In this week’s letter where I share the Good Stuff I find on the internet: a peek inside my journal and more…

When I ask myself, what I am doing with this weekly Good Stuff letter, I remind myself that this little effort is one way for me to spread light. Because my main criteria for each link I share is that I was LIT UP by what that human had to share—and I hope you will be too.

I am reminded of a journal entry I wrote at the beginning of this year—so I thought I’d share an excerpt with you today. Here’s a peek inside my journal…nine months ago:

12-4-18 (age 57)

It’s taken me a long time to get here, but I’m as clear as I’ve ever been about what I want to do in my life—however much time is left—and why. I’m not suggesting that I have figured life all out or that given certain challenges ahead, I won’t get lost again. But…

When people talk about aging, they often fail to appreciate how wonderful it is to get past all the self doubt and striving of youth. It’s like I’ve been walking upstream for miles, water splashing in my eyes, focused on just one section of the river at a time, fighting to stay upright and not get sucked down to tumble down stream.

Now, I’ve come to a much quieter, deeper pool and I’m soaking, floating, sometimes diving in to emerge with greater peace than ever before…

So this is what I know (now):

I want to live in the magic of life. That is, to see—and experience—the magic that IS life.

And I want to express this magic so others can see and experience it too.

SO THAT together we can jump in and save the magic and share the magic—because the earth—or more accurately, we humans—are in grave danger of losing it.

I am not blind, not to the troubles of the world, and not to my privilege. I understand that not everyone—in fact, most humans on this planet—do not enjoy my advantages and freedoms. When survival is in question, it’s really tough to see and live the magic. I am not too naive to see that the world is full of darkness, too—BUT I do know that we do not and should not despair.

There is darkness. Yet, there is LIGHT. There is amazing magic and light. And what we all need to do is grab onto that light—and shine it through the prisms of our own interests and gifts—and separately AND together we will intensify and amplify and spread that light into the darkness…

So there you go… hope the links this week lighten your world a bit.

First, the two articles below highlight heroic light givers. Both Stacey Abrams and this group of amazing anti-fascists are real warriors - they are doing great work to fight those who literally and figuratively work in the dark—and they remind us that we can fight back.

Stacey Abrams Wants You to Know that Politicans are Trying to Keep You From Voting.

Anti-Fa’s Keyboard Warriors — Inside the world of anti-fascist researchers as they build an online army to battle far-right extremism

I don’t know about you, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the dark issues of our day. Who even knows what problem to even focus on with the tidal wave after tidal wave in the media of bad news and issues to care about. I think David here has the answer: Care Deeply Not Passionately.

“Imagine if all the available “public concern” for a given issue could be collected in a huge rain barrel, like the valuable resource it is, and redistributed among fewer people. Instead of having 50 million people care seriously about an issue for all of six hours, you could distill that 300 million hours of public concern into, say, three thousand people who made it a primary moral concern for a decade.

That’s the same amount of concern, the same human capacity to care and help, only much more usefully focused. Just imagine the effect that mega-laser of concern would have, on whatever issue it was brought to bear on. The rainforest. The Rohingya crisis. Crony capitalism. Gun violence. Homelessness. Depression. Sexual abuse in the church.

Obviously we can’t reallocate public concern like rain-barrel water…But maybe each of us, within ourselves, can become a little more focused. Imagine if it was normal for each person to focus ten times as deeply on one or two issues at a time, rather than taking on the emotional burden of dozens of issues a month, feeling helpless about the “state of the world,” and probably not reaching the point of doing much about any of them.”

Okay - this link? The ever insightful Brene Brown says our culture is in crisis and asks - how do we find our way back to each other? Her research clearly shows the way: Why Experiencing Joy and Pain in a Group is So Powerful

And finally…I want to share with a very, very, very—VERY—special writer/illustrator whose work is beyond compare. Tim Urban says his blog — Wait But Why — is read and followed by over 600,000 people, and I don’t doubt it. I found him a couple of years ago and I absolutely love his work, where he basically takes BIG IDEAS about life and explores them in simple writing accompanied by simple illustrations. Currently, Tim is posting a new series called The Story of Us—and really, it can’t be missed.

"When I told people I was planning to write a post about society, and the way people are acting, and the way the media is acting, and the way the government is acting, and the way everyone else is acting, people kept saying the same thing to me.

Don’t do it. Don’t touch it. Write about something else. Anything else. It’s just not worth it.

They were right. With so many non-controversial topics to write about, why take on something so loaded and risk alienating a ton of readers? I listened to people’s warnings, and I thought about moving on to something else, but then I was like, “Wait what? "

Each post is a scrolling discussion with pictures that takes a good 20 minutes each to read—and of course builds on his ideas, one after the other. And I tell you—light is being spilled, people! Do yourself a favor, read through the series as you can - one a day would be doable - and then subscribe to get future posts as they come in. He deserves millions more people to follow him. He’s that good. His IDEAS are that good.

So that should keep you busy and reading this week! Until next time—

Denise