorded somewhere to be useful to someone else. And because I hear, usually ultra-well, that message got in. And now this motor is puttering into action.
For a lot of reasons that sound like excuses now, I published stuff here and there. Spreading out content in various platforms on the internet. It got exhausting. Folks kept asking me for stuff, that left me wondering where in the heck do the posts on the internet go to? It’s not entirely their fault for when asked about those posts I was already tired. As an avid over-thinker, the stuff I’m sorting out can wear me out, but because I have a Midwestern streak in me I cannot shake myself free from, I have to respond to each.and.every.person because I value human connection. Not as fluff, but truly. Actually, and I have things to say about that; I really do.
Things like, why do people assume if you said, honestly now, that you were not clarifying you might be near saying something that could offend them and you want to deliver a perspective that is true- at least at that time.
So here we are, an unceremonious start to getting it all together. As this newsletter starts, it might be a bit memory-laneish. You have been warned. What comes after will be a bit more from the intersection of the past and future, with occasional reaches in either direction.
So what does it mean to Get it together. For now it means I am pulling off content from the corners of the internet into this space. It means the journal entries page over > here < is going to become even more of a visual archive than this > timeline <. I feel better knowing I’m addressing these letters to real life people, several of whom have some > art < or > scarves < or been in some lengthy dialogue about death and life with, and perhaps some of you/their friends too.
True it is I started post-college work writing. True it is I did a lot of other jobs before writing, such as washing golfer’s dishes and account executive’s houses, house/pet sitting, and still do all kinds of > labor < creatively, technically, service and learning oriented as needed; it has been about a decade or so since publishing words on The Art of Advice for ChicagoNow. Slowing down a bit instead of skipping, more on that the next round.
You’ll get a bit of a hint of what’s to come, because I don’t like to scare people more than I already seem to, and you can also rest assured this will be nothing like advice, and a lot more like…you know, I don’t really know what. And that is kind of the point here, to not make sharp points. This is not a jousting arena or wrestling circle. So thank you for joining in this newfangled letter writing business without a shorter post-address. I’ll give my best to make this getting it together more worth your time than the spreading too thinly peanut butter, marmite, pesto, or whatever you put on your toast across social media. Cheers; and ciao for now!
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