To guard ourselves from bitterness
Helping Friendly Newsletter, 01.21.22
Every Friday, I share 5 things to consider and a treasure chest of links. If you enjoy them, please subscribe (it’s free).
GM! ☕️
Here are this week’s 5 things to consider:
1. To guard ourselves from bitterness
In “Shattered Dreams,” Martin Luther King, Jr. explains how to “guard ourselves from bitterness” in the struggle for justice. Like so much of King’s work, it is evergreen.
2. Strivers with no chill
Last week, I read two pieces that nuanced my thinking on rest: Ijeoma Oluo’s analysis of hustle and rest in an exploitative system and Elizabeth Spiers’s “defense of strivers with no chill.” Both explore intersections between hustle, privilege, and survival.
3. Tree 103
Susan Orlean wrote an obituary for Tree 103, the tallest known tree in New York, which fell in December (white pine, ~1675). Mourning nature is, I believe, essential ecological work. It honors the web of life, helps us grasp real and threatened loss, and fortifies us for the labor of environmental care. Peace, Tree 103.🖤 (See also: how to mourn a glacier.)
4. The sounds of silence
I’ve been entranced by this compilation of musicians playing John Cage’s composition 4’33”. It has me wondering about not only the myriad qualities of silence, but also how to actively create it.
5. Creative inspiration
Inspiration is everywhere, according to artists interviewed for the short film, Inspiring Creativity. You don’t have to look far; you just have to look.
Thank you for reading
This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 If you want to show your support, you can share this post, venmo me a coffee, engage my services, or buy a book from my links. (I earn a small commission from Bookshop and Amazon.)
Big thanks for coffee love to SW, TB, CS, TH, WW, and TM! 🙏🏼
Treasure chest
I bet you find a gem ➔ 6 American artworks that respond to King’s legacy | a conversation on love with bell hooks and Sharon Salzberg | living with climate change anxiety | what if we just stopped being so available? | 62 books by women of color to read in 20221 | we’ve been drawing butterflies all wrong2 | to be happy, stop comparing yourself to others, especially me, Genghis Khan | message in a button | library ambiance | trust👇🏼
Have a great weekend! I’ll see you again soon.
Jenny
Via Tom Whitwell.