Linksy Bits: Your Life is Art, et al.
A book report, coffee recs, Snaining Soup, and how to hunker for the weekend.
Allow me to introduce you, to you. You are a creative. I’ve heard friends who balk at that description with the following litany of reasons: I don’t write like you, I can’t draw a thing, I never played an instrument and I only sing in my car, I need to follow a recipe and can’t riff!
All of this means you think you aren’t gifted in a classified way, that you haven’t been called by an unseen force to express yourself uniquely. My friends, that’s crap.
“Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human.” So sayeth Rick Rubin in his book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. “To create is to bring something into existence that wasn't there before.”
We are all creative, every day. You use creativity to figure out how to get your kid to sleep longer, you use it when writing a note to your best friend, when you’re deciding what’s for dinner, when you’re working on the speech to ask for a raise, when you’re choosing cute shoes which must also be waterproof and go with your new sparkle pants. You are creating your reality, and that is your art.
“To live as an artist is a way of being in the world.” Rubin believes it is essentially a practice of paying attention, refining our senses to the more subtle notes, and noticing what draws us in and what pushes us away.
I have so many underlines in this book. Rubin’s statements are simple and clear, they ring like bells in my head. The book is broken into 78 Areas of Thought which range from Look Inward and Self-Doubt to Breaking the Sameness, Apocrypha, The Art of Habit, and the final one, What We Tell Ourselves. These chapters are quick, only two to three pages each, because they waste no time. They call you in effortlessly and outline the message, finishing with a simple poem or quote that brings it home.
This is not a self-help book to me, at the outset Rubin says take what fits, discard what doesn’t. It’s not prescriptive (though there are some tools), it’s more of a path you may choose to explore. I found myself dipping into it as the final read of the night, just a few areas to linger in before shutting off the light.
I love the idea that the life you live is your ultimate art show. If you are in a rut, in any way in your life, if you’re feeling stuck and mired, this book may help you shift some perspective and open some doors in your head. Find it here to support local bookstores, or here if you’re as addicted to Prime as I am.
Monday’s note is going to be a story about health and your infinitely cool and exasperating body. But, before that: coffee.
I LOVE coffee, with a strong and binding love that had me filling a thermos with 4 cups of dark roast every morning for 30 years. Who does anything for 30 years?! This January I decided to cut back on the caff. There are reasons, which will make a better long read than a quip, but I didn’t want to give up that warm toasty hug altogether. It’s the act of cupping hands around a beacon that helps start the day for me.
Here’s the intel you need: Your thermos of drip coffee has more caffeine than espresso. Generally, a 2 oz shot of espresso has about 80mg of caff, whereas my 4 cups of brewed coffee would bring in roughly 400mg of caff.
So until I can get a fancy espresso machine, I’m using these little sleeves of instant espresso to which I add a glurg of whole milk as the morning hug. Sometimes it’s a one ounce morning, sometimes a two. It also helps that I have this v. cool little tumbler with a thumb cinch from local Evla Pottery, a gift from Molly!
WHAT TO COOK FOR WHEN
Some of you may know that I have a recipe IG where I dump all the thoughts and words about cooking. Mostly it’s so that when a kid calls and says “how do you make that white chicken chili?” I can say its on the W2C4W. I haven’t added in a bit, but am about to start loading in again. I’ll keep things there for quick access, but you picklers will get posts first and maybe some special subscriber only recipes too.
This weekend feels a bit like a Sunday Bolo hunker, but honestly the spring vibes are still humming in my house so I’ll just quick hit you with the gut warmer that I usually refer to as Snaining Soup (which I posted first during that confusing March of 2020):
WHAT TO WATCH FOR WHEN you are faced with perhaps the first and last snowstorm of the season (in MN) or you just feel like a little hunker before the chaos of spring really gets underway.
» On Netflix: I’m for sure watching Shirley this weekend. Featuring Regina King as the kickass Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, this is a look at her historic 1972 run for the Presidency. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
» On Apple+: Everyone is talking about the tans on Palm Royale. If you need a portal to the spring break you’re not taking, blend up a frothy marg and hang out with Kristin Wiig and Ricky Martin (RICKY MARTIN!) while they socially climb in 1969.
» On Prime: Hello. Roadhouse. I feel like I should get some pork rinds and Miller High Life (the Champagne of beers) for this watch, then maybe I’d go back for some Urban Cowboy with individual tuna salads.
» On YouTube: The Waffle House uses a pickle-based system to track orders. Yes, chef.
AND WHAT TO READ
A bit techie, but here’s a fascinating read on the Transformer Eight, the eight Google employees who randomly came together, followed a thread of an idea, and collaborated equally to crate what we know as the modern version of AI. Creativity in its essence.
« The divorcemance is hotter than the romance in reading right now. Rowan Beaird recommends eight novels/books that explore the ends of marriages and the new beginnings that follow.
« Please enjoy The Squatters of Beverly Hills. Delish. Can’t wait to see the almost sure to be in development limited-run series, who will they cast?!
« And here’s a tough but important read: Ruth McClean of the NYT digs into the Campaign Against Female Cutting (gifted link) in light of the Gambian legislature’s move to repeal the ban on female genitalia mutilation. As women of power and privilege, it’s vital to know what the other women of the world are fighting.
See you Monday, my gherkins.
I love being called a gherkin.
This thingy you’re doing is cool and nice 💗