Focusing on the Next Move, Willing Your Heart to Rise Anew, etc.
In which I share some old letters and some new thoughts on a beautiful Easter morning.
🐰 Happy Easter!
🐣 For my curious peeps, here’s how the sausage is made.
📫 During the quarantine in 2020, I asked people to send me letters that I could post online. The prompt was simple: “What are you working on, artistically or otherwise? Who or what has shaped who you are? What inspires you? What do you love?”
I got some great responses. Writer and artist Tim Lane wrote in about his days as a Catholic school boy, the convolution of memory and revelation, and the separation of art and artist. Will Sterling, one of the stars of The Dinner Parting, wrote about the pressures of productivity during the pandemic. One of my oldest friends wrote in about an interesting hobby involving VHS tapes. And on Easter that year, my friend Amber wrote in about willing your heart to find a way to rise anew, still an excellent Easter Sunday sentiment.
🎞 This week I wrote a bit about Roger Ebert, a personal hero, who passed ten years ago a few days ago.
🎶 I also took a look at Steven Hyden’s list of the greatest debut albums, highlighting a few of my personal favorites and pointing out a few that didn’t make the cut.
📡 One of the albums on the list, Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, has cover art that is almost more well-known as a t-shirt these days The stacked graph of successive radio signals that comprise the cover has some interesting origins.
🌈 Rainbows are actually full circles, an explanation from a physicist.
📚 The “Jenga-style cylindrical tower of books that appears to go on forever” on display at the Prague Municipal Library is incredible.
🐋 Rare footage of “an approximately 41-year-old North Atlantic right whale, [that] was spotted in Cape Cod Bay with her calf.”
🎭 Austin Kleon has collected quite a few quotes this week on artistic style and I recommend fellow artists take note(s).
📈 I have more to share but I think I will save the rest until next week. Instead I wanted to share you this piece of advice that popped in my inbox this morning:
“No one cares about your excuses as much as you do. In fact, no one cares about your excuses at all, except you.
When people’s actions have outcomes that don’t line up with how they see themselves, they tend to insulate their egos by blaming other people or unfavorable circumstances. Phrases like, “It was a great idea just poorly executed,” “We did the best we could,” and “We never should’ve been in this situation in the first place,” are often manifestations of this self-preserving tendency.
Here’s the thing: it might be true. Maybe it really wasn’t a bad idea, just bad execution. Maybe you really did do the best you could. Maybe you never should have been in that situation in the first place. It doesn’t really matter. No one cares. None of it changes the outcome or solves the problems that still remain.
Just because something happened that was outside of your control doesn’t mean it’s not your responsibility to deal with circumstances the best you can.
Focus on the next move. The next move makes the future easier or harder.”
❤️ Thank you for reading, and always remember to keep the Hoping Machine running.
Love,
Luke
