Today is June Jordan’s 90th birthday. Happy Birthday June! It’s because it’s on! Thank you June Jordan for being so on, for turning it up, switching me on generations and lifetimes later.
a little bit o housekeeping:
- SORRY YOU ARE GETTING THIS AGAIN! I figured out how to actually do the migration.
- I am back on a Thursday to celebrate Jordan’s birthday but I will stick with Wednesdays until further notice
- 2nd Wednesday of the month will be a note on enthusiasm by yours truly, 4th Wednesday of a month will be a short interview with someone who I admire about their relationship to enthusiasm a.k.a. it being on. Maybe other Wednesdays will have some surprises, can’t say for certain.
- I am moving off substack and onto ghost - inspired by Leo of Queer and Trans Wealth. There is no purity, and there is agency. You should already get this from ghost also but if not, confirm your subscription at this link.
I’m making my way through The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller, and loving! it! This book has me smiling very wide and occasionally chuckling on public transit. Books don’t do that everyday.
Miller describes a friend’s reaction to one of his books: “But reflecting in the glow of this book he was rejuvenated. You could see him catching his own enthusiasm.”[1]
I love this phrasing, and he’s right. We can catch our own enthusiasm. It’s a sight to behold, can be sensed, offers a contagious ignition. Enthusiasm rejuvenates! Loving things, people, art, animals, plants, etc feels good.
We can also catch other people’s enthusiasm. Witnessing people get all juiced up about the stuff they love has a way of juicing me up, I’ve noticed. Such is the onus for asking others about their enthusiasm.
George Saunders asks, “If a story drew us in, kept us reading, made us feel respected, how did it do that?”[2] I suspect the rejuvenation has something to do with having my attention gathered. I emerge from being immersed in water feeling refreshed. I emerge from being immersed in a book or a work of art or a conversation or someone’s story similarly altered.
Rejuvination becomes inevitable at the “…depth of attention and wonder which we helplessly call love…”[3]
Pass it on.
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