I learned of you from Austin Kleon whose regular emails I was getting long before he went substack. He's led me to many stimulating and quirky minds and conversations in addition to his own. This post shows me that you might also be a similar source. Thank you for free Mondays, and for the richness of this post.
Something that I am now calling a noticing ritual is drawing. For most of my life I thought I couldn't draw. But I recently started playing with illustrating my writing. And omg - the difference in the looking that I did before starting to draw stuff and now is MASSIVE.
To draw something you have to BE with it. Noticing. Looking deeply. It's having a massive impact on me even when I'm not drawing!
Also, I have issues with my eyes and I'm a meditator, so will check out that eye/meditation resource. Thank you!
I am not putting down the exercise on productive nostalgia. I think that it can be very useful in evoking events in one's past. These events contain valuable soul making material. I just reread Michael Ventura's "Shadow Dancing In the USA". In the section on Las Vegas, he writes "Nostalgia is not memory. Memory is specific. One has a relationship to a memory. and it may be a difficult relationship, because memory always makes a demand upon the present. But nostalgia is vague, a sentimental wash that obscures memory and acts like a narcotic to dull the importance of the present." Ventura is from the South Bronx so his take on nostalgia might be a little different.
The peripheral vision thing is interesting. When I first took public speaking classes, the instructor counseled using peripheral vision to bring your heartrate down when you first got onto the stage. It really worked. Thanks Rob!
❤️ and comment. I'm so intrigued by iffirmations and I'll definitely look into the whole periferal vision matter. Thanks! I'm new here but I'm really loving these newsletters!
I was mowing grass one day soon after we moved to our property here in rural Mississippi when I caught the strong scent of a nearby cedar tree. It wasn’t winter, but I was immediately taken back to childhood Christmases when we would go to the woods by my grandmother’s house and find a small cedar to bring home to our living room. The house was filled with this smell, and the days were merry and bright for a few weeks.
Intriguing about the nostalgia. Makes sense. I probably think about the past TOO much, mostly because I write a lot about it. But music, yes. I was writing the other day and put on the Velvet Underground and wow the memories rushed in.
I learned of you from Austin Kleon whose regular emails I was getting long before he went substack. He's led me to many stimulating and quirky minds and conversations in addition to his own. This post shows me that you might also be a similar source. Thank you for free Mondays, and for the richness of this post.
Something that I am now calling a noticing ritual is drawing. For most of my life I thought I couldn't draw. But I recently started playing with illustrating my writing. And omg - the difference in the looking that I did before starting to draw stuff and now is MASSIVE.
To draw something you have to BE with it. Noticing. Looking deeply. It's having a massive impact on me even when I'm not drawing!
Also, I have issues with my eyes and I'm a meditator, so will check out that eye/meditation resource. Thank you!
I hit the ❤️ icon and decided to leave a comment to. Now I'm on substack myself, I know how much I appreciate it when people take time to comment.
So, another excellent read, Rob. Thanks.
Love Claudia's idea of "iffirmations". I've never liked affirmations for some reason, so may well give these a go!
I am not putting down the exercise on productive nostalgia. I think that it can be very useful in evoking events in one's past. These events contain valuable soul making material. I just reread Michael Ventura's "Shadow Dancing In the USA". In the section on Las Vegas, he writes "Nostalgia is not memory. Memory is specific. One has a relationship to a memory. and it may be a difficult relationship, because memory always makes a demand upon the present. But nostalgia is vague, a sentimental wash that obscures memory and acts like a narcotic to dull the importance of the present." Ventura is from the South Bronx so his take on nostalgia might be a little different.
The peripheral vision thing is interesting. When I first took public speaking classes, the instructor counseled using peripheral vision to bring your heartrate down when you first got onto the stage. It really worked. Thanks Rob!
❤️🙏🏼
❤️ and comment. I'm so intrigued by iffirmations and I'll definitely look into the whole periferal vision matter. Thanks! I'm new here but I'm really loving these newsletters!
Hey Rob, great piece, love the nuggets about questions rather than affirmations and nostalgia. Excellent!
Thank you for the rich new places for me to learn, look, and think along. I love your work and am happy to be able to share it.
I was mowing grass one day soon after we moved to our property here in rural Mississippi when I caught the strong scent of a nearby cedar tree. It wasn’t winter, but I was immediately taken back to childhood Christmases when we would go to the woods by my grandmother’s house and find a small cedar to bring home to our living room. The house was filled with this smell, and the days were merry and bright for a few weeks.
Intriguing about the nostalgia. Makes sense. I probably think about the past TOO much, mostly because I write a lot about it. But music, yes. I was writing the other day and put on the Velvet Underground and wow the memories rushed in.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/