Stink bugs on your tooth brush
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but you're a human. Be curious.
Niagara falls is eroding, just like my soul.
Super dramatic, and not true, but it’s a good metaphor for today’s intro.
The water of Niagara is eroding away at the rocks that toss it to the basin below. A quick Google search says it’s happening at one foot a year. Do we notice? Nope. Only the wierdos who show up to a natural wonder with a tape measure do. No normal person goes to the Niagara and says, “Yarp, I reckon it’s about 12 inches less than last year.”
If a meteor crashed into Niagara, or if it just fell down. That we’d notice.
The things that erode you are not always huge and noticeable. It’s the millisecond bandits, eroding at you like the rushing water of Niagara. The things that steal micro-fractions of your time and soul.
You’re trying to make PB&Js so you can get out the door, and your jam jar gives up it’s one job.
You’ve melted butter like a pro for 15 years of your life with no problems other than over-melting when you just wanted it soft for toast, but for whatever reason, on the same day your jam jar gives up, the butter decides to melt through one of the kid’s bowls, spilling all over the microwave.
You’re already running late and, for some unknown reason, your toothbrush is out of its normal spot and there’s a freaking stink bug on it.
You feel all this building in your soul, the tension rises, you’re just trying to survive, man. You just wanna freaking brush your teeth like a normal person who has normal toothbrushes in their normal toothbrush spots. Then you wonder if God was thinking about toothbrushes with stinkbugs in them when he said, “come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”
My soul isn’t eroding. Not by a long shot, but you do start to feel like an idiot being weary about stink bugs on your toothbrush when countries are invading countries and some people would likely give anything to have a toothbrush, regardless of if there’s a stink bug on it or not.
Then you feel even more weary because you’re a selfish idiot who gets bent out of shape because of your stink bug toothbrush, and think you should at least try to be a better human and do something useful like giving money to some charity giving toothbrushes to war refugees instead of writing a stupid newsletter.
So, anyway, I hope you like this one.
📚 BOOKS📚
New newsletter name | The Marvelous Mundane
Y’all voted. It’s been decided. I wanted a change because this newsletter started simply as a place I talked about author stuff, but it’s turned into more of a scrapbook of curiosities and I think The Marvelous Mundane better reflects that.
Writing retreat
I had a writing retreat 25th to the 27th, where I worked on Provenance, my YA historical fantasy. I wrote for about 16 hours and this was the result
I had a goal of 8k words and hit 10k words and I am STOKED about it.
👾STUFF👾
What I’m listening to
Sang about it | Ethan Tasch
Ethan Tasch replaced Benjamin Francis Leftwich as my go to folky singer songwriter. Benjamin’s first album is, still, one of my favorite fall albums ever, but he added a really weird ghost vibrato thing to his voice in his newer stuff that makes me want to take off my ears and put them in a box. Anyway, Ethan’s EP is smooth, nostalgic, and, I think, has subtle hints of Taylor Swift’s Folklore.
Spotify’s Not Quite Classical playlist
I really like classical elements with modern twists. Sometimes, it can get weird, other times tradition meets modern just makes some of the most gorgeous music out there.
Solitudes | Tom Ashbrook
I sometimes get bit by the need for some piano-driven music. Hence why I’ve been scouring the playlist above. I found Tom through the playlist. This song, Peter, a Bon Iver meets Dustin O’halloran mashup, really caught me, but the whole album, Solitudes is also really good.
Horizon Forbidden West OST
HFW came out and I’m hours deep in playing it and the combination of what I’d consider Appalachian instrumentation and electric synth-ness is just so well done that I wanted to keep listening when I’m not playing.
What I’m reading
White Fragility, Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism | Robin Diangelo
This was such a good read for me. A few of the books I’ve read on racism, while helpful for framing concepts and definitions, miss out on including examples of what it looks like for the specific concept or idea it advocates to be done well. This one laid out some really good tools and mental models that I can use specifically for how I engage racism and I’ll definitely be drawing off it as I engage more books and conversations around race. Read it.
Everything Sad is Untrue | Daniel Nayeri
Y’all, this book. It’s the real life story of a young Iranian refugee who flees the country because his Mom converts to Christianity. Somehow, he manages to combine Persian folklore, his life story, and Jesus in such an incredible way. Sometimes, the writing is hard to follow, but you don’t really care because it’s so beautiful, delicate, and intricate that it’s so easy to look past. Read it.
What I'm playing
Horizon Forbidden West
What I'm looking at
Farmer Foot Drums Instagram
I want a foot drum kit. I really really do.
How the voice of Mario was discovered (Reel, click title to watch)
What I’m thinking about
The connection between these (John 8:12 & 1 Thess 5:5)
I just think the concept of “Children of light” is beautiful. I don’t know why yet. Maybe it’s just because of the mental image and feeling that comes to mind, but I’ve been thinking around this wondering what it means to have a life that has a light and how that connects to amount of times light is associated with God’s glory.
I want to read this book
What I'm laughing at
Missing Stapler (Reel, click title to watch)
Alright! See you next month.
Dave