Cruel Compendium #45 🪲

Talking to plants, seizing the daydream, and taking a nipple walk

Jun 14, 2022

A quick update on my recent work:

Last week I wrote about the gifts of sobriety (I’m 164 days alcohol-free!) and keeping promises to ourselves.

I interviewed my friend, artist and author Adam J. Kurtz, for XP Land about being a modern artist, and how to authentically align with brands. (I also interviewed Adam for the CSBC podcast last year.) I love how his self-worth defines the projects he dedicates himself to:

I am at a point in my career now where I represent more than just a follower account or X number of likes on a post. And so when a brand in the creative space approaches me about a partnership, they’re not just asking for an Instagram post. They’re also tapping into a creator who is an international best seller, a best-selling author in the creativity space, a popular keynote speaker at creativity conferences, someone who navigates both mainstream and independent self-publishing of books and products. I tick a lot of different boxes. It’s about the big picture of who you are, what you have to offer, what the story is, and what specific value you’re offering.

I’m reading

Daydreaming in progress by Leslie Jamison. What would your daydream dossier look like? And how can you bring some of those dreams into reality?

Confessions of a perpetually single woman by Morgan Parker. An unflinching essay on the pain and relentless self-work (that most single men are decidedly not doing and are not expected to do) that comes along with the question “Why are you (still) single?”

There is a difference between being single in your thirties and being “still single” in your thirties. Even I get turned off by restaurants on Seamless with no reviews and none of the stars colored in. Not worth the risk when there are so many other options with rave reviews and familiar names.
I know it’s not like I missed my chance or anything, but part of me mourns the love stories that could’ve been.
What I mean is: I’ve grown up from a lonely girl into an alone woman.

On losing a husband and (almost) losing a wedding ring by Ben Loehnen. In more lost and found ring news: tracking grief through our attachments to meaningful objects.

What science tells us about the mood-boosting effects of indoor plants by Lala Tanmoy Das. Millennials, make some noise!!! (And talk to your plants, it feels good.)

The education of David Hogg by Charlotte Alter. A profile of Hogg, now 22, a survivor of the Parkland shooting and someone making a big difference in the fight for gun control. I really look up to him.

“Liberals are organized the way that a bunch of six-year olds doing a group project together with a bunch of crayons are,” he says. “Conservatives are organized like SEAL Team Six.”

I’m listening to

I’ve been devouring works by David Sedaris lately, and this Fresh Air segment goes deep on his new book, Happy-Go-Lucky, and the deaths of his sister and father.