Suppose I wanted to write an entire album of songs inspired by Reddit posts.
(I am picking this idea at random, but it’s kind of awesome, actually.)
One option is to think about it and obsess about it, then tell everyone that I’m thinking about it and ask their opinion or advice.
Read MoreCatching up with TikTok friends on a Sunday morning, I was intrigued by a tag on a new acquaintance’s post: #skoolie.
Clicking on it, I found myself in a world of people who are taking #vanlife to the next level by converting old school buses into tiny homes and using them to explore the country.
I don’t think I’ll ever be one of them — driving is one of my least favorite activities. But I watched several videos and enjoyed them for a number of reasons.
Read MoreIt’s pretty hard not to care what people think.
For deep, evolutionary reasons, we humans associate rejection with death. No one wants to be abandoned by the tribe and left cold, hungry, and alone in the forest.
But caring how many people are paying attention -- that’s a modern phenomenon. Our ancestors, living in small groups, probably wouldn’t have been able to conceptualize metrics like Amazon sales rankings, subscriber count, or ticket sales.
Read MoreAmong Aimee Mann’s many beautifully poignant songs, there’s one called “Save Me,” that includes the lyric, “Can you save me from the ranks of the freaks who suspect they could never love anyone?”
And there’s a similar sentiment expressed in “Ray,” from her 1995 album “I’m with Stupid”: “I think I know another lonely exile when I see one/And you appear to be one.”
Read MoreA friend of mine, a stay-at-home mom, is locked into a perpetual battle with her career-oriented sister-in-law.
“You’re so lucky that you were able to stay home,” says the sister-in-law. “We never could have afforded it.”
My friend seethed. “It wasn’t luck!” she told me. “We sacrificed. She could have, too.”
She wants her sister-in-law to acknowledge the nobility of her choice to stay home with her kids. The rightness of it.
Read More
