[Seth Says] A Vacation...
It's vacation time, which means that Debbie is off to enjoy a week on the beaches of Cape Cod, and I am not because last month I traveled 1/3rd as far and am still recovering from it. I very don't enjoy travel these days, and thanks to THE MOST AWESOME POWER IN THE UNIVERSE (volition) I can simply add it to my list of things that I don't do because I don't enjoy them (drinking, dancing, basketball, trying to fulfill all of society's expectations).
(That last bit is actually the subject of a recent talk by a friend of mine who is a psychiatric nurse practitioner specializing in neurodivergency -- I just recently emailed her presentation to one of you but then realized perhaps more than one of you would be interested because it's an hour of he telling her story as a neurodivergent individual trying to interact with the world and discovering that she actually possessed the most awesome power in the universe and could use it to her advantage. It's not a short presentation but she's pretty smart about autism/ADHD so if that's relevant to your areas of interest this might be.)
Anyway, here I am at home. I know there are some people who enjoy their own mini-vacations when their partner goes away because there are fewer things they have to do, and more freedoms they have to live however they like for a week. As I already live however I like, I accrue no real benefit from my partner's departure (say "partner's departure" five times fast!) save for fact that all of the leftover larb she made is now mine -- an insufficient remuneration, perhaps, but one of which I will sing praises nonetheless.
TOP 5 SONGS ABOUT LEFTOVER LARB
(Larbftovers, if you will)(although I can't blame you if you won't)
5) Crazy Little Thing Called Larb
4) A Larb Day's Night
3) I've Got Nothing But Larb For You Baby
2) I'm the Larb Gai (Billie Eilish reprise)
1) I'm All Out of Larb (I'm so lost without food)
BUT WHAT ABOUT VACATION?
Well, there's nowhere I'd rather be than at home, although as a freelancer vacation is basically "whenever the work slows down". A few months ago I was deluged with work, from my usual social media posts for my anchor client, to writing a speech and poem and newsletter and blogpost, to working on a business ebook, to writing 50 jokes.
Meanwhile I've had no new clients since last month's speeches, which means I guess I'm currently on quasi-vacation (going to visit churches and ring bells)(I have a hunch most of you will get that) if you don't count the bit of daily work I do for my anchor client. Said work involves too much writing for LinkedIn, and the result is that my enthusiasm for social media these days has been severely diminished because my brain is like "why would I spend a lot of time on social media when I'm not being paid for it?"
Which, maybe a good question! But inconveniently social media is the main way I keep in touch with friends multidirectionally (I mean, I keep in touch through this newsletter but it's a lot more one-way)(although you are encouraged to reply and say hi if the mood strikes you!)(doubly so if you might be in town and be up for a brief walk/hangout some afternoon)(triply if this week)(tripoli if you're in the mediterranean), so it's not ideal that I'm finding it exhausting. Part of that is because social media IS exhausting and part of the problem is me mostly reposting political things on BlueSky because of The Everything.
Still, last week I posted a version of my People Are People ethos in reply to some Gaza reporting by a human rights activist I follow and he reposted it:
The world's most basic* moral precept: Other people's lives have value and their well-being matters.
(*meaning both the simplest to understand, and the most fundamental)
Every major religion addresses this, from the 10 commandments to "Love thy neighbor".
We are failing basic morality.
So I'm glad other people recognize this essential truth, but also I need to not constantly drink from the firehose of relentless political news even if I'm sometimes one of the hydrants. (When they say you need to hydrate that's not what they mean)(but typing that did just remind me to drink more water so hooray).
IN LIGHTER NEWS
This week's column is a funny story about the time I got kicked off of my health insurance
It's also cathartic for me because I still enjoy putting clever bad language in the newspaper because I am still in third grade.
Anyway, since I'm on vacation* I'm going to go play some video games before I sleep (Monster Train 2 recently hit Gamepass and it's a delight), but as always I thank you for reading, will be back in two weeks with another column, and encourage you to share your larb because it's always better to come to a friendly agreement with such things.
Otherwise you end up in larbitration.
Penultimately**,
Seth
*my life is a vacation and so I play video games before I sleep every night.
**i have the ULTIMATE PEN! But no, mainly I figured since I made a footnote anyway (footnotes AND parentheticals?! when will the madness end?), I'd mention in a post-script footnote that for newer subscribers who want to see older newsletters because they are very bored and laid up in hospital or something, there's a whole archive online, and if someone stole that archive they'd be my archival archrival.