Who I'm Gonna Be When I Grow Up
7 things that got me thinking (and feeling)
Here are 7 things that got me thinking (and feeling) this week…
I recently came across a wonderful documentary and thus was introduced to an amazing human being. Invisible Beauty is available on all streaming platforms and it highlights the Fashion revolutionary Bethann Hardison as she looks back on her journey as a pioneering Black model, modeling agent, and activist. She in her 80’s now and still working. One of my favorite quotes from the film: “I never think people change, I think they become more of who they are. So it’s interested to wonder who you want to be, how you gonna be, how you turn out. Even now I say often, I’m still trying to figure out who I’m gonna be when I grow up.” (She says that at 81 and after many successful lives. wow)
Writing is hard work. So I buy myself toys that will help the activity be as fun as possible. My go-to toy is mechanical keyboards. It’s a niche, a hobby, and a vibe. I just got a new one that is 80’s Nintendo inspired, created by 8bitdo, and I’m loving it. If you are curious about the keyboard, take the leap, it’s inexpensive. And if you are curious about keyboards as a hobby, don’t just take my word for it. Go down the rabbit hole.
At my ‘So Emotional’ Book Club latest meeting, we were joined by authors Perry Zurn and Dani S. Bassett to discuss their latest book, “Curious Minds.” It was a wonderful meeting, and they were so generous and smart. One part of the book that fascinated me was how they noted that not all thinkers embraced curiosity at first. Many Medieval philosophers like Augustine and others thought curiosity opened us up to the ungodly and that there were better things to do with our time. Of course this changed during the Enlightenment. But the whole ordeal just reminds me to embrace curiosity more and more. As Ted Lasso once said, “Be curious, not judgmental.” One way to be curious, is to join my virtual book club. (lol).
Speaking of being curious, today I plan to listen to Audre 3000’s latest album: “New Blue Sun”. I respect his courage to try new things as an artist. I’m such a fan of Audre’s and many Jazz Flutists like Yusef Lateef and Eric Dolphy. So I will approach it in that Jazz spirit, and share my small thoughts in next week’s letter.
“Pain teaches that we can’t escape our bodies or properly appreciate being pain free. But it teaches more than that—-about our relationship to others and their relation to us. If anything of value has come from my experience of chronic pain, its a presumptive compassion for everyone else,” says philosopher Kieran Setiya in his book “Life is Hard.”
“The Brainwash Festival is the biggest festival of thought in the Netherlands and Belgium, bringing together more than eighty speakers and makers in some sixty programmes. [They] bring a new slant to your thinking on dominant ideas, patterns and systems. [They] think about how we can shape the world and our lives in radical new ways.” I was part of their recent 2023 festival. You can check out my conversation with Journalist Yasmina Aboutaleb here as we talk about forgiveness.
Rejection sucks! But its part of the job of an academic and writer. Literally, they should put it in our job description! Want to know How to Cope? Try these strategies.
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