welcome to hell

big world bad, little world good

hi all,

this is going to be a long one — you’ll probably have to click to read in the app or in your browser. you probably won’t hear from me again here for about 2 months — I’m actually now getting two surgeries, one at the beginning of March and one at the end, so it’s going to take me some time to heal. thank you for understanding and being patient! (unless you’re a paid subscriber — see the post-script below.)

if you’d like to support my writing because this newsletter means something to you or because you understand it takes a lot of time and effort to put it together — or because you want to keep my feet to the fire re: a regular publishing schedule (still working on this one…) — you can do that below. it means more to me than you know.

relatedly, all posts are paywalled a few weeks after publishing, so I strongly recommend subscribing to make sure they’re in your inbox and you don’t miss them when they’re free/public!

love,

your friend Mindy 

PS: I know I only write once or twice a month, and I want to change that, but these things take a while to put together!!!! I am considering sending out a shorter/more informal/intimate(?? not sure if that’s even possible but I’ll certainly try lol) letter more often, in addition to these longer monthly pieces. the shorter one would be ONLY for paid subscribers — it would probably include one advice question/answer and I’m not sure what else yet. let me know if this interests you, I may experiment with it while I’m recuperating from surgeries. but if you’re a paid subscriber I’d love to hear what you would want to see from ~~subscriber-only~~ content!

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I know people are probably expecting me to say something about the political moment, but I honestly don’t have much to add — at least nothing helpful. it just really sucks. someone sent the below text which actually made me lol:

and similarly, I’m reaching out to other people saying the same exact thing — asking for tasks so I can feel useful, for pep talks, for advice and perspective on how to get through the next few years without losing my mind. no one’s really had much to give. I’m sure I’d feel better if I were active in an organization or a campaign (outside my union work, which honestly does give me purpose and hope, thank Gd), but that’s not happening right now for a variety of reasons, mostly my upcoming surgery.