Hi Friends,
Lately I’ve been thinking about that First Great Wave of Slowing Down—circa 2013—when we all suddenly got scared of our iPhones and subscribed to Kinfolk and promised ourselves we’d nuzzle up to nature more. Info anxiety or infoxication or infobesity (or whatever term social scientists favor right now): I’m feeling it. I’m dreaming of getting a flip phone. So, I’m putting a pause on paid subscriptions for the time being. I plan to be back in a month or so, hopefully refreshed.
I’d hate to part empty-handed, though, so I’ll leave you with this quote from Barry Lopez, whose work I’ve been re-reading. Whenever the world feels a little out of whack, Lopez is one of a handful of writers I turn to to recalibrate and remind myself that the world is full of nuance, complexity, and never-ending beauty.
No culture has yet solved the dilemma each has faced with the growth of a conscious mind: how to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in all life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself. If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
—Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
The lilacs and tulips are in bloom where I live. It’s raining right now, but I think I’ll go find some anyways.
Take care, and thanks for your support,
Josh
enjoy your break!