A gentle close to the week

8 things that made life better and brighter / Issue 1,406

Oh, hi friends!

Welcome to the Gentle Close portion of your week. I’m your host, Kara Cutruzzula.

We’re just going to have a quick peek around, OK?

If you look behind door number one, you’ll find a warehouse of everything you got done. It’s like Costco in there, isn’t it? Beautiful.

Behind door number two, you’ll find a dark corridor leading to other doors. Through those doors are all the things you didn’t get done. Whoops. Let’s not look behind door number two.

And behind door number three, it’s — yes, I’m happy to report, it’s a passageway to the weekend!

The Weekend is full of whatever you wish: plans or no plans; catching up or powering down.

Congratulations, you earned it. 

Proceed through door number three today, gently and with care.

Remember, the world is big. (source)

8 Things That Made Life Better and Brighter

• Slow Productivity by Cal Newport. I read a bit of this each morning this week and, coincidence or not, I had a nice week. I’ll discuss it soon, but I feel like this book was written for me? And so, maybe for you, too?

• “One Second and a Million Miles” came up on Spotify yesterday. Too good. Kelli O’Hara! Steven Pasquale! Here’s a video.

• I found a new Moleskine notebook in a cabinet. Still shrink-wrapped. But not anymore! Opening it felt like a gift.

• “The flip side of saying no is saying yes more fully, less grudgingly — because I’m not living life like a pat of butter spread too thinly across toast.” The simplicity of learning to say ‘no.’ (h/t Gina Cutruzzula!)

• The ongoing Kate Middleton and royals drama got me back in touch with a few former colleagues and good friends, and I can’t help but wonder how The Daily Beast circa 2010 would have covered this chaos. If you know, oh, you know…

• OK, it’s not making life “brighter” per se, but Colin and I are watching The Act on Hulu — you know, the miniseries about Gypsy Rose Blanchard? I thought it was new. Um, it is not. It premiered in 2019. I’m just here to provide you with cutting-edge cultural updates.

• Speaking of culture, Jeopardy’s Tournament of Champions is my Super Bowl. We’re rooting for you, Troy!!!

• Finally, this advice George Saunders gave to a writer asking how to edit his own work:

So, dear questioner: is there something you can do, pre-writing, that will make you excited about the potentially wonderful effect you are going to have on your reader?     

Something that taps into your twenty-year-old former self’s dreams of being a writer?  (That one always works for me.)

Something that excites you about the possibility of future success? 

Something that helps you see your work-in-progress as a gift you can’t wait to give to the world, instead of as a mistake you might be in the process of making, and must prevent? 

Every second we spend writing, we are enacting a stance toward life itself.

The way we ought to feel, according to me: “I am in this dream called life, living it, sometimes feeling trapped in it, sometimes feeling blessed to be in it, and I want – well, I want to leave something lovely behind, for those who will follow me (and for those who are out there in it with me right now), something that, through its complicated beauty, will bear testimony to how crazy and intense and nice it was being here. I hope to reassure and console with this work.  (But not falsely.)”

I want that, too.

What made your life better and brighter this week? I’d love to know!

And have a great weekend, my friends. Thank you for being here.