lqb2weekly #197 (7 may 2024)

May 07, 2024

hey,

[preface: i wrote this newsletter before the rafah invasion began and i didn’t have emotional energy to rewrite it before sending. idk what’s coming but i know something is coming.]

top two messages for this newsletter: students protesting in solidarity with palestine and my 35th birthday (lots of other stuff, too, but wanted to note those first)!

as you’ve likely heard by now, on multiple college campuses, the police have been called in (on behalf of the universities) to tear down student pro-palestine encampments (but seemingly rarely/never to protect students from external agents). there are lots of campus encampments still up, many that have been torn town, and a few that have used their power to negotiate wins (in their terms) with their administrations. as always, all the stories are happening all the time. there’s just two pieces of media i want to point to that are giving me a sense of hope in all of the victory and violence happening on campuses: (1) this prof remembering that students have been right about many armed conflicts in the 60s (and beyond) and (2) the new york times covering how police stood by for hours while (a) protestors held a nonviolent stance and (b) counterprotestors committed act after act of violence against protestors (and maybe even bystanders). whatever you think about the protests (and i have my own conflicting stances on them; hit me up if you’re curious), i hope you/we can remember the longer arc of what’s happening here.
i just turned 35!
(photo credit: robert carter)

how do i feel? honestly, pretty great. i feel more and more like i’m coming into myself and it feels good to be oneself. i celebrated turning 35 by:
1. gathering many (not all) of my closest friends (and their partners) and nibblings to a pair of houses in a rural-ish place to hang out for a weekend
2. my cutie taking me out to a beautiful 1on1 dinner at chef dave’s (black-owned fancy restaurant in chestnut hill)
3. taking 5 days off of work
4. reflecting on the last 5 years of my life

i’ve done some good writing on the reflection part so that’ll be coming out in the next few weeks/months on the blog. it was hard but good and very worth it.

heads up: i’m about to make an ask!

those of you who have been around lqb2weekly for a while know that i don’t usually make asks for people to upgrade to paid subscriptions. the one exception to that is the edition near my birthday. so here we are! if you’ve been enjoying this newsletter, i would love to ask for you to help celebrate my birthday by upgrading from free to paid. buttons below to help you do that. if you already are a paid subscriber (1) thank you and (2) would you be willing to write out what you like about the newsletter? you can do that via the substack feature (when you subscribe or upgrade to paid) or you could leave a comment on this edition.

writing

some things i’ve written since the last newsletter:

Apr 24, 2024 | examples of short and long organizational pauses

quotes

there is nothing new under the sun. also, full transparency, many of these quotes come from james clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter (which i love).

You can’t be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with. — Wayne Dyer

Inspiration is merely the reward for working every day. — Charles Baudelaire

The beginner chases the right answers.
The master chases the right questions. — James Clear

Flexibility alone is not a great strategy, but the lack of it can ruin one. — James Clear

Sometimes being in a car, looking at the road, not having to make eye contact, is the ideal setting for heavy conversation. — Francine Prose

What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it. — Gabriel García Márquez

If you feel resistance before you begin, it’s usually procrastination and you need to get started.
If you feel resistance after you begin, it’s usually feedback and you need to make adjustments. — James Clear

Focus is how you knit the hours of the day together. With focus, the day becomes a beautiful tapestry. Without focus, you end up holding a bundle of loose string. — James Clear

When my brother and I were growing up, my father would encourage us to fail. We’d sit around the dinner table and he’d ask, “What did you guys fail at this week?” If we had nothing to tell him, he’d be disappointed. The logic seems counterintuitive, but it worked beautifully.
He knew that many people become paralyzed by the fear of failure. They’re constantly afraid of what others will think if they don’t do a great job and, as a result, take no risks. My father wanted us to try everything and feel free to push the envelope. His attitude taught me to define failure as not trying something I want to do instead of not achieving the right outcome. — Sara Blakely