The Happiest Little Doomscroller
Being alive is hard—reading helps
This is one of my favorite tees from TeeTurtle—it's true. Being alive is hard. Every day we get up is a win. I'm mostly a positive person. A fortune cookie told me that I'm "straight-forward and honest." True enough, fortune cookie. I try, and sometimes it is hard. I'm lucky that I have professional and creative work I enjoy, mental health care, loving relationships, and supportive family. I also recognize that I'm privileged in so many ways.
So even with all of that going for me, life is still hard. We all have challenges that aren't immediately visible to everyone else. Things that—even being honest—we're not going to share publicly. Struggles that we share with those closest to us, if we're lucky enough to have that support.
Given all of that, it makes me sick when I see so much effort turned to making life harder for people. Denying equal rights. Actively seeking to take away rights of other people. Instead of recognizing that life is hard for everyone and working to help other people, we get those wanting to make life even harder. In every way.
Metric's new album "Formentera" includes the song, Doomscroller. I'm loving the new album but this song hit my mood today as it hits on these issues. It talks about how hard it is to shut out the constant barrage, not until the worst is over—except it is never over.
Find what happiness you can. Love your people. Love your books. Take whatever actions you can to make the life even the tiniest bit better for someone else.
Thank you for reading.
Best wishes, always — Ryan
One thing I'm happy about lately (other than the new Metric album)—DRIVE-BY STORIES, my ongoing challenge to write short short stories (under 2k words) each day or so, publish those to Instagram stories and here for premium subscribers. It's terrific practice and great fun coming up with these stories. I plan to publish a collection when I reach 100 stories—you can support me now with this challenge and my other writing by becoming a premium subscriber and get access to the full archives.