Four Temptations and Link Love

Choosing what you can, should, must, need

Whenever there is Very Bad News or Very Hot Takes happening in the world, I have four temptations that always come and always come in a very specific order:

The first is my most immediate temptation and that is to say all the things. All the snarky things, all the rolling-eyes things, all the things that will make me feel momentarily better or superior or smarter. I usually resist this temptation.

The second follows quickly, and that is to shut it all down, log off, ignore, hibernate, numb. If I can’t say All The Things, I will say none of the things.

And then, like a little prairie dog, the third temptation sticks its little head up and says, “Fill the world with wonder instead! Share good things! Share pretty things! Don’t add fuel to the fire and don’t move to the Yukon. Just remind the world there is good in it.”

Finally, the fourth temptation comes, like a whack to the mole, saying (essentially), how dare I bypass the very real terrible and awful things happening in the world with bits of poetry and pics of gardens and glimpses of amateur art made on iPads. How dare I try to distract from the Main Point (which is usually very bad or awful or terrible, of course)?

And then, I don’t numb, but I do stay silent.

The very important thing to say here is that at some point each one of those temptations, or, let’s call them options, is actually a good one, even the right one, but it might not be the good or right one for me in that moment. Or it might not be the good or right one for you to see or observe in that moment.

And, when you think about it, everyone is, at some point, making all the same decisions about what to say and what to share and what to turn away from, etc.. And then we have to all try to live together in the same world while not moralizing about the choice we made or defending our desire or need to make it.

It’s why the world is so damn noisy.

But also why people are so dang lonely.

I share all that because below the paywall there some links I’ve loved over the past few months, things I’ve watched or listened to, and beauty I’ve saved, and I don’t want you to think that I didn’t work through the above process to get here, and if you’re somewhere else in your own process and it’s different, that’s okay too.

If you’re not a paid subscriber and you’re needing a little goodness in your world today, maybe today is the day you upgrade!