You can do anything – but you don't have to
Hi friend,
it's been a while! Sorry for going off the grid – work happened and life happened and health happened (or rather, no health happened) and swoosh! The year flew by. And since I'm about to board a flight to a very warm and sunny place and thus will be off grid again, here's a little love note so you don't completely forget about me.
I'm about to share a piece of writing with you which I very much needed after a year of wanting to do everything at once. A 40(plus)-hour-job with lots of travel demands was not enough – I set up this newsletter, I wrote a lot, I read even more, and when things got hectic, I pushed harder. Getting up at 5am to squeeze a run and a load of laundry into the day? Happened at least once a week. I can count the days spent doing absolutely nothing on 1,5 hands. And now? Surprise – I feel drained. Physically, mentally.
It gets crazier: I'm about to go on a three week, much anticipated holiday and I seriously considered bringing my laptop to do more writing. WTF. But I'm happy to report that I have reached a point of clarity and will leave my laptop at home. Just like I will delete all social media apps from my phone. The next three weeks I'm going to be the textbook definition of unproductive. I'm going to be so unproductive, Lauren Bravo would be proud. She's the author of this plea for more unproductivity in our lives. And no, productivity itself isn't the problem. However:
"Productivity, like so many other aspects of modern life (eating, exercise, buying a small, perfect succulent), has become as much about outward projection as personal satisfaction."
THAT is the problem. We are taking "working vacations", we have side hustles, our side hustles have side hustles and ultimately our productivity becomes a performance.
Lauren wrote her poignant productivity-critique at the end of 2018, the year of the hustle and from where I'm standing it looks like 2019 is competing for that title. So how about this:
"Instead of another story about a successful person who dug deep and achieved their impossible dream, I’d like to hear more stories of people who go home at 5pm to do a giant jigsaw. Most crucially, we need those stories from women."
Why this feminist twist? Because Lauren is smart and knows that the greatest threat to patriarchy is a woman who doesn't feel like she needs to prove herself. Who can revel in blissful unproductivity and still (crazy, I know) feel that she's enough, that she's worthy of at least 50 per cent of the power. So ladies: More jigsaw puzzles, or jam making or inhaling a swedish crime novel in one sitting, shall we?
The one thing I'm going to do, however, in the midst of my unproductivity, is to lie in a hammock and tackle Mark Manson's "Seven strange questions that will help you find your life purpose". Because after this unhealthily stressful year, something's gotta give and I want to refocus on what's actually important to me. I'll start at: "What makes you forget to eat and poop?" and take it from there.
⭐️ Ok, ready for a large dose of #popculturepleasures? I've collected quite a few over the past weeks:
Kate Wagner wrote a fiery article about how Instagram has become the greatest enemy of houseplants. It's also a very sweet love letter to her own plants: "When you care for your plants, they reward you by thriving and growing, which is, in some respects, the plants’ way of saying they love you back." 🌿
Dolly wrote about the joy of solo travel and the importance of books when travelling alone: "I dream of the characters I read about when I’m on holiday alone; I retrospectively think of those stories as people I was with." I'm glad I'm not the only one. Because when I think of my time in Portugal 2019, I also always think of Jude, Willem, Malcolm and JB.
Lauren Jarvis-Gibson's piece should come with a trigger warning: it will make you cry. Her delicate reflections on how to recognize the beauty in a lost love have me in tears by the third paragraph, no matter how many times I read it. 💔
I have binged Hjem til Jul on Netflix and adored it. Some have criticized it as being sexist – but I see the whole thing as an ironic take on the INSANE pressure which family/society puts on single women over the age of 25 to finally present a suitable mate. Also, it's Norwegian, there's a reindeer and everyone has great style.
🇩🇪 Marius Buhl hat ein sehr berührendes Interview mit der 28-jährigen Bergführerin Carla Jaggi geführt. Er traf sie 2018 das erste Mal für ein Porträt, genauso wie Carlas Freund Julian, einen der besten Kletterer der Schweiz. Julian verunglückte im Februar 2019 tödlich – und wie Carla mit dieser Tragödie umgeht, macht sprachlos.
🎧 Have you followed my podcast advent calendar on Instagram? If you missed it or want to catch-up, you can find all 24 recommendations (and more) in this Spotify playlist. One episode I have yet to add is Meg Wolitzer discussing her novel "The Interestings" on the BBC Bookclub. I loved the book and was a bit scared of getting to know the woman behind the story. What if I didnt't like her? But of course, she's wonderful and has very sensible answers to very smart questions.
Alrighty, my friends. I hope you get to enjoy a few more days of sweet unproductivity and I'll see you on the other side of my annual January winter escape.
Much love,
Anna