Lindsey, that was so good. My favorite line was this: "One option felt like feeling my way blindly through a maze; the other felt like being picked up and placed at the finish." It stopped me and I had to read that beautifully crafted sentence again. Also when you said "I made myself a sandwich," it made me think of Karr's "The Voice of God." May we learn to check out without checking out.
LOVE THIS, Lindsey. And particularly love that footnote about how compliance with all the expectations sucks the personality and home-made goodness—scraggly as it may be—out of life these days.
I have my fails at it too, but generally feel pretty comfortable/powerful when I turn down the kool-aid. I kind of like disappointing people if I think their expectations are dumb—mwhahaha! (A top reason I chose the college I went to is that they didn't have sororities. I just wanted to give that whole system the middle finger.) So, just throwing my support behind your goal of escaping the "do-betterness" and maybe some other 8s out there can be your cheerleaders as well!
Yes I envy the power and conviction of 8s!! (I have all the conviction... but 47 layers of shame on top, lol.) Glad you're here and reading, and loved running into you the other day!
Lindsey, that was so good. My favorite line was this: "One option felt like feeling my way blindly through a maze; the other felt like being picked up and placed at the finish." It stopped me and I had to read that beautifully crafted sentence again. Also when you said "I made myself a sandwich," it made me think of Karr's "The Voice of God." May we learn to check out without checking out.
I need to hear more about the Karr excerpt you’re talking about! And thank you.
LOVE THIS, Lindsey. And particularly love that footnote about how compliance with all the expectations sucks the personality and home-made goodness—scraggly as it may be—out of life these days.
I have my fails at it too, but generally feel pretty comfortable/powerful when I turn down the kool-aid. I kind of like disappointing people if I think their expectations are dumb—mwhahaha! (A top reason I chose the college I went to is that they didn't have sororities. I just wanted to give that whole system the middle finger.) So, just throwing my support behind your goal of escaping the "do-betterness" and maybe some other 8s out there can be your cheerleaders as well!
Love your writing and thinking!
Grace
Yes I envy the power and conviction of 8s!! (I have all the conviction... but 47 layers of shame on top, lol.) Glad you're here and reading, and loved running into you the other day!
Thanks for reading! 🥰