I'm drinking watery drip coffee in the Halifax airport. In my barista days, sometimes I would make a weak pot of drip by mistake and feel awful about it. It's not worth pouring out the whole carafe, but a dozen or so people would receive a disappointing coffee that day, and that was a heavy burden.

I'VE BEEN NEGLECTING YOU! I know you haven't noticed. That's okay. I've noticed. My quest to overcome perfectionism continues.

Let me preach what I've been having a hard time practicing lately: It's really important to write newsletters right now. "Write newsletters" here can mean: host and attend events; disagree with friends and talk about it; exist in physical space with people you might not usually spend time with, and find common ground.

Let's all hit the proverbial send on our imperfect, inadequate bids for connection and not worry about getting it right the first time.

The voices that keep me paralyzed are worried about being seen, saying the wrong thing, or not acknowledging every possible injustice, and for good reason. We are constantly under surveillance. Not only perpetrated by the state, tech oligarchs, and media companies, but also by each other. Hannah Glenn writes, "Maybe we're all so worried about getting in trouble because we all keep trying to get each other in trouble". Yikes! A little on the nose there, Hannah!

As to loosening of the reins on creativity and artistic output, Annie Dillard has some wisdom to share.

"The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water.

Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

Annie Dillard - The Writing Life

AMEN, ANNIE! Especially to that last part. Abundance is incompatible with hoarding.

I am all about tolerance, coexisting in imperfect harmony, etc… but if you listen to things on your phone in public places (airports, for example) with no headphones, never talk to me again. That is where I draw the line.

xoxo