Some things I've read lately
and liked a lot
I’m not up for writing a full-fledged piece this week. Fledged is a weird word, by the way. I’ve never really thought too deeply about it until this exact moment. Huh.
Anyway, yeah, so there’s been a lot of emotional labor going on this week for me. And since emotional labor is the kind of labor that I sadly don’t get paid for, but instead, costs me a bunch of energy, I’m left feeling spent. (Not sure if that explanation worked, but let’s go with it.)
I don’t even have the energy to rework an older post of mine either, although I have an early one from the archives that I’m almost certainly going to revamp soon. I also don’t want to leave you high and dry and risk not hearing from any of you again (I kid, I kid, maybe?).
So I thought, Why not link to a few recent pieces of writing from other writers that I’ve enjoyed?
1.
This first one from Kevin Maguire who writes The New Fatherhood was published earlier today, which will be yesterday when this post goes live.
He writes about a feeling I’m familiar with—being in a funk. It’s a hard feeling to describe when you’re in it. The post was inspired by a conversation that came up in Kevin’s community for his paid subscribers, which he shared within the post and includes a comment from yours truly (all of our names were removed, but it’ll be obvious which one is me for multiple reasons).
Read Pulling Yourself Out of a Funk
2.
Some of you might already be familiar with Thomas J Bevan who writes The Commonplace since he’s also the mastermind/boss/herder-of-cats behind the Soaring Twenties Social Club, which I’ve written pieces for a few times in the past, including the short story I reposted here last week.
Thomas is an excellent essayist and went proper viral last week with this post about how he believes, “that this whole smartphone scrolling, content consuming, ubiquitous posting, Extremely Online thing is going to go the way of the Fedora, or the Marlboro smoked at cruising altitude in economy class.”
There are many more great lines like that contained within.
Read The End of the Extremely Online Era
3.
Samantha Childress has been living in Cairo and has written eloquently about her experiences in The Cairo Dispatch for a while now. In this post, she shows what it feels like to be leaving a place that’s not her original home, but a place that feels like some different semblance of home, and the conflicting feelings around all that, especially since there’s an actual conflict occurring close by.
Read Goodbye to All That: On Loving and Leaving Cairo
4.
I originally read this one from my friend Alex Dobrenko` who writes Both Are True when it was only available to paid subscribers and I thought I was all cool and special, but then he was like “psyche! now everyone can read it lololol.” And then it also went proper viral and now I’m also envious of that.
But you know what? It’s such a great piece, I don’t even care.
It’s funny (no surprise there, coming from Al), poignant, heartbreaking, vulnerable, and introspective. Most of all, I love that it was probably one of the more difficult pieces for him to share because, if I had to guess, it felt too risky. (I mean I could probably text him and confirm that but it’s late and I don’t want to bother him right now since he wakes up at like way-too-early-o’-clock). It’s about how he was addicted to marijuana, which is being legalized left and right and is generally considered non-addictive, and that could open him up to some super serious scrutiny. But he put it out there anyway. And now it’s probably his most-read piece to date.
5.
I’m familiar with chasing the alluring dreams of new projects. And I’m also familiar with how sometimes those dreams evolve and no longer feel alive for me. My friend Mark Koslow who writes The Middle Path captures this cycle much more cogently than I could. If you’ve ever wondered if a dream was ever truly yours to begin with, give this piece a read.
6.
I loved this fable that we published on the Foster Co-Authored Substack from community member and friend Azalea who writes EarfChild.
As I wrote in a comment, it is “a beautiful, creative, heartfelt, and emotional piece from an amazing writer and person.”
Read The Lion, the Girl, and the White Butterflies
That’s all I have for you today. I hope you’re able to relax and spend some time with these talented writers this weekend.
If you liked this post or any of the pieces I shared this week, could you let me, and those writers, know by giving the heart button below a tap?
Thanks for the shoutout Lyle! Excited to read these other pieces as well
All excellent choices, Lyle