“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes*, including you.” (Anne Lamott)
*or a year
Oh hey hello Maxine, it’s meeeee just sliding into your inbox like it hasn’t been a whole year since I last wrote. Here’s a screenshot of the intro to the last newsletter I wrote in January 2021 and if you swap out 11 pm for the “9 o’clock” mention below, it’s almost like I didn’t ghost you for a year!
Re that ghosting, here’s a screenshot of the last thing I wrote which I found when I opened Substack today, and I had to laugh at my sweet self trying to justify not writing for a month and then finding the grace to just be like, F*ck it, maybe I’ll just be silent for a year.
Doing this now is hard because writing is always hard and when you don’t do it for a long time, it gets harder to believe that you actually have something worth saying, but I’m inspired today by this piece, “I Got Sober in the Pandemic. It Saved My Life,” where Danielle Tcholakian said that when she could write again, she started with a newsletter—
It was just a little newsletter, but I wrote it so happily. And then I wrote another, and another. The conceit was that it was a bad newsletter—a way to free myself from the fearful perfectionism that had hobbled me.
That “fearful perfectionism” is a huge part of my journey over the last year, and although my struggle has not been about sobriety, this piece is really about what it means to be human - to exist in a body and understand that this life will involve making mistakes and taking wrong turns and periods of silence and learning to be seen and heard again. The Beloved Community, one of my favorite phrases, can’t exist in a vacuum.
So that’s where I am right now - trying to learn how to write regularly again, like I did when I had five little children who took naps while I sat at my dining room table in a company town in Michigan and wrote like my life depended on it, which it most definitely did.
Shows I’ve loved over the past year—
Reservation Dogs - Incredible show written and produced by Native Americans. You’ll laugh and cry.
Abbott Elementary - Faux documentary style comedy about Philly elementary school, created by comic and Philly native Quinta Brunson.
Schitt’s Creek - I watched it when it was new, but last year I rewatched and then literally re-started the pilot and did the whole thing again because apparently what I needed was COMFORT AND FAMILIARITY, things I also get in The Office, Sense8, and Slings and Arrows.
Home Economics - I really thought it was gonna be just another sitcom, but I’m enjoying it so much. Nice family dynamics vibe.
South Side - One of the funniest, most smartly written shows I’ve ever seen. A delight from start to finish.
We Are Lady Parts - A British Muslim all girls rock band. Totally unique and fantastically cast and executed. I am invested in these lives, y’all.
Station Eleven - Gave meaning to the past two years in a way I was completely unprepared for.
I’m on a social media break right now, which is good for my brain and better for my time management, but I miss watching sports with my online friends, especially when I saw this tweet and was reminded just how much cleverness and fun is to be found there.
I was maybe going to write more, but this feels like about enough for now.
Sending you all love and gratitude for reading.
Kate
Welcome back, Love, it’s been quite a year and am glad you took some time off … more glad you’re back!!
SOOO good to hear from you again, my friend. You know I love reading ANYTHING you write!