welcome

+ 5 reasons why I am starting a newsletter

Hello, and welcome. This is just an intro post to kick things off + 5 reasons why I think this will be fun (for me) (no guarantees for anyone else):

1. People have to go out of their way to be here and therefore will be gentle and kind.

Anytime you have to go through the annoying process of shifting your keyboard to get the @ sign for @gmail.com, you likely want to be there and are along for the ride. Reflection: With every iteration of myself I’ve morphed into online, I’ve both grown and downsized my original “following.” Not in a cult-y way but you know. Meaning, those that wanted to follow me to a new platform followed me, and those that did not did not. And that’s good! This is yet another form of that, where I pop up in a different corner of the internet – an online speakeasy if you will – and those that find their way in through the secret entrance are from the previous pool of people who wanted to hang with me to begin with, and will hopefully like what I have to share. Taylor Swift’s “..nice!” A receptive audience is the best audience. Otherwise you get stage fright and shy away from it.

2. Low stakes.

There are no rewards for doing it, therefore there are no penalties if you don’t. So many newsletters that I open start with, “Sorry, I haven’t posted one of these in a month!!!” “Three months!!!’ “A year!!!” This is not a slam. The opposite. It soothes me. Because if that’s the norm and how things fly around here, I can sneak in and sneak out with ease. No-pressure zones are when creativity thrives. Plus, it’s like a magic show. If I disappear, it’s an expected part of the act. If I reappear, it’s somehow still exciting, thrilling, and unexpected. Ta da! (Crowd throws flowers and yells: How did she do it?? The world will never know!!)

2.5. Low stakes, cont.

People sometimes say, “I’m afraid to make a blog or newsletter because what if no one reads it?” My answer to that is: you’re not thinking negatively ENOUGH. >;-) There is actually a level even lower than that, that you should fear more, where zero people read it. Meaning, you don’t even read it yourself. In this scenario, you close your eyes (or maybe your eyes were already closed and you are sleep walking), you bang out letters on a keyboard and hit “post.” So, as long as you don’t do that, as long as no one is reading it except for you, you are actually doing so great!!

3. Long-form content.

I have too many accounts for too many things and I STILL have more to say and no good place to put it. Anything important? Not necessarily. At a certain point I need to stop making niche accounts. So this feels like a fun way to compile it all together in one place. For me. For you. Maybe even for 0 people on the days I’m feeling edgy. The sky’s the limit. 

4. It’s the summer. It’s my birthday! I want to. I love my friends’ newsletters!

My friends’ newsletters keep me off social media for 9 minutes and I want to keep you off social media for 9 minutes. This one (#4) includes several reasons in one bullet point but this is my birthday party and I’ll [do what] I want to. 

5. Writing makes my Menty less ill. 

---

Finally: I’ve heard others say before, several times in fact, that you have to be ultra vain to make a newsletter documenting your likes, dislikes, purchases, and comings-and-goings of your day… but I find it to be the opposite. It is a very time-consuming act of unreciprocated kindness. Let me package up and deliver to you a list of direct links I think you’ll enjoy, because I enjoyed them. It’s kind, and I want to be kind??? 

---

In closing: Think of this newsletter like a mermaid with her little trinkets. I found this and I found this and I found this and none of them are related or in any way similar in size, shape, or value, but they are items and links and ideas that are special to me, that I’ve collected, and that make me happy. And now I’d like to present them to you.

Brushes my hair with a fork and swims away.

(Thanks for being here.)