Dear friends,
Busy month. I am moving, so days are filled with packing (an activity that’s on the list of Top Things I Hate Doing) and unpacking (also on the same list).
It’s also my birthday month. So there’s that too. I usually love celebrating birthdays but this month, there simply wasn’t enough time. The merriment will have to be postponed to October.
The one thing about packing that I DO like is the chance it gives me to review what I have and what I want to keep. Things, otherwise, tend to simply get stowed away in cabinets and drawers, and I forget what I have or why I even have them. Over the years, I’ve progressively moved toward “less is more” and so culling out, throwing out, donating are absolute joys. (Channeling Marie Kondo a little there, although look at this 😂)
Writing-wise, I pushed “publish” on three pieces this month.
A deeper look on a character (Jean Ainslee) from the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and an inquiry into early judgments and making those permanent;
A shufti (I have fallen in love with this Brit word for some reason) on Jodi Welman’s book You Only Die Once about living wide and deep and being astonishingly alive.
One of the most vulnerable pieces I’ve ever written, an assay on whether I could even consider myself well-read if I haven’t read the “right” books.
Alright. The rest of this note is “locked” because I like to offer a little something to paying subscribers as a thank you for supporting my work. If you’re new to Shaping Life, please know that most Sunday posts are free when they’re published… so, back to regular programming next week!
Talk soon,
Lou
Shaping Life is a weekly conversation about ideas encountered through books and films, and where those take us.
You could support this work for the cost of just ONE hardcover a year. It’s a steal, right? 🤗
The rest of this monthly What Stayed With Me note are entries in my commonplace notebook, a few things that caught my attention, may not have turned into essays, but stayed with me anyway.