A Week of Being Kin Lane - April 7th, 2025
I have been struggling to understand why so many people would gleefully and openly celebrate the theft of writing and art via AI. Then I realize they haven’t ever had something that they personally brought to life, nurtured, loved and was immensely proud of, let alone depended on for paying the bills and feeding their families—they’ve never had anything they needed to protect at all costs, and that leaves me even sadder than I was before.
This last Sunday after I had already written last week’s newsletter, but before I sent it out on Monday, we went and saw a delightful play off Broadway called Sumo. It was yet another beautiful critique of masculinity, which I am enjoying alongside my main course of feminism present in what I am reading these days. The two hour play left me with a healthy reminder that we can indeed break from tradition and be the change we want to see in the world, helping reprogram me and redirect my energy towards a more caring future.
However, to get to this caring future, I think that white men will just need to sit things out for 7 to 14 years—we need a reset.
As I continue to slow down and lose myself in our glorious New York life, reading books, and writing daily, it has become really stark how fabricated speed is being used to induce austerity into every aspect of our lives. I was saddened this week about how tattoos are being used as a reference for disappearing humans, and fucking angered by how artificial intelligence is being wielded at the Department of Veterans Affairs by DOGE—it is where I was stationed as a Presidential Innovation Fellow, leaving me once again I feel personally attacked by this administration.
On Monday we went and saw the 90th birthday party of Herb Alpert, and his Tijuana Brass. I remember his music being the backdrop for a lot of things in the 1970s and into the 1980s, but I did not fully understand what a showman and performer he was—-his music was top tier and very moving in an energetically brass way.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in New York City released a new map of the subway system that I am absolutely in love with. The new ,map is influenced by the 1972 Vignelli map which was criticized for being beautiful but useless—the new one is a blend of the two. I have the Vignelli map on the wall along with a handful of older ones, including one from the London Underground. I love subway maps, and subway systems, even with all of their flaws, as subways reflect the people who ride them, and the city they bring to life each day.
It was a weird Eugene, Oregon flashback week for me, with a coordinated walk around with my friend Mike Biglan who lives and runs a business in Eugene, and I worked with back in the day. But I also randomly ran into Beth Anne Whalen who I worked with in Eugene, but who now lives in Florida, while I was riding by 7th avenue. Strange small world.
Poppy and I have managed to do a loop around Central Park every day this week, except for Saturday. The weather has been lovely, and I have been enjoying getting the old heart rate up for a good hour each day, and Poppy absolutely loves the ride, getting very excited when the bike comes out each day. It is really the best kind of exercising I could ask for and will keep striving to do it each day—weather permitting.
We ended the week at our favorite restaurant Dirty Candy, an all vegetable restaurant down in the Lower East Side. We had a smash burger, hot dog, chopped cheese, rib sandwich, and tater tots. It was all very amazing, but the smash burger and chopped cheese absolutely blew my mind. It was as good or better than most chopped cheese and smash burgers I’ve had, but it was pure vegetables.
I still feel stretched so thin with everything going on in the world. I can’t look at the stock market. I can only do short bursts on social media. However, I do feel like I am managing to find a balance, but I am left so very tired each day. I am focused on just living, exercising, reading, and writing. I am focused on care. For myself. For those around me. In my writing. I am struggling to find a place of care to operate from in my API work, but I will keep pushing each day and week until I can achieve this balance. There isn’t a lot of care in the world right now, and I have to remain centered here to survive.
Right before sitting down to write this I finished the Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. What a dark and relevant tale to read in 2025, but it was one that is aligned with the feminist foundation I am centering my world upon across my daily reading and writing. I am convinced I have read the book before, but it may have just been the California reality, and the main character’s hyper-empathetic existence that left me feeling spoken to, but also hopeful and grounded after reading—leaving me cautiously optimistic for tomorrow.
Care is the opposite of algorithmic detachment and abstraction. - Dan McQuillan