Knowing what you can do
Oh, hi friends!!
On this Monday, what can you do?
You can go fast.
You can go slow.
You can move from the bed to the couch.
Or the couch to the floor.
You can contract.
You can connect.
You can resist.
You can accept.
You can type.
You can rest.
You can call.
You can stare.
You can care.
You can cry.
You can.
You can.
You can.
So do.
"How can I explain ... that from the age of six I've been a slave to letters and numbers, that my mood depends on the success of their combinations, that the joy of having done well is rare, unstable, that it lasts an hour, an afternoon, a night?"
From Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
What have I been doing while sheltering in place? I’ll tell you — I’m speeding through Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. I feel like a kid again, compulsively reading well after bedtime, with a little lamp keeping me company, turning, turning, turning pages.
This gave me a greater realization, too: I always said I prefer real paper to digital books, but truthfully I had never tried to read on a Kindle or iPad. Now I see that was a flimsy excuse — I quickly got used to it, and am glad for the thousands of books now at my fingertips, thanks to the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Library.
Now I’m thankful to have another world into which I can escape for a few hours every day.
Please enjoy Christy Altomare singing “A Cockeyed Optimist” (there’s an interview with Laura Osnes bookending this performance as well, but this is a direct link to the song itself!).
***
When the sky is bright canary yellow
I forget ev'ry cloud I've ever seen
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green
I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead
But I'm only a cockeyed optimist
And I can't get it into my head
I hear the human race
Is fallin' on its face
And hasn't very far to go
But ev'ry whip-poor-will
Is sellin' me a bill
And tellin' me it just ain't so
I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope
And I can't get it out of my heart!
Not this heart
PS — If you'd like some low-pressure accountability in the morning, please join me and my brother Eric for the 10:11 Club — every weekday at 10:11am ET, we're starting our day together and working toward one goal until noon. Join us anytime with #1011club on Instagram or hit reply and share what you'll be working on!
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara