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Hey y'all!

The world is at least/ fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative/ estimate, though I keep this from my children.

That’s a line from one of my favorite poems, Good Bones, by Maggie Smith. And while I do not believe that the world is actually fifty percent terrible, it sure feels like it is at times. It’s the election season here in the US, and the chaos that is ensuing seems pervasive. This does nothing to help my anxiety.

It always feels like partisanship brings out the worst in us. When people say they hate politics, I think they mostly mean they hate partisanship - the way it feels divorced from reality and instead is treated like a football game. Your team won, my team lost, with no sense that real people and their lives are depending on us to do the right thing for them. And everyone's on the defensive, all the time.

I don’t write much about partisan politics. It’s not that I do not care about the outcomes, but because I too hate partisanship, and as a writer, I want to build a body of work that will last. Nobody ever quotes that article about the guy who ultimately lost that election in 1976. Life is short, to quote Maggie Smith’s excellent poem again, and I do not want to spend my words on things that do not endure, and which give me no joy.

That does not mean I am not political - I am highly political. Ultimately, in a free society, politics is the process of deciding how we will live together. If there is to be more than one of us, there must be politics. It is always my hope that people can draw that subtle, implicit line - that my writing about the birdsong that wakes me and the joy found there will persuade one to vote in a way that cares for those same birds - that writing about the practice of hope will make one hopeful in a way that translates to voting hopefully, that talking about seeking beauty as a means of caring for yourself will inspire you to want to make sure everyone has access to a beautiful world, too.

But maybe I am too subtle. The birds are political. The climate is political. Your neighborhood is political.

Like Maggie Smith, I want to sell you on the world. I want you to recognize that while it might look like a dump, it could be beautiful here. The beams are sagging, and the door needs weatherstripping and the neighbors are a little wacko, but it has good bones, this world does, and it could be beautiful, with a bit of time and attention.

So, as we wade deeper into this election, I hope for less partisanship. More smiles. More joy, and hope, and dreaming big dreams about the potential for this world we live in.

It could be beautiful here.

Five Beautiful Things

Like every other sentient being on the planet, I am in awe of Simone Biles. It’s hard to overstate just how good she is at what she does. She’s the best in the world, and the most medaled gymnast ever. She has moves and routines that are graded the hardest of their type, and that have only ever been performed in competition by her. She’s not just the head of her class, she is the whole class. As she once said, “I’m not the next Usain Bolt. I’m the first Simone Biles”.

I only recently learned about the visual storytelling of Brooke DiDonato, (she’s also on Instagram) but it’s weird, surrealistic, and mind bending in the best of ways. Some images may be NSFW, depending, of course, on where you W. (HT to Eric Maierson, whose weekly Fave 5 newsletter is a trusted source.)

Over a roughly fifty year period, a nanny in Chicago named Vivian Maier took over 150,000 pictures and showed them to nobody. A chance discovery in an abandoned storage unit led to their being found, and a new outsider artist being recognized. The story is fascinating, and the photographs stunning.

Some 16 years ago in a church basement in North Carolina, I met David LaMotte, who, when I told him I was naive enough to think I could change the world, said that wasn’t naive at all - it would be naive to think I could live in the world and NOT change it. I’ve been listening to him ever since. These days, David is a friend, and he recently did a TEDx talk about how change happens that is extremely timely and hopeful. I’m envious of you who are about to hear David for the first time.

And while we’re on the Olympics and what the human body is capable of, check out Zhang Sixuan, who is 9 years old, one of ten winners of the title “2024 World Shaolin Kung Fu Star” at the Shaolin Kung Fu Games. It is literally unbelievable what she can do with her body.

In case you missed it

Last issue, the most clicked link (~5% of opens) was this animated reading of Wendell Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things.

Also, my wife and I are now fostering kittens - you can get high-quality kitten content on our new Instagram account. Here is an Amazon wish list if you want to help us with supplies.

Check this out

I find that getting my news online - with all the graphics and algorithms and noise - dramatically increases my anxiety. One thing I have done is bookmarked the text-only versions of several popular news sites. No images, minimal formatting. It dramatically changes the experience. I’ve created a page on my website where I’m collecting distraction free news sites. If you know of others, please hit reply and let me know about it.

Also, needing to work on my writing practice, I intend (for the near future, anyway) to write a weekly essay (what we used to call a blog post) on my blog each Friday. You can subscribe to my blog via email or RSS on this page so you don’t miss anything.

Thank You!

This newsletter is a little shot glass of hope and aspiration, handwritten by me, sent lovingly to you, and paid for by my members whose kind patronage makes it possible for me to do this. If you want to support this project, consider becoming a member, or buy me a cup of coffee, share the web version of this letter (see the link at the top of the page) on social media, send some cash via a half-dozen ways, send a postcard to the address at the bottom of the page, or just forward this email to your friends. But however you do it, I'm grateful beyond words for your support.

Take care of yourself, and each other.

HH